Australia will begin reopening its borders starting next month, the country's prime minister said today, Scott Morrison, 18 months after Australians were banned from traveling abroad.
As Morrison stated, All Australians and residents of the country who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to travel outside Australia «in the coming weeks,» once 80% of the population has been vaccinated.
«The time has come to give Australians their lives back. We’ve saved lives. We’ve saved property, but we must work together to ensure that Australians can return to the lives they had before. We are preparing for this, and Australia will be ready to take off very soon,» Morrison emphasized during a press conference.
The Australian prime minister explained that Those returning to Australia from abroad will be required to quarantine for seven days at home, rather than the current requirement of 14 days in a hotel.
Australia closed its borders on March 20, 2020, implementing some of the strictest restrictions in the world in an effort to curb the spread of the pandemic of coronavirus.
Over the past 560 days, most international flights have been canceled, and travel abroad has been kept to a minimum. Only a limited number of people have been granted permission to travel abroad for serious professional or humanitarian reasons.
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, more than 100,000 applications to enter or leave the country were rejected in the first five months of 2021 alone.
The authorities have allowed Australian citizens and permanent residents to return to the country, but under strict quotas, and those returning were required to undergo a 14-day hotel quarantine at their own expense.
