COVID-19: Australia to allow flights from India from May 14, Morrison says 'pause worked'

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on May 14 said that the temporary suspension of flights to and from India will end at Friday midnight and the facilitated commercial flights by the Australian Government will resume as planned, however, with strict pre-flight test rules. In a post on Facebook Morrison said “At midnight tonight, the temporary pause on flights from India to Australia ends and facilitated commercial flights by the Australian Government will resume as promised, with a strict pre-flight testing regime to keep Australians safe."

"The pause gave our quarantine system much-needed breathing space to minimise the risk of COVID-19 getting out of quarantine into the community and having a third wave here,” he added.

Australia sends medical equipment to India

The said travel ban was announced on April 27 by Morrison and came into effect on May 3 in the wake of the COVID-19 surge. The move initially had sparked outrage as officials had even warned that people who tried to violate the restrictions to enter Australia after being in India, Brazil within the last 14 days could be imprisoned or subjected to fines. Apart from lifting the temporary flight ban from India, Australian PM further informed that a flight with medical supplies and equipment to help India’s COVID-19 flight took off from Sydney earlier on May 14.

"This flight was carrying another 1056 ventilators, 60 oxygen concentrators and other essential supplies. It adds to the more than 1000 ventilators and 43 oxygen concentrators we sent last week."

"The plane used to carry these supplies to India today will then act as a Government-facilitated flight for Australians to return home from India, focusing on the most vulnerable Australians," he added. 

As India registered a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases, several nations decided to ban the flights, on Friday, Morrison also said that the “pause has worked. Active cases of COVID-19 in our hotel quarantine have dropped by over 40 per cent over the past few weeks, down from 292 to 171.” He added, “The pause gave our quarantine system much-needed breathing space to minimise the risk of COVID-19 getting out of quarantine into the community and having a third wave here.”

Image credits: ANI/AP/Unsplash