Oz, NZ re-examine arrival measures

INFECTED: NEW STRAINS DETECTED IN SOME VISITORS

Proud of ‘gold standard’ measures in fight against coronavirus.

New coronavirus variants are forcing Australia and New Zealand to rethink already-stringent quarantine rules for overseas visitors, even as their systems are replicated around the world.

Officials in Victoria, Australia became the latest to warn the spread of the UK, Brazilian and South African mutations meant its 14-day mandatory quarantine must be toughened.

“These hyper-infectious strains are proving very difficult to contain,” Victoria premier Dan Andrews said, announcing the snap closure of a Melbourne quarantine hotel at the centre of a new leak into the community.

“We all have to acknowledge that quarantine and the public health response today must be different than it was a month ago, six months ago,” he said.

Health authorities in Australia and New Zealand this week launched full reviews of quarantine facilities and procedures.

Proposals range from developing outback quarantine centres to testing arrivals more thoroughly.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, about 320 000 travellers have been scooped up at Australian and New Zealand ports and airports, shuttled to quarantine hotels and confined to their rooms for 14 days. The systems have contained thousands of cases, helping both countries remain largely free of Covid-19.

Places around the world – including Britain, Canada and Thailand – are trying to replicate the relative success of such systems, leading Australia’s health minister to boast the country’s quarantine is the “gold standard” internationally.

But in both countries there is growing concern about the durability of the protocol as the number of people arriving with the virus has increased. Yesterday alone, New Zealand reported it had detected the virus in travellers from Germany, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates.

Authorities are also seeing more people arriving with traces of old infections, making it more difficult to sort those with active infections from others.

But the most acute emerging problem is the rise of visitors with more virulent strains – reaching 105 already in Australia.

Several times in recent months the virus has jumped from hotels to the community – forcing millions of residents in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth into snap lockdowns.

Few are suggesting completely closing the borders but “it’s well and truly time to move quarantine to remote locations”, said Adrian Esterman, an expert in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia.

Australia has already identified three remote locations that could be adapted to handle quarantine arrivals. –