Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2017
- Messages
- 28,401
- Reaction score
- -82
- Country
- Location
Australia to lift quarantine upon entry for Covid vaccinated Singaporeans
Scott Morrison and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong met on sidelines of G20
Australia will reopen quarantine-free entry to fully vaccinated Singaporeans from 21 November.
The new travel agreement follows a meeting between Scott Morrison and the prime minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Rome on Sunday.
The two governments have agreed that Singaporeans departing from Singapore can travel to Australia without having to quarantine after arrival. There will be no requirement to have spent 14 days in Singapore prior to departure.
Last week, Singapore announced Australia would be included in its vaccinated travel lanes arrangements. Fully vaccinated Australians will be able to enter the country without quarantining from 8 November.
Australia is also keen to welcome back Singaporean students as universities and other education institutions reopen their campuses. More than 130,000 Singaporeans have graduated from Australian universities, and since 2014, 3,360 Australian students have undertaken study and internships in Singapore under the New Colombo Plan.
When Morrison met Macron: tension in the air as G20 leaders gather for ‘family photo’
Read more
Quarantine-free travel from New Zealand to Australia will resume from Monday, and during a meeting with the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, in Rome, Scott Morrison said Australia was also keen to facilitate travel to Bali as soon as practicable.
Morrison said quarantine-free travel from Singapore was consistent with the reopening objectives set down in the national plan. According to the national plan, once vaccination rates reach 80% Australia will extend travel bubbles for unrestricted travel to countries including Singapore and Pacific nations.
Singapore’s prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/Getty Images
“This means within weeks Australia will be welcoming tourists from two of our top ten travel destinations,” Morrison said. “This is the billion-dollar boost that Australia’s tourism industry has been waiting for.”
Earlier in October, Australia took two steps to restart international travel, with the New South Wales government announcing vaccinated travellers would be able to come through Sydney without hotel or home quarantine and the Morrison government lifting the outbound travel ban from 1 November.
Victoria has also agreed to scrap quarantine for fully vaccinated international arrivals from Monday.
Australians can travel overseas again: what you need to know
Read more
Qantas has confirmed that flights to Singapore will resume on 23 November, four weeks earlier than scheduled. The airline will operate flights three days a week, ramping up to daily flights from 18 December. Jetstar will fly from Melbourne and Darwin to Singapore from 16 December.
Australia’s national carrier says 11,000 Australia-based staff will be back at work in early December, with a new route to New Delhi, and flights from Sydney to Bangkok, Phuket, Johannesburg and Fiji resuming ahead of schedule.
Earlier this month, Morrison dampened the NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s announcement of quarantine-free travel to Sydney by warning that Australian citizens, residents and their families would be prioritised over tourists, students and other visa holders.
On Sunday the tourism minister, Dan Tehan, told Weekend Sunrise he hoped foreign workers and students could begin coming to Australia “before Christmas”.
Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
“We want to make sure that with New Zealand and Singapore, we’re opening up successfully,” he said.
Advertisement
“And then we want to bring that workforce in that we need, those working holiday visa makers, our agricultural workforce.
“And then hopefully before Christmas, we might even see some international tourists coming, so exciting times.”
“Tourism Australia will look to scale up its marketing activities in New Zealand, with an immediate focus on building confidence and broadening knowledge of the depth of Australia’s tourism offering,” Tehan said in a statement on Sunday.
He said in 2019, New Zealand was the second-largest source of visitors to Australia at 1.4 million visitors, spending $1.6bn.
