Australia tightens border further to curb virus outbreak

Sydney, July 3 (RHC)-- Australia announced a dramatic cut in the number of people who will be allowed to enter the country over the weekend, as it struggles to contain coronavirus clusters that plunged major cities into lockdown.

With almost half of the nation’s population under stay-at-home orders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said quotas for overseas arrivals would be cut by about 50 percent to help prevent further outbreaks.

Under the current “zero COVID” strategy, just 6,000 people are allowed to enter Australia on overseas commercial flights each week and arrivals must undergo mandatory two weeks hotel quarantine.

That quota will be cut to about 3,000 by the middle of July, Morrison indicated, although the government will at the same time step up its private repatriation flights.

Before the pandemic began, approximately 260,000 people entered Australia each week, and citizens were free to travel overseas.  That has now completely changed.