Australia to Reduce Incoming Int. Passenger Capacity from July 2021

[mviy]

I hope they link allowing home quarantine to allowing international students back in larger numbers. If the states want to bring in international students they should need to be willing to allow home Australians in larger numbers as well.

 

[Pushka]

Interesting in SA media. That SA para-olympians could be part of the first trial in a couple of months. Need to have been vaccinated in Australia.

And just like that:

"A landmark national trial to allow fully Covid-19 vaccinated travellers to serve mandatory quarantine at home is due to launch in South Australia next month.

National cabinet on Friday said SA would pilot the scheme, which will involve small groups of Australian Defence Force personnel and returning Paralympians from Japan.

The trial, which is expected to begin late next month, will electronically monitor travellers isolating for 14 days outside of medi-hotels, which have been responsible for virus outbreaks in several cities, including Adelaide.

Travellers are only eligible if their double Covid vaccine dose is administered in Australia and they are arriving from low or medium risk countries.

The trial, based on advice from the country’s emergency medical panel, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, will monitor travellers with equipment, such as an App with global positioning system technology that reveals locations and any breaches."

Hmmmm, Tokyo is low risk?

 

[mviy]

Travellers are only eligible if their double Covid vaccine dose is administered in Australia and they are arriving from low or medium risk countries...

Hmmmm, Tokyo is low risk?

Well they may make exceptions for those who have been in a special bubble such as an "Olympics Bubble" that may qualify as medium risk whereas being out in the general Japanese community at the moment may be high risk.

 

[Pushka]

And the ABC link for the SA trial

Agreement to set up home quarantine trial in SA; Pfizer won't be brought forward for under-40s yet

State and territory leaders agree to establish a home quarantine trial for fully vaccinated travellers in South Australia "as soon as possible".

www.abc.net.au

 

[PineappleSkip]

The trial … is expected to begin late next month

Yep, that’s the national pace…it’s not a race…

 

[Pushka]

Yep, that’s the national pace…it’s not a race…

Clearly it's been all mapped out and will start next month. My guess. Next will be the student hub. For overseas low risk vaccinated students.

 

[mviy]

I won't be fully vaccinated till late September, but I would like home quarantine to be more widely available come mid-November (about 6 weeks after my second dose), but next year is more realistic.

 

[dajop]

I won't be fully vaccinated till late September, but I would like home quarantine to be more widely available come mid-November (about 6 weeks after my second dose), but next year is more realistic.

I was fully vaccinated in April. A nice starting point would be to recognise that this happened (the two apps that show that I was). And home quarantine now!

 

[mviy]

Really need caps to return to a level where one can reliably come home (providing testing negative) within a day or two of when booked. Some of the people I usually travel with don't really have the ability to afford to be stuck overseas for months longer than expected. You can work up to a point overseas, but when you need to see customers face to face and answer the phones it's not sustainable to do that in a very different time zone once your leave runs out.

 

[Lynda2475]

Tokyo is low risk?

Absolutely not, surging cases and in a state of emmergency.

 

[drron]

Great that the trial begins next month when it was only stage 2 of the non plan.Most of us thought that would next year.Getting out in february I reckon has gone from a 55 chance to 10%.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Absolutely not, surging cases and in a state of emmergency.

Aren't pretty much all Australian states currently in a state of emergency? Victoria certainly is.

 

[Pushka]

Great that the trial begins next month when it was only stage 2 of the non plan.Most of us thought that would next year.Getting out in february I reckon has gone from a 55 chance to 10%.

I thought it was stage 1? I just hope that after the ADF and Olympians the Govts just don't give themselves a hearty Pat on the back and then we don't hear any more for months while "we review".

Aren't pretty much all Australian states currently in a state of emergency? Victoria certainly is.

SA has been in a State of Emergency since March last year and the Premier is not in control, the Police Commissioner is. We have an election in 9 months time, so wonder if the PC will be on the ballot?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I thought it was stage 1? I just hope that after the ADF and Olympians the Govts just don't give themselves a hearty Pat on the back and then we don't hear any more for months while "we review".


SA has been in a State of Emergency since March last year and the Premier is not in control, the Police Commissioner is. We have an election in 9 months time, so wonder if the PC will be on the ballot?

'State of emergency' powers and management has never been an election issue before. Maybe it will be this time? Although I suspect no one is going to talk about how they might manage the powers differently... much easier election wise to put the onus on CHOs or Police Commissioners than to have to take personal responsibility.

 

[louie-m]

So Paralympics return early September. Let's look at the timelines for this much heralded "trial" ... start (maybe?) during September, run for a month or two, then another month or two to analyse results. This should mean there is an announcement sometime during December giving a date for when the results of the trial will be announced. And an announcement during January about when the next announcement (about policy changes) will be made.

You forgot the middle step of "initial results have been encouraging but we now need to trial having some more trials".

 

[Pushka]

You forgot the middle step of "initial results have been encouraging but we now need to trial having some more trials".

Might be the covid Status run! They will have to guarantee that people trialling it (must be SA residents, must be vaccinated) will actually have a seat to fly home on!

 

[gourevib]

But wait a sec - the vote on the Brisbane 2032 Olympics is set for July 21- very soon - surely this is sufficient justification for Anna et al to go to Tokyo. Maybe the announcement will be made while she's there. No sense objecting in any case - she's going and will not change her mind.

She can perfectly do this over zoom, like she recommends to any other business. Olympics is important? Not sure if it is, but even if it is, so are many other business events. One rule for them another for us. I signed the petition. Sure it wont change politicians minds but may create useful publicity.

 

[bcworld]

@Seat0B just a heads up that DFAT/Qantas has just put on repat flights from london departing 21,22 and 23 July. If your son can get himself there might be worth a call on the embassy?

I was able to find availability 23/7 on the Qantas website yesterday...probably close to the time this was posted.

However a couple of hours later it was no longer possible to enter LHR as the origin...it just doesn't appear as a valid airport code - so perhaps they are trying to limit booking on these flights in some way.

 

[Flying mermaid]

In the last 16 months Canberra has had 2200 diplomats and public servants do home quarantine. It’s a year since we had a community case (and that came from the Melbourne outbreak), so it can work. Most of those would have been unvaccinated people.

also Dr FM just told me she has a friend trying to get back to Australia in a couple of weeks. They have booked 4 flights, all on different carriers and arriving on different days. All refundable. So far two have been cancelled

 

[CaptJCool]

Might be the covid Status run! They will have to guarantee that people trialling it (must be SA residents, must be vaccinated) will actually have a seat to fly home on!

We discussed this earlier up thread and it was determined there weren’t exactly vast numbers of first-time exemptions (let alone multiple-time exemptions) who had already joined the return to Australis queue given expectations they were at least 3 months away.... for those who left Australia over 3-6 months ago, how many could have been fully vaccinated before they left ? narrow eligibility criteria Seems a good way to kybosh a successful trial

100 people expected to take part