Australian authorities had been pretty strict in the last two years regarding restrictions as measures to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The country has now issued an announcement that many tourists had been waiting for, but they still should keep in mind that there are some conditions.
According to the BBC, Australia will reopen its borders on February 21 for some of those who are willing to travel to the country. As expected, you need to be vaccinated for COVID with at least two shots if you want to go to Australia.
The first reopening of borders since March 2020
The Australian government closed the country’s borders back in March 2020, during the first wave of the COVID pandemic. This was seen as a great measure to stop the virus from entering the country.
As proof of vaccination is now needed to go to Australia, the Prime Minister of the country, Mr. Scott Morrison, declared as quoted by the BBC:
That’s the rule. Everyone is expected to abide by it.
If we take a look at worldometers.info, we realize that Australia has been dealing with COVID cases a lot, unfortunately. The country has reported a total of over 2.7 million infections since the pandemic began, which means a lot for a population of just 25.69 million people in 2020. However, the death rate caused by the coronavirus in Australia is pretty low compared to the number of infections: only a bit over 4,300 people have died since the start of the COVID pandemic.
The same source tells us that yesterday, for instance, Australia reported over 22,000 infections with COVID and 46 deaths. The high infection rate with the coronavirus worldwide is mostly driven by the highly-contagious Omicron variant. There’s an even more contagious variant out there, known as BA.2, and it will be interesting to see if it will keep spreading.
