Vaccinated travellers from every country allowed from February 21 Australia said on Monday it will reopen its borders to vaccinated travellers this month, ending two years of misery for the tourism sector, reviving migration and injecting billions of dollars into the world No. 13 economy. The move effectively calls time on the last main component of Australia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which it has attributed to relatively low death and infection rates. The other core strategy, stop-start lockdowns, was shelved for good in December. FILE PHOTO: Travelers sit in the international terminal of Kingsford Smith International Airport the morning after Australia implemented an entry ban on non-citizens and non-residents intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (C...
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that the reopening of the country's borders to international tourists may not be far away, adding that the parliament will debate the matter this week. Australia, which shut its borders in March of 2020, has been going through a staggered reopening in recent months, allowing in only its citizens and residents, skilled migrants, international students and certain seasonal workers. FILE PHOTO: Travelers sit in the international terminal of Kingsford Smith International Airport the morning after Australia implemented an entry ban on non-citizens and non-residents intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, March 21, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott In January, Morrison said he hoped intern...
Read MoreAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday promised a further A$1 billion ($703 million) to protect the Great Barrier Reef to support thousands of tourism jobs, just months out from a federal election. The reef, one of Australia's best-known natural attractions but under threat from global warming, has been a lightning rod for criticism of the ruling conservative coalition's support for fossil fuels. Morrison, already under pressure over his handling of the country's worst COVID-19 outbreak fuelled by the Omicron variant, said the investment will help protect about 64,000 jobs in Queensland that depend on the reef. The northeastern state will be a major battleground when Morrison goes to the polls by May, seeking a fourth consecutive term for his party. His conservati...
Read MoreCoronavirus-free Queensland state opened its domestic borders to all vaccinated people on Monday for the first time in nearly five months, as Australians gear up for quarantine-free travel across most of the country during the busy Christmas period. Hundreds of cars queued up at the state’s southern border with New South Wales well before the rules were set to relax at 1 a.m. local time (1400 GMT, Sunday), television footage showed. FILE PHOTO: Travellers and flight crew members arrive at the international terminal at Sydney Airport, as countries react to the new coronavirus Omicron variant amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Sydney, Australia, November 30, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott Queensland, Australia’s third most populous state, shut its border to New South...
Read MoreMillions of red crabs crawled across Christmas Island on Tuesday, part of their annual migration journey to the ocean on the island off the coast of Western Australia. "This year's migration has just been absolutely epic," said Christmas Island National Park natural resource manager Brendan Tiernan. A sign indicating a road closure for red crab migration is seen on Christmas Island, Australia, in this still image from undated video obtained via social media. Parks Australia via REUTERS "The roads have been a seething mass of red crabs. It's caused traffic jams on this small island and people having to get out of their cars and rake them out the way." Tiernan said the ecological phenomenon of crabs migrating to the sea to spawn occurs nowhere else in the world on such a scale. ...
Read MoreAustralia’s Great Barrier Reef will survive if warming kept to 1.5 degrees
A study released on Friday by an Australian university looking at multiple catastrophes hitting the Great Barrier Reef has found for the first time that only 2% of its area has escaped bleaching since 1998, then the world's hottest year on record. If global warming is kept to 1.5 degrees, the maximum rise in average global temperature that was the focus of the COP26 United Nations climate conference, the mix of corals on the Barrier Reef will change but it could still thrive, said the study's lead author Professor Terry Hughes, of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. "If we can hold global warming to 1.5 degrees global average warming then I think we'll still have a vibrant Great Barrier Reef," he said. Bleaching is a stress response ...
Read MoreAll fully-vaccinated Australian citizens and permanent residents will be able to leave the country without a special exemption from Nov. 1, authorities said on Wednesday, as Australia eases coronavirus restrictions amid a rise in vaccination rates. Australians have been unable to travel abroad for more than 18 months without a government waiver, while thousands of fully-vaccinated residents living abroad have been unable to return due to a cap on arrivals to slow the spread of COVID-19. Many of these are now expected to return after Sydney and Melbourne ended quarantine rules for inoculated travelers from Nov. 1. Other cities, mostly virus-free, are expected to ease their border rules once they reach higher vaccination rates. "The national plan is working ... (it) is about op...
Read MoreMelbourne reopens as world’s most locked-down city eases pandemic restrictions
Melbourne residents flocked to the city's pubs, restaurants and hair salons in the early hours of Friday after the world's most locked-down city emerged from its latest spate of restrictions designed to combat the spread of COVID-19. Australia's second-largest city has so far endured 262 days, or nearly nine months, of restrictions during six separate lockdowns since March 2020, representing the longest cumulative lockdown for any city in the world. Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, last year went through 234 straight days of lockdown. Shoppers browse an outdoor retail area on the first day of eased coronavirus disease (COVID-19) regulations, following a lockdown to curb an outbreak, in Melbourne, Australia, October 22, 2021. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders In Melbourne, people were s...
Read MoreDouble-vaccination rate in Victoria set to reach 70% this week Melbourne, which has spent more time under COVID-19 lockdowns than any other city in the world, is set to lift its stay-at-home orders this week, officials said on Sunday. By Friday, when some curbs will be lifted, the Australian city of 5 million people will have been under six lockdowns totalling 262 days, or nearly nine months, since March 2020. Australian and other media say this is the longest in the world, exceeding a 234-day lockdown in Buenos Aires. FILE PHOTO: A pedestrian wearing a protective face mask walks past light rail platforms devoid of waiting passengers in the city centre at morning commute hour during a lockdown to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Sydney, Australia...
Read MoreThousands of Sydney residents flocked to a prominent horse race on Saturday, as Australia's biggest city emerges from a strict COVID-19 lockdown and the nation begins to live with the coronavirus through extensive vaccination. Up to 10,000 fully vaccinated spectators can now attend races such as The Everest in Sydney, Australia's richest turf horse race, and the country's most famous, Melbourne Cup Day, on Nov. 2. Staff members cheer after shooting confetti in the air to celebrate the re-opening of SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium to visitors, following an extended closure due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown orders, in Sydney, Australia, October 14, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, reached its target of 80% of people fully vacc...
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