Lesley Yeomans: Australia's easing of border restrictions delayed because of new variant

The Australian federal government has "paused" its plan to ease border restrictions from Wednesday, December 1, delaying the move by a fortnight as the world grapples with the new Omicron Covid variant.This means fully vaccinated visa holders will not be able to fly into Australia without an exemption.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement on Monday night after a meeting of the Cabinet's national security committee was briefed on the latest information about Omicron.At this stage, the easing of border restrictions will be delayed until December 15."On the basis of medical advice provided by the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, Professor Paul Kelly, the National Security Committee has taken the necessary and temporary decision to pause the next step to safely reopen Australia to international skilled and student cohorts, as well as humanitarian, working holiday maker and provisional family visa holders from 1 December until 15 December,'' a spokesman said."The reopening to travellers from Japan and the Republic of Korea will also be paused until 15 December."The temporary pause will ensure Australia can gather the information we need to better understand the Omicron variant, including the efficacy of the vaccine, the range of illness, including if it may generate more mild symptoms, and the level of transmission."The standard rules, including that all arrivals to Australia require a negative PCR test and must complete traveller declaration forms detailing their vaccination status, will continue to apply.Previous changes announced over the weekend include the reinstatement of home quarantine in some states that had dumped the requirement for international travellers.Over the weekend Australia introduced temporary bans on travel to Australia from several African countries.Anyone who is not a citizen or permanent resident of Australia, or their immediate family including parents of citizens, and who have been in African countries where the Omicron variant has been detected and spread within the past 14 days, will not be able to enter Australia.The countries are: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi and Mozambique.Australian citizens and permanent residents arriving from these countries will need to go into immediate supervised quarantine for 14 days subject to jurisdictional arrangements.In a statement, the Morrison government noted that the Australian Border Force retains discretion to allow people who are already in transit to enter, but these people will be subject to state based isolation requirements.Under state public health orders, New South Wales and Victoria have already initiated testing and 72-hour isolation requirements for Australian citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members entering the country. In other states, 14 days of managed quarantine are required, and traveller cap arrangements are in place."Australia has a proven record of dealing with Covid, we have one of the lowest fatality rates, highest vaccination rates and strongest economies in the world," Morrison said."We will continue to take sensible and responsive evidence-based action, led by medical experts. This will ensure we can open safely, and stay safely open as we learn to live with the virus." Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP says the federal government is "calmly and carefully' responding to the latest information about the new Omicron COVID-19 variant. pic.twitter.com/aXoYs9zVRn— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) November 28, 2021 "Of course [Omicron] is concerning and that's why we're getting all the information we possibly can," Morrison told Sunrise on Monday morning."We moved very quickly on Saturday, this moved from a variance under investigation to a variant of concern within a very short period of time and we immediately put those extra controls...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.