L’Australia should not reopen its borders to foreign travelers in 2021, despite the vaccination campaigns against the Covid-19 which will progress worldwide, said Monday a senior Australian health official.
Secretary in the Department of Health, Brendan Murphy is a key government advisor. He ruled that in 2021 we should not hope for the return of fluid traffic at the borders. “I think we will still have significant border restrictions for most of the year”, he told ABC Channel.
Will there be widespread reopening of Australia’s international borders this year?
"I think the answer is probably no … even if we have a lot of the population vaccinated, we don’t know whether that will prevent transmission of the virus," says Professor Brendan Murphy. pic.twitter.com/f1K2k7asgd
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) January 17, 2021
“Even though a large part of the population is vaccinated, we don’t know if this will prevent transmission of the virus. “
“And it is likely that the quarantine measures will remain for some time. “
As a result of these restrictions, tens of thousands of Australians remain stranded abroad. Those who return must pay around 3,000 Australian dollars (1,900 €) for their 14 days of hotel quarantine.
Australia, which has a population of some 25 million, has reached agreements to obtain doses of the anti-Covid vaccine developed by the British group AstraZeneca with the University of Oxford and for that of Pfizer / BioNTech.
The government is still waiting for the green light from the regulator. Vaccinations should not start before the end of February.
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