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Australia cuts international arrivals by half
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has provided an update to the nation following a National Cabinet meeting, in response to a growing outbreak of COVID-19.
As part of a roadmap to recovering, the PM says, Australia will cut international arrivals by 50 percent.
The number of commercial international arrivals allowed into Australia will be temporarily halved to around 3,170 per week.
That figure goes from around six thousand returned travellers a week to now just over three thousand.
Home quarantine for fully vaccinated returned travellers will be trialled on a small-scale in South Australia.
Mr Morrison says state leaders have agreed lockdowns will only be used as a “last resort”.
“While the reduction of those caps will certainly, right across the system, obviously take some pressure off, as we have observed over the course of these past 18 months, that alone does not provide any fail-safe regarding any potential breaches,” he told reporters.
National Cabinet has also agreed to trial home quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers, and the Government says it will increase the number of repatriation flights to make up the shortfall.
Earlier, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she sympathised with the thousands of Australians stranded abroad who want to come home.
“Firstly, my heart goes out to thousands of Australians who have to wait longer to come home,” she told reporters in Sydney.