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
Daniel Hurst
Fri 2 Jul 2021 07.01 BST
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.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... -exit-plan

Trapped in Australia for 12-18 months more at least

The solution is to create an indemnity clause! Speculating that only one in a million will die from blood clots resulting from the AstraZeneca vaccine. That would only be about 12 people!!!

Oh Apparently he has already done this!

crob wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 7:21 pm

Username Taken wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:43 pm Typical knee-jerk reaction from Morrison. Punish the Aussies who are stuck abroad.

also some what punishing to us stuck here.

Username Taken wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:43 pm Australia is a huge country, why fly potential covid cases into cities. Why didn't they build a purpose-built facility out in the desert for quarantining returnees. (I seem to recall the Chinese building hospitals in record time when the pandemic first started. Surely Australia could have had a proper facility up and running in a couple of weeks).

pretty sure most country's around the world have used hotel quarantine system, i feel like the real issue is doing the vast majority are coming through Sydney and quarantined in hotels in the CBD, where they could have returned citizens through more remote city's like Perth and Cains and lessened the risk of quarantine outbreaks.

They have admitted hotel quarantine was chosen to prop up the hotel industry while there are no tourists.