Events have overtaken state plans for limited numbers of international students to return. With NSW dropping quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals, flight capacity is the final obstacle.
Is a 7-day home quarantine enough? What are the risks? And how will we ensure people stay home? Epidemiologist Catherine Bennett answers your questions.
Victoria’s OHS regulator has fined the state’s health department for failing to keep hotel quarantine workers safe from COVID. This serves as a warning for all employers, ahead of the nation opening.
‘Contracting out’ government functions for delivery by the private sector has become the standard way of doing things across all levels of government in Australia.
Federal officials have repeatedly touted Canada’s border measures during COVID-19 as among the most stringent in the world.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Pressure is mounting to reopen the Canada-U.S. border, but there are risks. How well those risks are managed may be the difference between pandemic recovery or a fourth wave of COVID-19.
We can do better than building a village of glorified dongas. Smart quarantine can be much higher-tech, and more adaptable for future uses once the pandemic is over.
The government says hotel quarantine is ‘serving Australia very well’. But if you look at the leaks as a proportion of COVID-positive returnees, it’s a different story.
You only have to prevent one case, which could have otherwise led to community spread and lockdown, for such a scheme to pay for itself many times over.
International students have been admirably persistent in studying online for more than a year. But as other countries open their doors, Australia risks losing them if it fails to show they are wanted.
Our current quarantine capacity would take six months to handle the return of 150,000 existing students, but 70,000 new students every six months would also be needed to halt the fall in enrolments.
Another city, another snap lockdown, and another round of asking whether it will successfully prevent disaster this time, or whether the coronavirus has already spread undetected through the community.
The amount of risk from overseas arrivals depends not just on Australia’s vaccination rates, but also on the particular circumstances of the country from which people are travelling.
The revamped Victorian hotel quarantine system appears to have addressed the weaknesses of the previous system, particularly around the risk of airborne transmission.
Australia has a long history of incarceration of migrants, Indigenous people and those considered ‘enemies’ of the state. This has formed a ‘template’ for modern-day quarantine and detention policies.
Professor of Epidemiology, Population Interventions Unit, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance; Scientific Director, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society, Simon Fraser University