Australia in two weeks will reopen its borders to all fully
vaccinated travelers, allowing business travelers and tourists from around the
world to freely visit for the first time in nearly two years.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a press conference on
Monday said all double-vaccinated visa holders can enter Australia as of Feb.
21. The country has "been progressively opening its borders" since
last November, when it
re-opened international travel for its own citizens, he said. It also has
put programs in place for travel with New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and South
Korea, and for international students, backpackers and economic migrants.
"Those programs have proceeded very successfully," Morrison said.
Since that reopening began, Australia has had about 580,000
arrivals to the country, according to a joint statement by Morrison and
Australia's ministers of health and aged care, home affairs and trade, tourism
and investment. The larger reopening is possible amid "improving health
conditions, including a recent 23 percent decline in hospitalizations due to
Covid," according to the statement.
Morrison in the press conference added that any
"state-based cap arrangements on arrivals and the state-based quarantine
arrangements will continue," and it will be up to local regulators to
adjust those as they see fit. Western Australia, for example, still has a
14-day quarantine requirement in place for all international arrivals,
including seven days in hotel quarantine.
Non-fully vaccinated travelers will still need a valid
travel exemption to visit Australia and will be subject to quarantine
requirements for unvaccinated travelers.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the carrier "will be looking
at our schedules to see if we can restart flights from more international
destinations sooner or add capacity to those routes we are already flying"
in light of the announcement, according to a report from Australia's Sky News.