Length of the quarantine period could also come down to between 5 and 7 days for fully-vaccinated arrivals from countries considered to be in the ‘low risk’ category, as opposed to unrestricted travel bubble destinations, down from the current 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals
When Australia opens its international borders and overseas flights start from December 2021, the mandatory home quarantine that was in place for travellers will replace hotel quarantine. That should be welcome news for Australians stranded in India and members of the Indian Diaspora keen to go back.
Perhaps, what is more important is that the length of the quarantine period could also come down to between 5 and 7 days for fully-vaccinated arrivals from countries considered to be in the ‘low risk’ category, as opposed to unrestricted travel bubble destinations, down from the current 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals.
Federal and state leaders and their health departments will in September study the results of South Australia’s trial of home quarantine, which ended last weekend after 50 residents returning to Adelaide from overseas spent 14 days quarantining at home, monitored by a smartphone app and random calls from health authorities.
Under the Australian government’s four-stage Covid-19 Response Plan, the third phase – triggered when the country reaches 80 per cent of full vaccination, which will sometime in mid-November – should include the lifting of “all restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians” along with removing the current caps on returning vaccinated Australians.
Reports indicate that there would also be a “gradual reopening of inward and outward international travel with safe countries and proportionate quarantine and reduced requirements for fully vaccinated inbound travellers”.
Australia will begin issuing internationally-recognised digital vaccination certificates to speed the return of overseas travel, with Qantas planning to resume overseas flights from December 18
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was quoted saying on Tuesday September 7, 2021: “Home quarantine is where we go next and the length of that quarantine also was what we’re looking at.” The PM will ask the Australian states and territories to work out “timetables about their introduction of home quarantine”.
In a Sky News interview, the Prime Minister said that home quarantine needed to be at a scale and needed to be tested and ready, and “that’s what’s happening now, and that’s what I’ll continue to push to open the country up because that’s what enables the national plan”.
New South Wales, for example, wants to stop the hotel quarantine system that has been in place since the end of March 2020, and which has seen the state taking up the lion’s share of international arrivals. In fact, the NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said last Sunday that “the current quarantine system has nearly reached its use-by date in terms of how effective it is”.
“When Australians (are) coming back home fully vaccinated with a credible vaccine, it would make sense that they could quarantine at home (and) we are already considering when we do that and how we do that,” she said. Berejiklian said “the transition will start in earnest when we hit 70 per cent double dose” – now scheduled to the end of October – although she noted “we still need some form of quarantine” for necessary arrivals from higher-risk countries, which could include “international students (and) skilled labour.”
Australia will begin issuing internationally-recognised digital vaccination certificates to speed the return of overseas travel, with Qantas planning to resume overseas flights from December 18.
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