Victoria removes quarantine for fully-vaxxed international arrivals
Qantas brings forward flight schedule and prepares to pull jets out of storage
Victoria is roaring ahead with its reopening plan — welcoming back fully vaccinated Aussie expats from November 1 and throwing out all quarantine requirements for them.
Premier Daniel Andrews made the announcement in a press conference yesterday, as the state awoke to its first day of freedom from its sixth lockdown.
“From November 1, international travellers returning back to Melbourne or coming to Melbourne, coming to Victoria for the first time, will not have to quarantine,” he said.
“No hotel quarantine, no iso — you’ll be able to go about your business. And the reason for that is that, at 80 per cent and 90 per cent — which is where we’re going to get to — we are as protected as we can be.”
Anyone flying into Melbourne, aged 12 and over, will need to be double-vaxxed and have returned a negative Covid test within 24 hours of their flight and also be tested after flying into Victoria.
“This means that we will reduce our hotel quarantine programme down to just a handful of hotels,” Andrews said.
Hotel quarantine arrivals will be capped at 250 people a week.
Despite recording its highest daily death toll yesterday with 16 deaths and another 2189 cases, Andrews said it was time to “normalise” living with Covid.
“This is a freedom of movement we’ve not been able to enjoy for a long time. And that’s all because Victorians have got vaccinated in record time and in record numbers. Not only am I grateful, not only am I proud of Victorians, but I’m able to stand here and make these announcements and, in the coming days and weeks, many, many more announcements, because Victorians have done exactly what we asked them to do,” Andrews said.
“Get the jab to stay safe, get the jab to be open, and we’ll move through this very difficult gateway to normalise this.”
More than 71 per cent of Victorians over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated against Covid and 90.5 per cent of the same cohort have received one jab.
Mickleham, the quarantine facility being built by the state government, will come online early next year.
“That’ll be a facility that we’ll continue to use for people who aren’t vaccinated or whose vaccination status is uncertain, or who have a vaccine that’s not approved by our federal government.”
Children under the age of 12, and people with genuine health conditions that stop them receiving the Covid vaccines, will also be exempt from quarantine.
The decision to scrap quarantine for fully vaccinated Australians comes a week after NSW made the same announcement.
From November 1 in NSW, thousands of fully vaccinated Aussies will land in Sydney to return home while others will fly overseas for their long-awaited holidays.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison hinted Victoria would be making a big announcement yesterday when he held a joint press conference with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet at Sydney Airport.
Qantas announced it was bringing forward much of its flight schedule, kicking off a new route between Sydney and Delhi in December and pulling its A380s out of deep storage.
The jets, the biggest in Qantas’ fleet and the company’s flagship aircraft, have been sitting in California’s Mojave Desert since March 2020.
“Only three months ago we were planning to keep those aircraft in the desert until December 2023,” Joyce said.
“That’s how fast things are moving and how optimistic we are about the demand that we are bringing two of them forward into April of next year, one of them based before Christmas for training of our crew.
Morrison said the national plan was “all about opening up Australia safely”, adding that is what the announcement from Qantas was about.
“It means that families are coming together again. It means kids are going back to school. It means the reunification of our country which I know we have all been so key to see. That begins with this,” he said.
The PM earlier said he had “no doubt” that other states and territories would follow NSW’s lead to scrap quarantine requirements for international arrivals.
“The premier of Victoria today will be making some further announcements and I’m looking forward to those. I know the premier of Tasmania will be making further announcements today and I’m looking forward to those,” he said.
“I won’t pre-empt those, other than to say the national plan is working, Australia is coming together, and we are realising the great efforts of the Australian people in rolling up their sleeves so we can move forward together and re-engage.”
Morrison praised vaccination rates across Australia.
“Australia is en route to be one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, and here in New South Wales, as well as in the ACT and Victoria charging in behind as well, we are seeing those vaccination rates continue to rise,” he said.