A new system of home quarantine is being canvassed for vaccinated Australians who gain approval for foreign travel, as new figures show more than 500,000 citizens have returned home since the start of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison backed the home isolation plan as the “sensible next step” in a shift from the hotel quarantine regime, gradually allowing more Australians through the country’s international borders.
A new system of home quarantine is being canvassed for vaccinated Australians who gain approval for foreign travel.Credit:Getty Images
The nation’s peak medical advisers are drafting advice on the proposal for a national cabinet meeting on Monday that will also debate urgent changes to the troubled vaccine rollout to use big centres to give thousands of jabs each day.
But state premiers are not convinced about the idea of allowing more people into and out of the country, while Mr Morrison put no timeframe on the shift and said it would depend on the health advice.
“I see that as the sensible next step,” the Prime Minister said on Friday, adding that it would depend on what leaders said about whether it could be done.
“It’s imperative for the states and territories to be very involved in that process because ultimately they would have to sign off on those arrangements because they look after public health.
“Let’s wait for the medical advice before we can set any timetable.”
Under fire over the slow pace of the vaccine rollout, the Morrison government wants a new consensus with the states and territories at Monday’s meeting in the hope of inoculating most adults by Christmas.
The agenda includes greater use of mass vaccination centres, which are already operating in Melbourne and are planned for Sydney, as well as the options for home quarantine and international borders.
Using home quarantine for vaccinated Australians would free up hotel rooms for other uses, such as bringing in foreign students or skilled workers needed in the recovery from last year’s recession.
The plan would restrict home quarantine to Australians who had received the two necessary doses of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines.
The federal bans on international travel, including restrictions on flights into the country, have infuriated expatriates who want to come home, but the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was planning more flights to bring Australians home.
“On Tuesday this week we passed 500,000 Australians returning to Australia since the government recommended that people reconsider the need to travel abroad in March last year,” a DFAT spokesperson said.
“Around 34,400 people are currently registered with the department as being overseas and wanting to return.”
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the top medical experts, through the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, will advise national cabinet on the risks of reopening the international border and alternatives to hotel quarantine.
Professor Kelly said the advice would consider how the risks would change as more people get vaccinated.
More than 1.42 million doses were administered as of Thursday evening, including 61,000 on Thursday.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said on Friday morning the move to home quarantine should happen “as quickly as we can” while Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the government was planning for vaccinated citizens to travel overseas for essential purposes, including work or family funerals.
“We would ultimately like vaccinated Australians to be able to do that without the need for hotel quarantine of 14 days when they return,” Senator Payne told 2GB radio on Friday morning.
The Foreign Minister said 80 per cent of the people coming into Australia were citizens, permanent residents or their immediate family, noting that many Australians had family members who were classified as permanent residents.
But a Victorian government spokesman said it was too early to consider home quarantine.
“Our focus should be on getting more Australians vaccinated before we even consider a proposal like this,” the spokesman said.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also said the idea of restarting international travel or moving to home quarantine depended on getting a majority of the population vaccinated.
“The vaccine is key to us living a more normal life with COVID,” she said.
Innes Willox, chief executive of peak employer body Ai Group, said state and territory leaders needed to readjust their approach to risk in order to begin a return to COVID normal.
“It makes sense that as a transition measure vaccinated returning travellers should be able to quarantine at home,” he said.
“Practically no one will want to travel overseas if they are forced into hotel quarantine on return.”
David Crowe is chief political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Rachel Clun is a federal political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, covering health.
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2021-04-16 09:45:00Z
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