80% vaccination target to reopen international borders

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed the long awaited vaccination target folowing the National Cabinet has reached agreement on key vaccination targets to  ending of lockdowns and the safe reopening of the country.

A year-and-a-half after Australia cocooned itself off from the rest of the pandemic-ravaged world, Morrison unveiled a series of targets he said could begin to be reached by the end of the year.  In March 2020, Australia took the unprecedented step of almost entirely closing its borders to foreign visitors and banning its globetrotting citizens from leaving.

Speaking after a national cabinet meeting on this evening (Friday) with state and territory leaders, Mr Morrison said there were four steps to end the pandemic for Australia.

Mr Morrison announced that 70 per cent of Australia’s eligible adult population must be fully vaccinated in order to enter phase 2 from the current phase 1 of its four-step plan out of the pandemic, which would see less lockdowns and vaccinated residents will have more freedom from domestic restrictions and a limited number of international students and economic visa holders will be allowed to enter the country.

Mr Morrison said he believed the country could reach the 70 per cent vaccination target before the end of the year. 

International arrivals will still be restricted in phase 2, and caps on arrivals will remain.

All but the most highly targeted lockdowns will end and the country will begin to reopen its international borders once 80 per cent of eligible Australians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says.

“We will get to phase 3 when we hit 80 per cent,” he told reporters.

At this phase COVID-19 will begin to be treated more like a seasonal flu, Mr Morrison said.  

At that point there would be no more lockdowns, except for "highly targeted" lockdowns of vulnerable communities, caps on returning vaccinated travellers would be abolished, and vaccinated people would be allowed to leave the country, he said.

Borders will also be reopened to citizens from safe countries who have received one of the vaccines approved by Australian regulators, and mandatory two-week hotel quarantine requirements will be eased.

"There will be a gradual reopening of inward and outbound international travel with safe countries, those that have the same sort of vaccination levels that Australia," Mr Morrison said.

The final phase, where life returns to "almost" normal, has not got a vaccination target, as it is still "too hard to say what the situation will be down the track".

But at that stage, international borders would fully reopen, COVID-19 would be managed in a way consistent with treatment of the flu, and only "high-risk" inbound travellers would need to go into quarantine.

“Now, these are targets for all Australians to achieve. States, territories, working together, communities working together, individuals, GPs, pharmacists, Australia will get this done by working together. The targets are there for us all to achieve and for us all to work towards.” he said

There were mixed reactions when Australians heard  reopening plan from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, which is the closest he’s ever got to revealing when international borders might open and even when the Covid-19 crisis could end.

Controversial businessman and politician Clive Palmer has launched a High Court action against Prime Minister Scott Morrison for “infringing the rights of all Australians”.

Mr Palmer was not pleased with the prospect of vaccine passports, which would make it easy for authorities to see who was and wasn’t vaccinated.

“Clive Palmer announced today he would be launching a High Court action against Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s proposal to introduce a vaccine passport,” he tweeted this evening,

“Our Prime Minister is blackmailing Australians with threats that they must be vaccinated, which is an attack on our liberty and our rights.”