Australia halves arrivals to battle delta variant

Australia announced plans to reduce commercial passenger arrivals by half due to the emerging risk of the COVID-19 Delta variant, as parts of the country emerged from lockdown Friday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra that Australia will cap weekly arrivals at 3,000, down from from 6,000, by July 14 to reduce pressure on hotel quarantine.

Australia already has some of the world's tightest border restrictions aimed at keeping COVID-19 out.

The new restrictions add to problems faced by 34,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents stranded overseas and registered with the government as wanting to come home.

The government will charter more airliners to repatriate Australians, but the reduced limit on commercial passenger arrivals could continue until next year.

Morrison also said a vaccine would be made available to every Australian who wanted one by the end of the year.

Almost half the Australian population has been locked down for the past week, due to infection clusters.

Several cities in Queensland and Northern Territory came out of lockdown Friday.