Australia could keep borders closed until 2022 despite vaccine rollout

They're thinking about extreme measures down under...

Australia’s ‘Zero Covid’ strategy could see it closed off to international travellers even after its entire population is vaccinated, the country’s health minister has revealed.

Mr Hunt said: ‘Vaccination alone is no guarantee that you can open up. If the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn’t just open the borders.’ But Australian economist Chris Richardson believes travel Down Under may not reach pre-pandemic levels of tourism until 2024, and predicts ‘weak demand into 2022’, with the hotel quarantine rules remaining in place for some time.Making matters worse is the country’s lagging vaccine rollout, which has seen just 1.2 million doses administered so far. That’s just 4.7 jabs for every 100 people, compared to 58.7 per 100 people in the UK.

Australia’s tourism market now faces being left behind as other countries are already preparing to welcome overseas travellers, including Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and Malta.

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