Australia’s international travel ban to be lifted in November

I think they made it pretty clear. Once at 80%, VIC and NSW definitely will open up and allow it. So will SA and probably NT. The hold outs will probably be Tassie, QLD and WA. WA probably has no hope, QLD might open just before Christmas to not commit politcal suicide and no offense, but who cares about Tassie. What might happen is you can leave the country, but upon return to your state, you'll have to foot the bill for a 14 day quarantine, just like you do now, just with arrival caps lifted. 

NSW & Victoria, the most badly infected states allowing people to travel abroad when 80% of the population are vaccinated. What are the authorities wanting - to get them out of the states so the numbers of infected seem to reduce? I'm from Queensland where the smug anny pally is ruling the roost and with the fewest people vaccinated, but for the time being, I'm happy to stay home even though it's ages since I had my second injection.

all Australians should be able to fly out by 18 Nov 2021, instead of having to make up some story about it being for business.

There is high booking demand on the QF1 SYD-LHR so maybe we could get the 380!!

Whichever countries accept Australian travellers will only consider those vaccinated to be exempt from full quarantine duration (probably isolate until PCR test negative) but I seriously doubt other receiving countries are as generous as what our government is in considering  “ Australian citizens and permanent residents who cannot be vaccinated – such as those under 12 or with a medical condition – will be treated as vaccinated for the purposes of their travel.”

That is simply not true at all XWu. Europe accepts 1) proof of vaccination OR 2) proof of recovery OR 3) a Covid negative test. Any of these is acceptable for Australians. Many other countries are similar...or they have no requirements (such as Mexico, Costa Rica etc.)

Asian countries, Canada and the USA are likely to be the most adamant in insisting on vaccination proof, but it depends. In this interim period, many countries still quarantine the vaccinated, albeit for shorter periods of time. Thailand has a quarantine free sandbox scheme, now reduced to 7 days for the vaccinated to Phuket and Samui and from next month more destinations will be covered. Alternative state quarantine is 7 days for the vaccinated and 10 days for the unvaccinated.

poms already accepting vaccinated Australians with any quarantine, if you fly out now.

Canada is accepting fully vaxxed Australians. All vaccines currently authorised in Australia are accepted. Negative PCR test required, taken not more than 72 hours before departure of the flight that actually deposits you in Canada, not your first flight out of Australia, should you be on a multi-stage ticket.

I'm heading for Adelaide from Canada but was unable to get a ticket direct to there, could only get Sydney. I'm triple vaxxed but have no "home" or equivalent where I could quarantine in Sydney. Do I therefore have to do 14 days' hotel quarantine despite full vaccination? Does anyone know if reducing this to 7 days is under consideration? I'm assuming I would not be able to take an immediately connecting domestic flight to Adelaide and home quarantine there?

Hi Anon – my concern with that would be that not only would it take quite some time to pull together (which pulls us away from the many other stories needing to be written) but it could change fairly quickly, which means it either quickly loses any value as it's inaccurate and unreliable, or it becomes one of those stories which we have to go back and check and update on a very regular basis, which then becomes a whole new drain on our very limited resources.

From all Victorians, hold my beer 

Anna P has just lost big time. Interstate borders will have to open now. Is she tries to hinder any going to Brisbane Int, when you can fly internationally out o SYD-she'll be in big trouble. I think her bosses will be telling her right now, to play the game or get out of politics.

Better than WA at least. She hasn't explicitly said no, just flip flopping right now. My guess is they'll be open by Christmas. You don't want a bunch of angry Queenslanders knocking on your door at Christmas time. 

Hi Dutch - it's now mentioned, but at the time the article was being written, you can appreciate we were well under the hammer with this and a few other stories, so we had to draw the line somewhere and then loop back to add more info as and when we could. Hope you've got some good travel planned for 2022!

David, thanks for staying on top of all the info today and getting these articles out promptly!

Great to see some positive stories, especially as the travel opening has largely been overshadowed by the GB resignation on mainstream media!

I'd be seriously concerned if all states and territories don't allow travel sometime in 2022. They have to start somewhere, so don't expect much until January 2022 at earliest. Qantas flights from Sydney and Melbourne are only resuming to a select few destinations on December 18, which almost the end of the year, so don't plan anything for the remainder of this year. If the reopening keeps at the pace it's going, then by April or May 2022 things should start to look fairly normal.

I believe it will be accepted; it is not approved for use in USA mainly because it was never submitted for approval to the FDA with the US choosing to use its locally developed Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines.  A-Z Vaxzevria is the most used Covid vaccine in the world with it being used widely in Europe, Canada and Asia.

It is a similar situation to what Australia has announced today accepting J&J and Sinovac.  Neither is approved for use in Australia and were never submitted for such approval but the government has decided to rely on other world drug approval bodies and will accept them as being sufficient for entry into the country.

I'd be a little careful in quoting the (unattributed) paragraph from David's article, which you cite above (para 1).  

"The TGA currently recognises AztraZenica (sic) Pzifer (sic) and Moderna, but China's Sinovac and India's COVID Shield are also expected to be given the nod, along with Novavax and the US single-shot from Johnson and Johnson."

There are some points here which lead me to suspect the veracity of the above, due to the level of supposition.

• China has produced, approved and successfully used two home-developed vaccines - Sinovac and Sinopharm. It would be odd to preface one over the other. Or not to mention Sinopharm at all. Do we only value half of the Chinese tourism market? 
• The comment re: approval of the Novavax product is purely presumptive and nothing more. Novavax development is behind schedule and hasn't yet finished clinical trials, let alone securing full or even "emergency use" approval. So right now, it is a total unapproved non-entity. This was the third  Covid vaccine that our Government ordered in late 2020 - and we have millions of doses of it on order. IINM, the first Novavax delivery to Australia was meant to be Sept-Oct 2021. One woud hope that some is keeping an eye on this. 
• The single-shot J&J / Janssen dose vaccine will undoubtedly be conditionally approved for visiting arrivals and and returning Aussies who may have been vaccinated outside Australia. Whether it be approved for 'local' use / dispensation is anyone's guess. It is identical to the AZ product, with the exception that it is a single shot, rather than a two shot. 
• There is also no mention of the Russian Sputnik vaccine, which has been distributed to many countries globally including Africa, Central and South America such as Cuba, Brasil, Peru, Venezuela etc.
  
  So, it would appear that - if true - the TGA is substantially under-prepared for an influx of global travellers into Australia.

I have heard they are accepting all WHO emergency approved vaccines which includes AZ. Weather or not you can use AZ to get a 'vaccine passport' for use within the country may be another story, depending on state that may not matter too much though.

can states stop any international travel ? Not sure they can. They might say they can, doesn't mean it's true.

I don't really know for certain but they can certainly put you in to quarantine. 

Can't stop you from leaving, just force you to pay for quarantine instead!

Qantas have extended the rollovers of status a number of times and depending on your expiry date you may find you have at least another year of status remaining even if you have not travelled at all.  Obviously, 2022 will have to be the last year such rollovers will exist as it seems there should be opportunity to travel both domestically and internationally next year.

There are numerous reports that Qantas has ratcheted up the points required for rewards travel in 2022 particularly on overseas routes.  I can't imagine that will go down well with many members who thought they had enough for a once-in-a-lifetime F trip to Europe only to find they haven't even got enough for a one-way ticket anymore.

What are these reports, or maybe they’re just scaremongering?

All valid questions, and ones we'll have to wait for the relevant government authorities to answer in the coming weeks.

Hi GB – I'd expect all this to be addressed in the coming weeks by the relevant government health authorities.

Read on ABC News today that "Do not travel" will still apply to countries deemed too risky from a Covid perspective by the Chief Health Officer.

That remains to be seen, but there would not be a lot of examples, with QLD and WA and TAS keeping their borders closed for now anyway. The ACT is well ahead of even NSW on vaccination, so maybe the only example that fits your question would be South Australia, and if you could fly ADL-SYD-LHR for example would be up to the SA government. If they have border entry paperwork where you have to list where you've spent the past 14 days and you write down 'London' you'd be in for two weeks of hotel quarantine. But if you are talking about just a one-way trip, or going overseas for an extended period so that you return after SA has reached 80% or even sometime in the new year when there might be no quarantine or 'test and release', maybe that might be possible.

Yes. The issue would then be returning to your home state and what exactly the quarantine situation would be on return to a state you don't live in as obviously you can't home quarantine.

Hey Tim! Yes, those are just some of the details we're all waiting on, and I'm sure they are being beavered away on right now and we'll know all in the weeks to come.

Agreed they need to follow up with more detail... but I'm confident it won't be government transport from the airport to your home quarantine (they don't have the vehicles or manpower to do this). I guess it will be up to the states whether to require testing. Hopefully they will specify the date soon so airlines can start ramping up.

Those are some good questions but expect that in the first stage - only Australian citizens, permanent residents, those on work visas moving to Australia and international students will be coming in. Business travellers and tourists will wait until there's no quarantine at all, which won't be until sometime in the first or second quarter of 2022 at the earliest.

NSW has already said it would allow international travel once it gets past 80% full vaccination.

NSW is on board.

That’s 8 million happy people right there.

I wouldn't be planning a trip for Christmas. Too much uncertainty. I'd wait until Easter 2022.

Counting cases is pointless. Singapore reports that 93% of cases right now are showing zero symptoms, not ill in any way. This is vaccination working as it should. The citizens can catch it but only a tiny few get ill. Also reported that only people with symptoms will be tested soon as it’s a waste of time and resources to test and then report these meaningless numbers. 

Hi Stich – while we believe there will be a set of countries which will remain on the govt's "do not travel" list, we've seen no additional info from the government on the make-up of any allowed / not-allowed list.

As to home quarantine, it's understood the government will continue to work on establishing travel bubbles with selected countries and once in place, those counties will be exempt from any quarantine requirement.