Australia is poised to reopen its international borders in November to again allow its citizens to come and go without seeking permission as states close in on key coronavirus vaccination targets.
The federal government will on Friday begin to issue international COVID-19 vaccination certificates and remains in talks with other countries to work out which vaccines will be recognised in international travel bubble arrangements.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday the trigger to reopen international travel will be a national average vaccination rate of 80 per cent of over-16s. Individual states will also have to hit the 80 per cent threshold before flights can arrive in their airports freely.
Based on current vaccination rates, that’s expected to happen in November.
The nation’s borders were dramatically shut on March 20 last year to all non-citizens and non-residents, with Australian citizens and permanent residents needing to seek a government-issued exemption to travel. All returned travellers were forced into hotel quarantine for 14 days on arrival at a cost of more than $3000.
Under the new arrangements, vaccinated travellers arriving in the country will only have to do a seven-day quarantine stint at home. NSW and South Australia are running home quarantine pilot programs at the moment.
Anyone who is either unvaccinated or received a vaccine not recognised by Australian authorities will have to still spend two weeks in a managed quarantine facility.
Major airlines have opened international bookings for December but have warned several issues will need to be sorted, including recognition of vaccines not recognised by Australian health authorities, hotel quarantine caps for un-vaccinated travellers and negative pre-departure testing.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has now examined data for the CoronaVac (Sinovac) and Covishield (AstraZeneca/Serum Institute of India) products and advised the government they should be recognised vaccines for travel purposes, along with the Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines. This decision doesn’t mean Sinovac and Covishield have approval to be delivered within Australia.
Mr Morrison said the reopening of international borders should not come as a surprise to anyone as it was included in the national plan, released at the end of July.
“We said to Australians: we get to 80 per cent, you can leave the country and you can come back again. If you’re overseas, you should be able to come back if you’re a fully vaccinated Australian resident or citizen,” he said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews described the border proposal as a “fantastic announcement by the Prime Minister”.
He anticipated the federal government would offer flights from London to Melbourne next month and said Victoria was very keen to trial home quarantine systems.
“I think where you are headed is a situation where NSW and Victoria will not only be open to each other and open internally, we will be open to the world also. I think that’s a very, very good thing,” he said.
“We are moving into a different stage now [where] we are going to be open, not just for business but we are going to be open to the world.”
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said NSW was most likely to hit the 80 per cent vaccine target before others and could become the “test-bed” for allowing Australians to leave the country.
“There will be a cautious and staged approach in terms of what’s undertaken,” he told Sky News.
A new iPhone application allowing border officials to read QR code vaccination certificates appeared on the Apple store this week, giving Australian officials the ability to scan international vaccination certificates once they become available within days.
About 210,679 Australians have been granted approval to fly overseas since March 2020, according to Home Affairs department data, with 122,131 applications rejected.
Mr Morrison said the federal government would continue to run repatriation flights, which will land in any state or territory that agrees to the seven-day home quarantine system.
The federal government will work with all jurisdictions to increase and then remove the caps on international arrivals.
A Digital Passenger Declaration – which will apply to all travellers entering the country – is currently only in the testing phase after international IT firm Accenture was awarded the tender to roll out the technology.
Australians will have to download their international vaccination certificate from their MyGov accounts, a secure online portal that stores Australians’ personal information. It will be different from the domestic vaccine certificate that is already available on MyGov. (Sydney Morning Herald)