Borders Open: Sydney Wants To Accept Overseas Travelers From November, Australian PM Prioritizes Citizens

Illustration of Australian airline, Qantas. (Wikimedia Commons/Stirling Day)

JAKARTA - The City of Sydney Authority announced that it will allow foreign travelers who have been vaccinated to enter without the need to quarantine from 1 November.

The Australian city of Sydney will allow entry of fully vaccinated travelers from overseas from November 1 without the need for quarantine, authorities said on Friday, though easing strict entry controls will initially only benefit citizens.

The decision comes as the state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, is expected to reach an 80 percent first-dose delivery rate of the COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, well ahead of the rest of Australia, which would allow it to advance the influx of migrants from overseas. .

"We need to rejoin the world. We can't stay here in a hermit kingdom. We have to be open," New South Wales Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet said.

Australia has closed its borders since March 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, allowing only citizens and permanent residency holders to enter, but must pass a two-week hotel quarantine at their own expense first.

Illustration of Sydney, Australia. (Wikimedia Commons/Adam.JWC)

As well as canceling plans for home quarantine, which was expected to replace hotel stays, Perrottet said New South Wales would welcome all arrivals from overseas.

Not only that, New South Wales will allow 210 unvaccinated people into the state each week, Perrottet said, but they will have to undergo hotel quarantine upon arrival.

However, Prime Minister Scott Morrisson said the government would do so carefully, sticking to plans to open borders first to citizens and permanent residency holders.

"It's about Australian residents and citizens first. The (federal) government doesn't make the decision to allow other visa holders to come to Australia under this arrangement," he explained.

Australians cannot travel internationally for more than 18 months without a government waiver, and thousands of nationals and permanent residents in other countries are unable to return after Canberra imposed strict arrival restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Many of them are now expected to return via Sydney, although several COVID-19-free states in Australia have closed their borders with New South Wales.

Separately, Kangaroo State airline Qantas Airways said it would accelerate the return of international flights from Sydney to London and Los Angeles to November 1, while considering resuming flights with several other countries which it hopes to start from December.

Meanwhile, other major airlines such as Singapore Airlines, Emirates and United Airlines have continued to fly to Sydney during the pandemic, but due to strict passenger restrictions, most of their revenue comes from cargo. The announcement should allow them to start selling more seats on those flights and possibly add more services.

To note, New South Wales reported 399 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, far down from the state's pandemic high of 1,599 in early September.

Meanwhile, neighboring Victoria, where vaccination rates are lower, reported 2,179 new locally acquired cases, down from a record 2,297 the day before.

The capital Canberra on Friday emerged from a more than two-month lockdown, allowing cafes, pubs and gyms to reopen with strict social distancing rules.

To date, Australia has recorded a total of 139,000 cases of COVID-19 infection, with 1,506 deaths since the pandemic.