Australia foresees entry requirement for vaccination – Manila Bulletin

Australia is likely to require international arrivals to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or face a lengthy quarantine, as officials outline what the “new normal” virus restrictions would look like.

Although “no final decision was made” on how to proceed when a vaccine becomes available, Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt suggested on Tuesday that a vaccine or a strict two-week quarantine would be a condition for entry.

The comments came as Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said international travelers should get vaccinated against Covid-19 to fly with the Australian-flagged carrier.

“We are looking to change our terms and conditions to tell international travelers that we will ask people to get vaccinated before they can get on the plane,” he told Channel Nine television.

“Whether you need it nationally, we’ll have to see what happens.”

Health Minister Hunt said: “It is to be expected that people who come to Australia, while Covid-19 is a major disease in the world, will be vaccinated or isolated.”

For eight months, Australia has been virtually isolated from the rest of the world, with a total ban on non-residents entering the country and citizens strongly discouraged from all travel abroad.

But with promising results in vaccine trials, Hunt suggested that Australians can start receiving doses from March.

Joyce predicted that the airline rule would likely become standard practice around the world.

However, other major regional airlines said it was too early to comment on what the travel requirements might be when a vaccine becomes widely available.

“We do not have any concrete plans to announce at this time on the vaccine as it is still in development and will take time to distribute,” a Korean Air representative told AFP.

Japan Airlines similarly said that it “had no plans to require international travelers to be vaccinated.”

– Digital health pass –

Entry requirements for vaccination are already widely used around the world, and many countries require travelers to prove they have been vaccinated against yellow fever if they come from regions where the disease is endemic.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced Monday night that it was in the “final stages” of developing a digital health pass that it says can be used to record Covid-19 tests or vaccines and that ” will support the safe reopening of borders. “

“We are going to bring this to market in the coming months to also meet the needs of the various travel bubbles and public health corridors that are beginning to operate,” said the IATA CEO and

The global airline industry has come under enormous pressure from restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus.

Qantas has grounded more than 200 planes and laid off 8,500 employees in its attempt to offset a $ 1.9 billion loss caused by collapsing demand for air travel.

A host of other airlines collapsed due to the pandemic, including Virgin Australia, the Chilean-Brazilian airline LATAM and Britain’s Flybe.

IATA said in October that after a projected 66 percent drop in global air traffic this year, airline revenue is expected to drop 46 percent in 2021 compared to 2019.