Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews calls for reduced international arrivals

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With new figures showing that quarantine hotels across the country have a growing number of COVID-positive travelers over the past fifteen weeks, health officials are concerned about the growing proportion of returning travelers carrying the Delta strain of the virus.

Outbreaks of the highly infectious COVID variant have locked up more than 12 million Australians across Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

Burnet Institute epidemiologist Mike Toole has calculated that there have been 23 hotel quarantine leaks since November, about one every 10 days.

In Victoria, where about 1,000 travelers fly each week, 19 people tested positive in quarantine hotels in the first half of June compared to 30 in the second half of the month.

In NSW, there were 72 cases in hotels in June, including 20 last week. South Australia had 22 in the first half of the month and 27 in the second, including six on Tuesday.

The numbers mean some of the states could turn orange or red according to the Commonwealth’s risk assessment system when it next reports in the coming days.

Mr Andrews, during his first week back after three months recovering from a fractured spine and ribs, acknowledged the very harsh impact of fewer arrival points on those with compassionate grounds d ‘enter or leave the country.

But if you come home for these compassionate reasons it’s much more likely that there is an outbreak and you have to lock everyone out, then you have to make that tough call, Mr Andrews said.

The greatest good for the greatest number, and that is exactly what to do well.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose three-day Brisbane lockdown is due to end on Friday, has also said she wants a massive reduction in overseas arrivals.

Federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia already has some of the toughest border controls in the world.

We have also shown a willingness to tighten it even more, as during the Indian epidemic if the risk factors are more important. Well, always continue to review that evidence and analyze it with states and territories.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said he was comfortable with state numbers and the quarantine system, but any system would need to be overhauled in the event of a pandemic.

Let’s be frank, hotel quarantine has been our number one success in keeping the virus at bay… there is no doubt that over time systems will change, it is just a matter of knowing when and making the decisions. at the right time, he said.

Andrews also said lockdowns would no longer be needed once everyone who wanted a vaccine had access to one.

We wouldn’t have a lockdown to protect people who weren’t ready to protect themselves, he said.

With 34,000 citizens abroad showing interest in returning to Australia, public health expert Maximilian de Courten lamented the blunt instruments available to governments almost 18 months after the start of the pandemic.

It’s pretty depressing that after all this time we don’t have a better plan than [cutting flights] after the emergence of new cases, said Professor de Courten, director of the Victoria Universitys Mitchell Institute.

This again shows that we are responding to COVID rather than proactively addressing risks with a solid long-term plan. Locking down the country and not letting people in is an extreme approach to security.

It has been two months since Sejal Pandyas, a Melbourne resident with a 70-year-old father, died of coronavirus in Baroda, western India, as the country recorded more than 400,000 cases per day . Her mother, 60, was infected along with her two brothers and her sister-in-law.

Ms Pandyas’ mother is diabetic and has suffered from fungal infections since recovering from COVID-19, requiring regular trips to the hospital.

Sejal Pandya said Daniel Andrews’ proposal to curtail international arrivals would kill any hope of getting a return flight this year.Credit: Jason South

I was very close to my mother and my father. Every day I talk to her now and she asks me a question: when will you be there? When can I see you? And I don’t have an answer to that, Ms. Pandya said.

Simon Longstaff, executive director of the Ethics Center, said the country faces an ethical dilemma.Credit: Louie Douvis

The 31-year-old has twice unsuccessfully asked to travel to India and said Mr Andrews’ proposal would kill any hope of getting a return flight this year, even if she got a permit.

Ms Pandya said it was up to hospital staff in India to cremate her father in May along with the rest of his family in the hospital with COVID-19.

It is important to have these rituals in our culture and to say goodbye. How is it possible to be happy with this thought that comes to my mind? There is no certainty. Looks like they want us to live in this darkness.

Simon Longstaff, executive director of the Ethics Center, said the country’s ethical dilemma is that those who suffer most from the stricter rules, namely stranded Australian citizens, bear the burden of political leaders who are not sufficiently prepared to deal with the risk of COVID-19.

He said the two levers for governments to manage risk were vaccinating the population and building specially designed quarantine facilities.

Those who had no control over these things are the ones paying the price, he said.

Reducing arrivals is not only a function of the evolution of risk, it is also a function of the degree of readiness to manage it.

Professor Toole said the premiers’ call for a cut of up to 80% was dramatic and amounted to raising a hand and giving up on securing hotel quarantine.

He said some states had not done enough work to improve ventilation in their hotels and reduce the risk of airborne transmission.

We owe it to Australian citizens to get them back, and we can do better in hotel quarantine, he said.

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While Queenslands Public Health Chief Jeanette Young maintained her position that those under 40 should avoid receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday, Mr Andrews backed the Commonwealth’s position by telling the Victorians to seek advice from the doctors and not politicians.

AstraZeneca is safe, but it’s really important to have a conversation about your personal situation, he said.

Data on new arrivals on Thursday showed more than 10,000 travelers entered Australia to visit friends, go on vacation or for business trips in April.

Queenslands Deputy Premier Steven Miles has accused the federal government of allowing people who can afford a business class flight or charter flight to leave the country – although his boss, Ms Palaszczuk, is separately preparing to leave the country. traveling to the Tokyo Olympics this month to promote Brisbanes has made a bid for the 2032 games.

Renewing his own demands for the Commonwealth to grant fewer overseas travel permits, Washington State Premier Mark McGowan revealed on Thursday that nearly 2,000 of the 51,000 hotel quarantine customers in his condition since March of last year had passed at least twice. Two people have been quarantined six times, McGowan said.

So in other words, there is a large group of people who go overseas repeatedly and every time they go overseas they increase the risk.

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