Border reopening and rise in vaccination rate breathe new life into Aussies

Australia welcomed travellers after 20 months of closed borders on Monday. Now, fully vaccinated Aussies can travel abroad without any restrictions as per the Australian Department of Health (ADH). As per ADH, there will be reduced quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers entering Australia.

However, travellers must show their evidence that they have been vaccinated at least 7 days before travelling in or out of Australia, with vaccines recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

As borders reopen, travellers must go through a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 3 days before flying to Australia. Further, children under the age of 12 years alongside those who can show medical proof that they can’t be vaccinated due to medical reasons, can also travel overseas without restrictions.

RELATED READ - Vaxxas’ needle-free COVID-19 vaccine set for clinical trials  

AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sinovac Coronavac, Bharat (Covaxin) and Sinopharm (BBIBP-CorV) are the recognised vaccines for travelling to Australia.

What’s the current COVID-19 status?

In Australia, the coronavirus vaccine rollout started in late February. Health experts are saying vaccines are the most effective way to reduce severe illness and deaths caused by the infection.

On Sunday, Australia reported around 1,103 COVID-19 cases, which is the lowest rate of the week so far. As of 5 November 2021, 00:02 GMT, Australia recorded a total of 175,813 COVID-19 cases, 25,541 active cases and 1,781 deaths. Around 148,491 patients have recovered so far as per various media sources.

According to the TGA and ADH’s weekly safety report published on 4 November -

• At present, around 18,322,580 Australians - among them 88.9% of the people are over the age of 16, have had at least one dose of recognised COVID-19 vaccines.
• Around 16,304,118 people, 79.1% of people over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated.

A total of 36,231,223 vaccine doses have been administered nationally as of 3 November,  where New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia reported +39,825, +59,015,+40,169 and +15,529 daily increase, respectively.

Now What?

With increased vaccination rates, fully vaccinated Australian citizens along with their immediate family members will be allowed to enter Australia from overseas without quarantine. Australia is gradually moving to allow more non-resident travellers to come in and go out of the country. However, visitors should take all necessary precautions before planning their trips.