Hotel quarantine restrictions could be in place for two more years

There will be no changes to mandatory quarantine procedures until at least 2022.

When pressed for a timeline on a potential easing of quarantine restrictions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “Once we get into next year, I think we’re in a position where we’ll be able to be considering changes to how, potentially, quarantine arrangements work.”

The PM delivered his message via a virtual press conference from The Lodge in Canberra, where he is currently quarantining following his G7 trip to the UK .

“It was never going to be the case where Australia was closed one day and opened the next – that’s a completely naive position. Right now, the task is to ensure that we continue with the urgency of the vaccination rollout, and that provides the opportunities for different arrangements next year.”

The announcement means that even fully vaccinated Australians who are currently outside the country will still have to stay in hotel quarantine for 14 days on their return.

As for those in Australia, so far less than 5% of the population is vaccinated, which is one of the reasons the government is so slow to relax restrictions.

Australia is well behind every country in the OECD with regard to its vaccination roll-out.

To speed things up, it has opened up the Astra Zeneca vaccine to everyone under the age of 40, who wants the jab after Australian health officials have recommended it for those aged over 60 because of a small risk of blood clots. According to health officials the danger is minimal. There are currently 2.6 million doses available.

Given this situation, the Prime Minister said any change to quarantine arrangements would be “evolve in stages”.

International borders are also likely to remain closed until the middle of 2022 and hotel quarantine regulations could be in force for another two years.

This is despite international students arriving back in the country in the next six months.

It is hoped these students will address work shortage problems especially in the hospitality sector.

The strict measures have come under question from within the Liberal Party with MP Jason Falinski urging Mr Morrison to reconsider given the number of Australians around the world were now fully vaccinated.

“I hope that as the data changes, which I am sure it will, that we can reconsider and allow a more streamlined approach especially for fully vaccinated returning Australians from countries that have the pandemic under control,” the Member for Mackellar said.

Infectious disease expert Greg Dore also had his doubts about the policy saying, “Adoption of home quarantine for fully vaccinated returnees from low and moderate caseload countries would be extremely low-risk and provide an initial step towards more flexible and expanded quarantine models.”

Available data suggests those testing positive for the virus in quarantine after being vaccinated is now very low.

Only four people tested positive of the 6447 travellers who went through Victoria’s quarantine system between April 8 and June 3 who have had at least one dose of vaccine.

NSW has similarly low numbers.

Irit Jackson, 29th June 2021