Australia and COVID-19

Australia shut its borders early on in the pandemic. This is a major reason why to date they have only had 910 COVID-related deaths. The vast majority of these were due to an outbreak in Victoria in mid-2020 which was impressively brought under control with strict lockdowns.

This is an admirable record, but the government's strict border rules do come with other costs. The rules ban all travel into and even out of Australia except for returning residents. My family has been affected by this because my sister is an Australian permanent resident. As such, my family can't go to see her and she cannot leave to see us. This is especially difficult because she has young children who we can only watch grow up over video call.

When I move there later this year, I too will be subject to these restrictions, after a six-month cooling-off period. It's a worrying prospect considering there's no plan or timeline for opening the borders. When I travel there on my permanent residency visa, I will pay for the mandatory two-week hotel quarantine. I am already fully vaccinated, but it's sensible to quarantine regardless since the risk of transmission in vaccinated people is not fully understood, especially with the new variants.

My sister was recently interviewed for the ABC 7.30 show for a segment about the plight of Australians with family members abroad. Our family is relatively fortunate, there are others who are not able to see their dying parents. This is chillingly familiar to the experiences in the first, panicked UK lockdown. It's particularly tragic that the exceptional situation of a dying parent cannot be handled reasonably a year and a half later.

Watch my sister Gemma's interview (including a brief cameo from yours truly) here, about 4 mins 30 seconds in: https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/australians-desperate-to-know-when-they-will-be/13409630