Last weekend, Australia announced a dramatic cut in the number of people who will be allowed to enter the country, as it struggles to contain coronavirus clusters that plunged major cities into lockdown. Currently with half the nation's population are under stay-at-home orders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that overseas arrivals would be cut by around 50 per cent to help prevent further outbreaks.
Under the current ‘zero Covid’ strategy, just 6,000 people are allowed to enter Australia on overseas commercial flights each week and arrivals must undergo two weeks of hotel quarantine. That quota will be cut to around 3,000 by the middle of July, Morrison indicated, although the government will at the same time step up its private repatriation flights.
Morrison announced the decision amid growing anger over repeated snap lockdowns, the leakiness of hotel quarantine facilities. More than 18 months into the pandemic, less than eight per cent of adults have been fully vaccinated.
Sydney and Brisbane, home to around 10 million people combined remain in lockdown to suppress outbreaks. Although shutdowns are being lifted in Alice Springs, Darwin, Perth and Queensland's Gold Coast, the clusters continue to grow, particularly in Sydney.
In Sydney, a Bondi cluster has infected 188 people since being discovered on June 16. Reaction to the tighter border restrictions was mixed, with the opposition centre-left Labor welcoming the move, but human rights groups expressing concern.
Morrison indicated borders would open first for vaccinated Australians and overseas travellers, who could also be subject to reduced quarantine requirements. The vaccination targets are likely to be set by scientific advisors rather than politicians. "If you get vaccinated, you get to change how we live as a country, you get to change how you live in Australia," Morrison said.
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