Australian states reopen to Sydney following outbreak
Two Australian states will reopen their borders to New South Wales (NSW) after it were able to control a Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney.
South Australia and Queensland will remove their travel limitations on Sunday and Monday respectively.
It comes after NSW reported 11 days with out a locally acquired infection.
About 180 cases were tied to the Sydney cluster, which emerged right before Christmas and prompted nationwide travel bans on the city's residents.
"Credit to New South Wales. They got on top of their cases," stated Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday.
Australia has recorded a lot more than 22,000 cases and 909 deaths because the pandemic began - far less than many other countries.
In recent months specifically, the nation has taken swift and aggressive actions to contain outbreaks at their source.
Earlier this month, the Queensland capital Brisbane completed a three-time lockdown over the detection of an individual case.
This week, Australia also suspended a travel bubble with New Zealand following its first Covid case in months was confirmed to be always a more contagious variant.
'Joy as persons are reunited'
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian welcomed the talk about border decisions on Thursday, saying: "I hope this brings a lot of joy and comfort to people and that persons are reunited."
Ms Berejiklian had previously criticized some of the border closures from other says, arguing they were a good disproportionate response. She noted many NSW residents lived far away from the Sydney hotspots.
Her state managed to curb the city's fast-growing outbreak in December through extreme contract tracing, restricting gathering sizes and building masks mandatory on shops and on open public transport.
Daily case numbers dropped to low single-digits by early on January - prompting various Australian jurisdictions to allow travel to and from certain specific areas in the state.
Currently, only Western Australia maintains a 14-day quarantine requirement for individuals visiting from NSW.
From Friday, limits on group gatherings in Sydney will also be eased. Deal with masks will also no longer be mandatory in retail retailers but it's still required on public transport.
On Wednesday, Australia's Well being Minister Greg Hunt confirmed the country had not recorded an individual local circumstance since 17 January. Its just infections had been in returned abroad travellers in hotel quarantine.
"Concurrently, the world has passed 100 million confirmed Covid conditions and nearly 17,000 lives have already been lost in the last a day," he added.
On Thursday, Australia was ranked eighth in a set of nations which had responded better to the virus. New Zealand and Vietnam topped the list from the Lowy Institute believe tank.
