"The National Security Committee and Cabinet has decided today that Australia will reopen our borders to all remaining visa holders on the 21st February," Morrison said, speaking outside parliament in Canberra.
Australia, which has been closed to most travelers since early 2020, has been slowly easing its restrictions since November through travel programs with New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
Currently, citizens, permanent residents and their families, along with international students, backpackers and migrant workers are allowed entry into the country though they must show proof of having two doses of an approved vaccine.
The same rule will apply to tourists, unless they qualify for a medical exemption.
"The condition is you must be double vaccinated to come to Australia. That's the rule. Everyone is expected to abide by it," Morrison said, adding that state-based caps on quarantine will continue and that those caps will still be determined by state and territory governments.
But Australia is not going it alone, the Philippines announced last month they will grant entry to visitors vaccinated against Covid-19 from the 10th February. The archipelago nation of more than 7,000 islands had planned to reopen in December 2021, but that was aborted over concerns about the Omicron variant. Citizens of 150 countries that have visa-free entry to the Philippines will be allowed to enter. Countries on that list include the UK, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy and the United States.
New Zealand has also announced it will reopen its border to visitors in stages, starting at the end of February, after its earlier plans to do so were derailed by Omicron. It will be the first time the country has opened up since prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced its snap closure in the first month of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The country’s borders have been closed, apart from a short-lived travel bubble with Australia, for nearly two years.
No comments:
Post a Comment