We’ll deport you like Novak, Australia warns Kanye West
AUSTRALIA has told Kanye West that he must be fully vaccinated if he wants to tour there, adding that the same rules used to deport Novak Djokovic would be applied to the American rapper.
The warning was issued after reports emerged that the 21-time Grammy winner was planning to play several stadium concerts in the country in March to promote his new album Donda, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
West ’s vaccination status is unknown. He said last year that he had had one dose of the coronavirus vaccine but has since called being jabbed accepting “the mark of the beast”.
Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, said at a press conference: “The rules are you have to be fully vaccinated.”
Hinting at Djokovic’s deportation, he added: “They apply to everybody, as people have seen most recently. It doesn’t matter who you are, they are the rules. Follow the rules – you can come. You don’t follow the rules, you can’t.”
Djokovic, who is unvaccinated, was deported after an 11-day legal battle with health authorities over a medical exemption he was given and missed the chance to play for his 21st grand slam title at the Australian Open.
West, who is worth $1.8 billion according to Forbes, has said: “I travelled to Paris a couple weeks ago, and I had to go through Lisbon because you can go through Lisbon without being vaccinated. I only got one of the shots.” West’s representatives were not immediately available for comment.
Australia has recorded some two million infections in the past month, driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Before that, it had registered 400,000 cases in the nearly two years of the pandemic. Yesterday, 97 people died, after Friday’s record 98 deaths.