Highlights
- Australia announces 30% reduction in direct flights from India
- India records world’s highest daily spike in COVID-19 cases
- Incoming travellers from high-risk countries will have to return a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of arrival
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that the National Cabinet has agreed to temporarily reduce the number of incoming flights from India by 30 per cent after a spike in the number of infections in returned travellers.
He made the announcement as the National Cabinet met for the second time this week on Thursday to discuss Australia’s troubled vaccine strategy and ways to get the rollout back on track.
Australia announces 30% reduction in direct flights from India:
“We will be reducing by some 30% the numbers coming through our chartered services in the months ahead. We will also be limiting the departure exceptions for Australians travelling to high-risk countries and the one we're nominating at the moment,” Mr Morrison said.
He said the reduction would apply to both the government-organised repatriation flights and commercial flights into New South Wales and added that the government will advise when the change would come into effect.
“We will announce once we're in a position to do so which shouldn't be before too long to advise when that will take effect from,” the prime minister added.
Departure to high-risk countries, including India will also be restricted:
Mr Morrison added that the government will also be "limiting the departure exceptions for Australians travelling to high-risk countries."
This comes as India recorded the world’s highest one-day spike in a single country since the virus surfaced in China over a year ago, with the number surging beyond 300,000, as a brutal second wave of coronavirus shows no sign of abating.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Source: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The total tally of cases in India now stands at 15.93 million, the world’s second-highest, while deaths too rose by 2,104 to reach a total of 184,657, according to health ministry data.
Mandatory negative COVID test:
While India is certainly on the list of ‘high-risk’ countries, Mr Morrison said the chief medical officer is working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to identify other countries posing a serious threat of transmission among returning travellers, in line with the strategy adopted by the UK government.
He added that anyone returning from a high-risk country will have to return a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test 72 hours before leaving the last place they got on a plane to travel to Australia.
"What this will do is ensure that in those places, those seats would be taken up by other Australian residents and citizens seeking to return that won't be coming from higher-risk countries," Mr Morrison said.
‘Unfair and shocking’
Business consultant Saurabh Jolly who returned to Sydney in December after remaining stranded in India for nine months said the Australian government’s decision though realistic does not safeguard the interests of citizens and permanent residents who remain stranded outside the country, miles away from their lives and livelihoods.
“While I understand that the situation is critical in India, imagine the plight of Australian families who are stuck in a country where the health crisis is worsening every minute,” he said.
“Just as Australia has its obligation to protect its people inside the country, the government must not forget that they are also dutybound to safeguard the interests of those offshore. They are also your people and must be entitled to the same privilege we all have,” Mr Jolly added.
Saurabh Jolly with his family. Source: Supplied
He said he hopes the government would allow at least those families to return who are vulnerable or have compassionate reasons.
'We have some evidence that people are leaving Australia and going to India, and then returning COVID-positive'
WA Premier Mark McGowan has held an emergency press conference after a man tested positive for COVID-19 after travelling from hotel quarantine in Perth. Source: AAP
The government's decision to reduce incoming flights from India has been announced after the Australian Medical Association's Northern Territory Branch said the government must consider the move after a spike in infections at the Howard Springs quarantine facility.
Similar concerns were also raised by West Australian Premier Mark McGowan ahead of the National Cabinet meeting who said that travellers returning from COVID-ravaged India posed a particularly high risk.
Mr McGowan said that genome sequencing data revealed that a mother and her four-year-old child, who had travelled from the UK, caught the virus at Perth's Mercure Hotel from a COVID infected couple who had returned from India and were staying in a room opposite them.
“With more and more arrivals coming from India, we need to seriously look at temporarily restricting the travel of people who have been in or through India,” McGowan said ahead of the national cabinet meeting.
He said there was some anecdotal evidence that people were leaving travelling to India, and returning to Australia with a COVID-19 infection.
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