Strict border control to continue in Australia, says country’s Health Minister

Upon Health Minister of Australia Greg Hunt’s suggestion to the Australian government to continue taking strict measures in order to curb the spread of coronavirus, the country has now decided to further extend it’s year-long international border closure by 3 months till mid-June, AFP reported. 

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Greg Hunt said, “the COVID-19′ situation overseas continues to pose an unacceptable public health risk to Australia, including the emergence of more highly transmissible variants”.

He said, there will be strict border control and it will continue until June 17, 2021. 

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Australia closed its international border early in the pandemic, shutting out most non-citizens except in special circumstances.

Due to the imposition of Caps on the number of Australians that will be allowed to return each week left almost 10,000 people stranded overseas. The travelers that were allowed in the country had to spend a lot of money to complete 14 days in hotel quarantine on the arrival.

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Australia has been relatively successful in containing the spread of COVID-19, with just under 29,000 cases recorded in a population of 25 million and few virus restrictions now in place.