The border between New South Wales and South Australia officially reopens today.
After months of waiting, residents in either state will finally be able to travel to see friends and family, conduct business or just go on a well-earned holiday.
The decision to reopen the borders was made this week after NSW proved itself to have community transmissions of the coronavirus as low as possible.
Advert
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said: "SA Health has all the necessary information with regard to that case over the weekend. The high level of cooperation between SA Health and NSW Health has given us all the confidence that this is the right decision."
Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier added: "We do need to be patient with this disease... but with the restrictions in New South Wales and their extremely good contact tracing, they've been able to get on top of those clusters."
On Monday, New South Wales recorded just two new cases of coronavirus, who were stationed in hotel quarantine. It was the first time since July 8 that NSW had recorded no locally acquired cases.
Advert
Queensland has also made steps to slightly reopen its border to parts of northern New South Wales, which will no doubt be a welcome relief for people wanting to hop between the two states.
The border exclusion zone for Queenslanders will be extended to Byron Bay, Ballina, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Glen Innes local government areas. This means people in both the Sunshine State and those areas will be able to travel without self isolating for 14 days.
The move to reopen the borders has been commended by Prime Minister, who has been encouraging states and territories to speed up the process if it's safe to do so.
Scott Morrison told Sky News that it's in the nation's best interest to kickstart the local tourism industry.
Advert
"I particularly congratulate Steven Marshall for going the full distance in what he has decided to there and I think South Australia will benefit greatly from that," Mr Morrison said.
"Equally I welcome the changes that have been made with Queensland, I look forward to more in the future.
"We're seeing an improvement in case numbers in Victoria, we're not there yet. "I think these are common sense changes, and I think this will further assist getting people back into jobs and making sure we live alongside the virus."
To capitalise on the move, Jetstar launched a whopping 5,000 tickets from NSW to South Australia at just $59 each. The sale kicked off at midnight this morning and will end at 11:59pm tonight, unless they've all sold out prior.
Featured Image Credit: Tourism Australia