Australia closer than ever to relaunch international travel

Australia’s international borders are closer than ever to reopening following the Federal Government making

The Australian Federal Government has confirmed it has signed a contract with international IT company, Accenture to develop new vaccine passport technology.

The company will develop new digital passenger declarations that will replace the previous incoming passenger declaration cards.

The declarations will replace incoming passenger cards and COVID travel declarations, with the responsibility of capturing information including vaccination status to facilitate international travel at scale into Australia.

The digital passenger declaration will record incoming passengers’ vaccination status up to 72 hours prior to boarding and will be able to be completed by mobile device or computer.

Government officials have confirmed information on the declaration could be shared with contact tracers

On Monday the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, said the declaration “will support the safe reopening of Australia’s international borders, by providing digitally verified Covid-19 vaccination details.”

“This will help us to welcome home increasing numbers of Australians, and welcome the tourists, travellers, international students, skilled workers, and overseas friends and family we’ve all been missing during the pandemic”