Hundreds of travellers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau arrived in Australia on Thursday morning as new Covid guidelines come into place.
Due to a speedy rise in Covid-19 instances in China and lack of obtainable details about the nation’s epidemiology, these desirous to enter Australia have to have proof of a detrimental Covid-19 check from inside the earlier 48 hours.
It comes as China eases its personal inner Covid-19 restrictions.
Health Minister Mark Butler made the announcement earlier within the week, later revealed to be towards the recommendation of the chief medical officer.
With the foundations now in place, Mr Butler defended them as soon as once more on Thursday, arguing most “significant destinations” together with north America and all of Europe had carried out related restrictions.
India, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia have additionally put in place pre departure testing necessities for travellers.
“We warmly welcome the resumption of travel from China … And I’m confident that this modest, sensible method taken out of an abundance of caution is going to prove no hindrance, no barrier to that resumption of travel at all,” Mr Butler stated.
“In the past 24 hours the World Health Organisation has reiterated their view that these measures are, to use their words again, understandable in light of the lack of comprehensive information about the situation in China.
“It’s really important that the rest of the world have as much information as we possibly can get about this fast developing Covid wave in China.”
Mr Butler stated he was happy to see Beijing had been speaking with the WHO, significantly surrounding the sharing of genomic sequencing.
He stated his division was contacting their counterparts in China to “stress our view that it would be valuable for information to be shared more comprehensively” by China with the remainder of the world.
After about 13 hours of the brand new guidelines in place, Mr Butler stated airports throughout the nation had reported “a high degree” of compliance from related arrivals.
“As of right now, there has been no issue with compliance,” he stated.
Originally revealed as Covid-19 screening guidelines now in place for Australian arrivals from China, Hong Kong
