As NSW opens up, we look at the rest of the world’s plans

By MiNDFOOD

As NSW opens up, we look at the rest of the world’s plans
Fiji has announced flights from New Zealand and Australia from December, while NSW may start opening up to international travellers from early November.

Australia

New South Wales residents celebrated an easing of restrictions on Monday 11 October, as the state exits a nearly four-month lockdown. The entire state has hit 74% fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated people in New South Wales will be able to leave their homes for any reason including visiting pubs, retail stores, cinemas and gyms, which will reopen under strict social distancing rules.

The state will use a vaccination-passport system to ensure those who have not been fully inoculated remain under strict stay-home orders until 1 December.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in early October a plan to lift border closures state-by-state, allowing international travellers to quarantine at home. The states will reopen once they have hit a vaccination rate of 80%.

On 11 October, Morrison announced plans to fast-track the reopening for vaccinated travellers in NSW, to reopen as early as 1 November, according to news.com.au. 

The opening would see an end to Australia’s 18-month border closure, which prevented people from travelling in and out of the country.

The Australian opening plan would allow vaccinated Australians or permanent residents to quarantine at home for seven days, while unvaccinated travellers must do a 14-day hotel quarantine.

New Zealand

New Zealand may well be one of the last nations to open up, as the country works towards a goal of 90% of the eligible population vaccinated. The country is currently at 56% fully vaccinated, with 82% having had their first dose.

The country is currently battling a delta outbreak. A week before the outbreak, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a plan for reopening the borders in early 2022. Ardern the government is still working towards the target of early 2022, however no date has been set.

The reopening would assess travellers on a risk-based model, based on the countries they have come from and their vaccination status. Vaccinated travellers from low risk countries will not be required to isolate on arrival. Vaccinated travellers from medium risk countries be under modified isolation requirements, such as self-isolation. Unvaccinated travellers and all travellers from high risk countries will spend two weeks in MIQ.

Air New Zealand has recently announced a ‘no jab, no fly’ policy for all international travellers and staff.

Fiji

Fiji will be reopening its borders to tourists from 1 December 2021, with commercial flights beginning again from places such as New Zealand and Australia. The small island nation has reached its target of 80% vaccination.

Travellers to Fiji must be fully vaccinated, have 72-hour negative test prior to boarding and complete an additional rapid test at their accommodation upon arrival.

Malaysia 

Malaysia lifted interstate and international travel restrictions on October 11 2021 for residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as the country achieved its target of inoculating 90% of its adult population.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government has agreed to allow fully vaccinated Malaysians to travel overseas without applying for permission. “We have to train ourselves to live with COVID, because COVID may not be eliminated fully,” he said.

The government is preparing to shift into an endemic COVID-19 phase where it will not impose wide lockdowns again if cases rise, Ismail Sabri told a news conference.

Nearly 65% of the country’s 32 million population, including those aged 12 to 17, were fully vaccinated as of Saturday.

The Southeast Asian nation has recorded 2.3 million coronavirus infections and 27,265 deaths from COVID-19.

Italy

Italy reached the target of fully vaccinating 80% of the population over the age of 12 against COVID-19, according to official data.

Guido Rasi, a former director at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and current Italian advisor, said it was “not just a symbolic threshold”.

“It’s a level that, calculations show, correlates with a significant reduction in the circulation of the virus and a drastic cut in hospital admissions.”

The United States of America

The United States has administered 401,819,240 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 487,277,035 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The Atlanta-based agency said 216,889,814 people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 187,215,471 people were fully vaccinated as of 6 a.m. EDT on Saturday.

The CDC tally includes the two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine.

Roughly 7.8 million people have received a booster dose of either Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine since Aug. 13, when the United States authorised a third dose of the vaccines for people with compromised immune systems who are likely to have weaker protection from the two-dose regimens.

On Sept. 20, the White House announced the United States would lift travel restrictions in November on air travellers from 33 countries including China, India, Brazil and most of Europe who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Six vaccines that are FDA authorised/approved or listed for emergency use by WHO will meet the criteria for travel to the U.S.

Singapore

Singapore is opening its borders to more countries for quarantine-free travel as the city-state seeks to rebuild its status as an international aviation hub, and prepares to reach a “new normal” to live with COVID-19.

From Oct. 19 fully vaccinated people from eight countries, including Britain, France, Spain and the United States, will be able to enter the island without quarantining if they pass their COVID-19 tests, the government said.

The country of 5.45 million people has been reporting record daily COVID-19 infections of more than 3,000 over the past few days, though almost all the cases are asymptomatic or mild. About 83% of the population is fully vaccinated, one of the world’s highest rates.

Reuters

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