Bad news for Australians

[TMax]

Well it is starting to look like my hoped for trip to Thailand in 2022 may have just been shot down in flames, I was so looking forward to some raunchy times with some hot Thai guys too. 

"Australians hoping international travel will return to normal next year have been dealt a blow, as the Federal Government warns borders are unlikely to reopen until the end of 2022 at least."

Bad news for Australians

[ichigo]

sigh 

[msclelovr]

Has the Federal Government in Australia yet decided when it will reopen the borders to Australians returning from visiting India @TMax?

[BiBottomBoy]

Well that does suck

[vaughn]

End of 2022.... that is really disheartening news to hear, but with how poorly our vaccine rollout is being handled i am not surprised that is the expectation.

 

1 hour ago, msclelovr said:

Has the Federal Government in Australia yet decided when it will reopen the borders to Australians returning from visiting India @TMax?

Yeah the flights are starting in the next few days, if they haven't already. The government coped a lot of negative media coverage and did a 180 on their rhetoric.

[TMax]

4 hours ago, msclelovr said:

Has the Federal Government in Australia yet decided when it will reopen the borders to Australians returning from visiting India @TMax?

As above, they have also added an extra negative test before the flight as well

[BiBottomBoy]

and if they test positive how long do they have to stay in india?

[msclelovr]

I hope that Aussies returning from India are a lot more responsible than some British-Indians/-Pakistanis who have been found to ignore the UK quarantine regulations on re-entering the country.
 

In the UK, there have been a couple of clusters of infection directly attributed to those recently returned visitors. Luckily so far the infections haven’t spread out. 

[vaughn]

6 hours ago, msclelovr said:

I hope that Aussies returning from India are a lot more responsible than some British-Indians/-Pakistanis who have been found to ignore the UK quarantine regulations on re-entering the country.
 

In the UK, there have been a couple of clusters of infection directly attributed to those recently returned visitors. Luckily so far the infections haven’t spread out. 

There isn't much chance of that, in Aus the police meet the plane at the gate and all passengers are taken to mandatory hotel quarantine for 2 weeks with security guards at the hotel.

14 days and 2 negative tests before you can be released, if you leave your room you are locked out and can't get back in (no key) and you will be charged by the police. I had to do this late last year and the process was pretty locked down to prevent people skipping out of quarantine.

We've had a few leaks from the hotel quarantine but that has mostly been from hotel staff, guards or nurses contracting the virus.

[TMax]

14 hours ago, BiBottomBoy said:

and if they test positive how long do they have to stay in india?

Until they pass two negatives, if a person tests positive prior to the flight they will have to wait until they are clear of the virus. Personally I would think it crazy allowing known positive people to board a flight that will be carrying over 100 others of which the majority would have tested negative. There are approximately 900 that are classed as vulnerable and high risk and they are the first that will be returned on the repatriation flights. 

[msclelovr]

Very interesting posts @vaughn and @TMax

As a tangential question, may I ask about the many (thousands?) Australians who were overseas when the pandemic began. At first, they were trapped overseas and not allowed to return. Has their repatriation now been completed?

[BiBottomBoy]

yeah. I guess you gotta keep them in india

 

[vaughn]

40 minutes ago, msclelovr said:

Very interesting posts @vaughn and @TMax

As a tangential question, may I ask about the many (thousands?) Australians who were overseas when the pandemic began. At first, they were trapped overseas and not allowed to return. Has their repatriation now been completed?

There are still likely to be a few who have not been able to return, I read somewhere that some of the people stuck in India have been waiting to return for months. The international arrivals cap is determined by each state based on what they can handle in their quarantine hotel capacity. At present i think the overall allowance is about 2500-3000 passengers per week australia-wide, but it was a lot lower for most of last year.

We have also had interstate hotel quarantine requirements, which is where i got stuck because i was working in another state when there was a hotspot declared so i had to sit in hotel quarantine for 2 weeks (at my employers cost) just coming home from another city within australia.

[TMax]

There is a big workers camp at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory (just out of Darwin) that has been turned into a quarantine facility, I read this week that the federal government are looking at increasing the capacity of it by about one third (current capacity is about 850 I think) and may look at housing returnees from India there. It is a far better option all round than relying on hotels for quarantine, it's a good camp and is much more fit for purpose. One of the problems is that people are still leaving Australia for whatever reason (compassionate, essential circumstances, work, medical etc) and then put their names on the list to come home.

I read an article the other day, it was written in January (link below) that shows the number of people heading out of Australia outnumbers those coming back, I imagine some are foreign nationals heading off. I thought the numbers quoted during the first year of the pandemic were a bit rubbery, at the start of the pandemic they said about 40,000 world wide were on the list wanting to come home, 6 months into it and there was still 40,000 on the list and just last week they said there was still about 40,000 on the list. The arcticle may shed some light as to why that number hasn't changed much. 

News article leaving/returning comparison

[BiBottomBoy]

well like everywhere else it's fucked until we all get the vaccine.

[vaughn]

Some good news (or at least hope) coming out for us Australian's who have been sitting with complete uncertainty over our governments plan around reopening borders for outbound and inbound travel.

No dates or details around the timeline yet, but at least it seems like some kind of plan is forming.

Without getting into the politics of it for those who aren't aware, Australia has one of the lowest vaccination rates of the developed world, with supply shortages through mismanaged procurement, and a strategy that seemed to change frequently with no real direction.

Now we have a four phase plan outlined below, it seems like the most optimistic news i've seen in recent months that travel is on the horizon.

Quote

National cabinet also agreed on Friday to cut commercial inbound passenger arrivals to all major ports by 50 per cent to reduce the pressure on quarantine facilities.

Early stages include trials for alternative quarantine options, such as home quarantine for returning vaccinated travellers. 

The full detail of the new four-stage plan are yet to be revealed, but here's a look at what we know so far.

Phase one - 'Pre-vaccination' 

This is the stage Australia is in right now, Mr Morrison said.

It involves the implementation of the national vaccination plan.

National cabinet agreed during this phase lockdowns should be used as a last resort and the trials of alternative quarantine options would start.

The commonwealth's existing Medicare vaccination certificate, used to determine who has been inoculated, will become easier to access through electronic devices such as phones.

There will also be a further review conducted into the national hotel quarantine network.

Phase two - 'Post-vaccination'

Then, Mr Morrison said, "we will move into a phase where we seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and fatality as a result of COVID-19".

This would likely see more restrictions eased, with lockdowns only occurring in "extreme circumstances" to prevent "escalating hospitalisation and fatality". 

Inbound passenger caps would be restored to previous levels for unvaccinated returning travellers. Larger caps would be put in place for those who are vaccinated. 

New quarantine arrangements would be extended for vaccinated Australians, based on the trials held in the first phase.

National cabinet agreed to cap entry of student and economic visa holders at this point, subject to quarantine availability. 

"I hope we're living in that second phase next year. And you know, if we get a really good response over the course of this next year, let's see how we go," Mr Morrison said.

Phase three - 'Consolidation' 

The aim of this phase is to manage COVID-19 in line with public responses to other infectious diseases such as the flu.

That would mean "no lockdowns", Mr Morirson said, and hospitalisation and fatality rates from COVID-19 would be similar to other well-controlled infections.

It would also see a lifting of restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated people and extending unrestricted travel bubbles for other countries.

An increased cap allowing the entry of student economic and humanitarian visa holders would also be introduced.

Phase four - 'Back to normal' 

The final phase would see an attempt to return the country to a pre-COVID normal, including allowing uncapped inbound travel for all vaccinated people without quarantine. 

It would also allow uncapped arrivals of non-vaccinated travel, subject to pre-flight and on arrival COVID-19 testing.

"We get this done Australia, and you can see what is on the other side," Mr Morrison said.   

The Australian Medical Association and Australian Industry Group have welcomed the proposed COVID roadmap.

But Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has questioned why it took until now to announce the plan.

"The key is doing more deals and getting more vaccines into more people's arms," he told reporters. "It's vaccinations that save lives."

Prime minister concedes rollout has faced 'challenges'

The prime minister's release of the plan comes after the vaccination rollout was stunted by supply issues from Europe as well as changes in medical advice around the AstraZeneca vaccine.  

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/scott-morrison-has-announced-a-four-stage-pathway-for-australia-out-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic

 

[TMax]

It was good to see they came up with a plan, now we just have to wait. 

[a-447]

That "plan" is nothing new.

The government has just gone back to the original solution - vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible. It's what every other OECD country started doing as soon as vaccines became available.

Our government was way too slow on the uptake, preferring to repeat it's mantra of "It's not a race, it's a marathon" and congratulating itself prematurely for the way it was handling the virus. It was the states that ended up doing the heavy lifting,

Also, people are now rejecting Astra, but unlike other countries, the government did not bother to buy Pfizer and is now having trouble getting its hands on some.

Until it does, Aussies are stuck at home.

 

[BigK]

I'm surprised vaccine supply hasn't increased more as many are vaccinated.   I'm glad I got the Pfizer.

[vaughn]

10 hours ago, BigK said:

I'm surprised vaccine supply hasn't increased more as many are vaccinated.   I'm glad I got the Pfizer.

Yeah it's a bit of a mystery to me too.

I have an appointment for my first pfizer shot this week, but it was also reported that QLD have low stock and may run out this week... so not really sure what will happen on my appointment day.

[TMax]

I think it will be interesting to see which way they go after astra and they start looking at the booster shots, for those of us getting the astra will it be one of the mrna vaccines or will it be the Novavax? I believe there are some countries that may have started mixing the vaccines and there is a study being done by Com-Cov and Oxford University on mixing which showed promising results so far. Curious times ahead by the look of things.

Com-Cov Oxford study news