Two Australian states are set to reopen their borders to New South Wales (NSW) after it managed to control the Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney.
South Australia and Queensland will remove their travel restrictions on Sunday and Monday respectively.
Sydney Cluster
It comes after NSW reported 11 days without an infection found in the area.
About 180 cases have been filed in the Sydney collection, which appeared just before Christmas and has resulted in a nationwide travel ban on city dwellers.
“Credit to New South Wales. They got on top of their cases,” said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday.
Australia has recorded more than 22,000 cases and 909 deaths since the outbreak – far fewer than most other countries.
Australia’s COVID Restrictions
In recent months in particular, the nation has taken swift and aggressive action to curb the outbreak at its source.
Earlier this month, Queensland’s capital Brisbane completed a three-day closure in connection with a single positive coronavirus case.
This week, Australia also suspended a travel bubble with New Zealand after its first Covid case in months was confirmed to be a more contagious variant.
Ease Of Restrictions
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian welcomed the state border decisions on Thursday, saying: “I hope this brings a lot of joy and relief to people and that people are reunited.”
Ms Berejiklian had previously criticized the closure of borders from other provinces, saying they were unequal responses. She noted many NSW residents lived far away from the Sydney hotspots.
Her province was able to stem the fast-growing urban outbreak in December through aggressive contract tracing, curbing the size of clusters and forcing masks to be used in shops and public transport.
The number of daily cases dropped to low in January – prompting many Australian authorities to allow travel to and from parts of the province.
Currently, only Western Australia maintains a 14-day requirement for the quarantine of visitors to NSW.
From Friday, restrictions on party meetings in Sydney will be reduced. Face masks will also no longer be mandatory in retail outlets but will still be required for public transport.
On Wednesday, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed that the country had not recorded a single local case since January 17. Its only infections had been in returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.
“At the same time, the world has surpassed 100 million Covid verified cases and almost 17,000 people have died in the last 24 hours,” he added.
On Thursday, Australia placed eighth on the list of countries that have responded best to the virus. New Zealand and Vietnam top the list from the Lowy Institute think tank.
