As per the latest developments, Australia has extended its international travel ban officially for three more months. Because of this, the international borders of the country shall remain shut through mid-June.
According to reports, the Australian Government has announced currently that it is extending its travel ban till June 17, 2021, however, the initial ban was supposed to get ended on March 17. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first overseas travel ban was imposed on March 17, 2020, which was set to be expired in December. But it has extended for three more months, and the same thing has been implemented once again. This step has been taken because of the fear that the rest of the world continues to pose a public health risk to its borders that is not acceptable.
The Health Minister Greg Hunt referring to this development said that the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has given the advice to the Australian Government that the Covid-19 situation that is prevalent overseas
continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk to Australia which includes the emergence of extra highly transmissible variants. And the step has been taken for mitigating the risk for the safety and health of everyone.
The latest travel ban also signifies that most Australians will now have to travel or to be remained within the nation at least till June unless there are some exemptions in some specific cases. This travel ban also tells that those people who are making plans to visit Australia are now required to wait a bit longer. Even with strict quarantine measures in place flights might often get canceled or the fares of the flights might get automatically expensive.
International arrivals to Australia will still be continued to be banned and will then have pre-departure mandatory testing requirements. Amidst these things, there is also a piece of good news, as Health Minister Hunt hinted that the new measures might likely be updated or amended any time, in case the situation of the country will be improved in the near future.