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SYDNEY: Australia’s second-largest city received its first international passenger flight in five months on Monday (December 7), an arrival that will put the state of Victoria’s renewed hotel quarantine system to the test.
Australia has closed its borders to non-citizens since March, but airports serving Melbourne, Victoria’s capital, stopped accepting arrivals in late June after a COVID-19 outbreak that began at two hotels where arrivals were quarantined.
More than 20,000 infections were recorded in Victoria when hotel staff contracted the virus from people returning from abroad.
READ: Australia’s state of Victoria eases summer restrictions ‘safe for COVID’
The outbreak has been largely attributed to private contractors not following protocol. With hundreds of people expected to arrive in Victoria each week, state authorities have said that police officers will now impose stricter rules.
The new system will greet Australians arriving on a flight from Sri Lanka, who will now no longer be allowed to leave their rooms under the new hotel quarantine restrictions.
The system is similar to the model used in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s largest state, which has accommodated thousands of returnees without groups emerging.
READ: Larger Australian states reopen borders as COVID-19 cases ease
READ: Once Australia’s COVID-19 hotspot, Victoria goes 28 days with no new infections
With NSW registering only one local infection in the last month, the state has gradually eased most social distancing restrictions.
Australia has reported some 28,000 COVID-19 cases and 908 deaths since the pandemic began. There are only 44 active cases left in the country, the majority in hotel quarantine.
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