Australia to halve international arrival cap as Scott Morrison unveils four-stage Covid exit plan | Coronavirus | The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/02/australia-to-halve-international-arrival-cap-as-scott-morrison-unveils-
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Australia to halve international arrival cap as Scott Morrison unveils four-stage Covid exit plan. Prime minister says it may take until 2022 before moving to next phase, which would see focus on reducing hospitalisations rather than coronavirus cases
The number of international flight arrivals into Australia will be halved nationwide in a blow to Australians stranded abroad, while Scott Morrison attempts to reassure the public that the federal government is working with states and territories on a plan out of the Covid crisis.The prime minister called on Australians to “get vaccinated” in order to “change how we live as a country” – but he indicated it might take until next year to reach the next stage of the four-stage opening-up plan.The cuts to caps on international arrivals aim to reduce the pressure on hotel quarantine facilities and are in line with increasingly loud calls from a number of states – but the move was not the preferred approach of the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, nor Morrison.
Speaking after a meeting with state and territory leaders on Friday, Morrison said the halving of the caps would not necessarily prevent further breaches of infection control – but “it is believed that is a prudent action” because of the increased virulency of the Delta variant.That will see the weekly cap on international passenger arrivals into Australia tighten from 6,070 to 3,035 by 14 July. Within those numbers, the cap on arrivals into Sydney – which takes about half of all arrivals into Australia – will go from 3,010 to 1,505.
Morrison said leaders wanted to “try to minimise the disruption for people with already planned flights”. There are currently 34,000 Australians registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wishing to return from overseas.People arriving on federal government-organised flights into Australia, and who quarantine for two weeks at the Howard Springs site in the Northern Territory, are already outside the flight cap numbers, so those arrivals are unaffected by the announcement.
Morrison said the federal government would seek to “ramp up” the number of people arriving on facilitated flights in the coming weeks, noting there had been “a dip in demand” on such flights in recent times.He conceded the planned increase in the use of Howard Springs “can’t fully ameliorate the impact of the reduction of 50%, particularly out of Sydney” – but he rejected the suggestion it would be a “drop in the ocean”.He praised NSW for its “extraordinary effort” in carrying half the load of returning Australians. He also said the government planned to “trial and pilot with individual jurisdictions, the introduction of alternative quarantine options, including home quarantine for returning vaccinated travellers”.
Morrison used the post-national cabinet press conference – his first since leaving home quarantine at the Lodge in Canberra after his overseas travel – to attempt to give Australians a sense of hope about moving away from lockdowns and internal border closures, albeit not in the short term.
Amid mounting pressure over the federal government’s handling of the vaccination rollout, Morrison said the national cabinet had discussed “a new deal for Australians today to get us to the other side” of the pandemic.
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