Coronavirus: Asia-Pacific
Australia wants 80% of its adults inoculated before it reopens border
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday announced a four-stage plan to greater freedom. Australia is now in Phase A, or the suppression phase, with large parts of the country plunging in and out of lockdowns.
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SYDNEY • Australia will have to vaccinate 80 per cent of its adults against Covid-19 before it can consider reopening its border, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said as he announced a four-stage plan to greater freedom.
Australia is now in Phase A, or the suppression phase of the plan, with large parts of the country plunging in and out of lockdowns to stamp out the coronavirus.
Sydney is under a strict stay-at-home order because of a worrying surge of 3,000 infections since the middle of last month, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.
The authorities have outlined even tighter restrictions for some worst-affected suburbs, including mandatory testing and mask wearing outdoors.
From Monday, some 300 army personnel will help police go door to door to ensure people who have tested positive are isolating, New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller said.
Australia had handled the coronavirus crisis much better than many other developed countries, with just over 34,000 cases and fewer than 1,000 deaths, but that has been achieved largely by sealing the country's border to all but a trickle of people since the pandemic began.
Mr Morrison said borders would be gradually reopened in Phase C of the plan, when 80 per cent of adults have been vaccinated.
About 18 per cent of adults have been vaccinated under a campaign that got off to a slow start.
"We will lift all restrictions on out-bound travel for vaccinated Australians," Mr Morrison said yesterday, referring to Phase C. "There will be a gradual reopening of inward and out-bound international travel with safe countries."
He did not give a timetable for the plan but expressed confidence that Phase B, or 70 per cent of the population vaccinated, could be reached by the end of the year.
"Lockdowns in Phase B are less likely, but they are possible," Mr Morrison said. "When you reach 70 per cent, the advice is you have built up a much more significant level of protection, which enables the usual settings and levers we have to deal with an outbreak, particularly Delta."
Australia is in talks with Singapore on a similar travel bubble plan, he said.
REUTERS
