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Fully Vaccinated Australians Will Be Able To Head Overseas From Next Month

Fully Vaccinated Australians Will Be Able To Head Overseas From Next Month

Aussies will be able to head to Paris before they can travel to Perth.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has delivered news that Australians have been waiting to hearing for 18 months.

From November, fully vaccinated Aussies living in participating states will be able to travel overseas and return home without having to do hotel quarantine.

Our international borders have been shut since March last year and the cost to be put up in a hotel for returning citizens for two weeks was more than $3,000.

However, as Australia hurtles ahead with its vaccination rollout, the borders are finally being lifted.

Once your state reaches 80 per cent of its population aged over 16 double-dosed against the coronavirus, it will be permitted to open up international travel corridors.

Alamy

Scott Morrison has chaired a National Cabinet meeting to discuss the reopening plan and said the international border ban will be lifted a month earlier than expected, with the current ban due to be lifted on December 17.

He revealed Australian citizens and permanent residents who cannot be vaccinated (if they are under 12 or have a medical condition) will be treated as vaccinated for the purposes of their travel, according to the ABC.

Aussies will get to use an internationally recognised QR code that will house their vaccination status so they can prove they've been double-dosed when they're overseas.

New South Wales is set to trial a seven-day home quarantine for returning travellers and overseas arrivals once borders open up.

The state is expected to hit 80 per cent double-dosed by the end of October, meaning it could become one of the first states eligible to participate in travel.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian told the ABC earlier this week: "If you're fully vaccinated with a vaccine our authorities deem to be effective and safe, you'll be able to quarantine at home.

"We're going through the pilot as we speak. But the hotel quarantine system for returning Australians is past its use by date. If you're fully vaccinated, you should be able to quarantine at home.

"I would be more than happy to welcome home Australians, fully vaccinated Australians will be able to quarantine at home in New South Wales.

"And obviously every other state premier will have their decisions around what they'll do. We make sure they get safely on a flight back to their home state. What happens after that is a matter for their state premier."

While some people people have hated the Australian government's border ban, the Prime Minister reckons it has saved around 30,000 lives since the beginning of the pandemic.

International travel had been flagged in the national reopening plan and was filed under the freedoms we get to enjoy when we hit 80 per cent double-dosed.

However, there are some state premiers (Queensland and Western Australia) who have said their internal borders could remain shut for some time.

Queensland's leader warned they might not open up until the state hits 90 per cent double-dosed, while WA's Mark McGowan suggested their border could stay closed until well into next year.

That means you could soon be heading to Paris before Perth or Brooklyn before Brisbane.

Featured Image Credit: ITAR-TASS News Agency/Alamy Live News

Topics: Australia