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Roundup: Australia's overseas arrival scheme overhauled in face of new virus strain
From:Xinhua  |  2021-01-08 16:29

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SYDNEY, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Fears that a more contagious variant of COVID-19 being reported in Britain could spread to Australia prompted an emergency meeting of state and territory leaders on Friday in order to bolster the country's international arrivals process.

Shortly before the meeting, news emerged that the strain had been detected in a worker at a quarantine hotel in the state of Queensland, prompting an immediate 3-day lockdown of the state capital Brisbane.

Several measures to tighten Australia's borders against the strain were subsequently announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, including halving arrival numbers limits, mandating face masks on all flights including domestic, and requiring passengers to return a negative test before they travel to Australia.

"What we do know is that this new strain is some 70 percent more transmissible than the previous strains of the virus (and is) likely to become (the) more dominant strain of the virus globally," Morrison said.

"This virus continues to write its own rules and that means that we must continue to be adaptable in how we continue to fight it."

A significant point of concern was that so far Australia's international arrival and repatriation scheme has been plagued by issues leading to several serious outbreaks, the most severe of which was in the state of Victoria peaking at over 700 daily cases in early August.

More recently, an outbreak in the city of Sydney continued to yield new infections as of Friday, and totaled close to 200 community cases. The cluster of what is believed to be an overseas variant was detected in the city's north shortly before Christmas, however health officials were unable to determine exactly how it entered the country.

Biostatistician and epidemiologist at the University of South Australia, Prof. Adrian Esterman told Xinhua it was "absolutely imperative" that Australia keeps the new virus strain out of the country.

"As a country, we've done incredibly well, one of the best in the world. Both Melbourne and Sydney are in control through really good contact tracing, isolation and compliance with the population. But that might not work against the variant," Esterman said.

Esterman blamed instances of the virus spreading from overseas into the community on gaps within the hotel quarantine system, aligning with the findings of a recent inquiry into the Melbourne outbreak.

The inquiry found that, "99 percent of Victoria's second wave of COVID-19 cases in the community came from transmission events related to returned travelers infecting people working at (quarantine hotels)."

Based on the difficult lessons learned from Victoria's outbreak and subsequent three-month lockdown, the state overhauled its quarantine system, making it stricter than that of other jurisdictions.

"For example, we've just seen the escape of the new virus strain in Brisbane and that's because they're only testing their hotel staff every week, whereas Victoria tests them every shift," Esterman said.

One of the measures implemented by the leaders meeting on Friday was to ramp up the testing of hotel workers to a national standard of daily testing.

Regardless of the new measures, Esterman says that as long as there are people returning to Australia from overseas there will be a risk to the community.

"No matter how good your systems are it's almost impossible to stop leaking," Esterman explained.

"There could be just a few virus particles floating around in the air and someone walks through them and that's it."

Figures for November 2020, revealed approximately 29,800 people arrived in Australia in November 2020, a 98.3 percent decrease compared with the same month in 2019 but still more than enough to see thousands of people testing positive while in hotel quarantine.

Roughly 22 percent, or 6,202, of Australia's official COVID-19 infections were contracted overseas before showing up in the hotel quarantine system.

Among the measures announced Friday was a 50 percent reduction on international arrival limits, lasting until Feb. 15. While a number of states are already adhering to a reduced figure, the new rules will see the States of New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland drastically reduce their intake.

University of Sydney epidemiologist, Dr. Alexandra Martiniuk told Xinhua it was wise for Australia to reduce international arrivals, as well as mandate masks on flights, while information regarding the new strains of the virus was still emerging.

"I do understand there are a few Australians overseas and particularly in Britain trying to get back and that probably is not good news for them. But I do think it is a wise decision by the government to do that," Martiniuk said.

The reduction in passenger numbers reflects a continued concern by Australian leaders and health experts of the virus leaking through the quarantine system and into the community.

If the virus does enter the community again, Esterman says that current containment measures, for instance, those being deployed to handle the Sydney outbreak, will be insufficient to cope with more highly transferable strains of the virus.

"They've shown in Britain now that even with the current lockdown they've got until mid February, it is still not enough to stop the epidemic with this new variant," Esterman said.

"That's why they've done this three-day lockdown in Brisbane, which I think is very sensible. And it might end up being more than three days because if it does get out then Australia might be in deep strife."

Martiniuk agreed that the new measures were warranted in the face of this latest challenge in the unpredictable COVID-19 pandemic.

"We're going for a suppression strategy, so it's hotel quarantine and transport workers and similar at airports, that's really the risk," she said.

"So it makes sense to try and batten down the hatches in those areas so as to stop these little embers that can burst into fire." Enditem

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