Martin Lewis says travel insurance cannot cover for COVID-19
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Australia’s two largest states have reported sharp increases in new COVID-19 cases, a blow to hopes lockdown restrictions would be lifted with more than half the country’s population under stay-at-home orders. New South Wales and Victoria are currently subject to the stay-at-home order following an outbreak of the Delta variant.
Sydney, the country’s most populous city, has reported 110 new cases four weeks into a lockdown, and Victoria reported 22 as it nears two weeks of a statewide lockdown.
Health leaders have warned the states will not be released from lockdown until cases are as close to zero as possible.
A third state, South Australia, went into its first full day of a week-long lockdown on Wednesday and reported one additional case.
The restrictions are in place for some 13 million Australians, and only 11 percent of whole population is vaccinated so far.
Can I travel to Australia?
Australia is currently on the UK’s green list, meaning travellers do not need to quarantine when they return.
However, Australia has been closed off to international travel since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
There has been an on and off travel bubble with New Zealand for parts of the pandemic, but this is the only measure based travel allowed in and out of Australia.
Australians themselves are subject to strict entry rules.
Returning permanent residents, immediate family members and essential workers are technically allowed in – and out of – the country, but in practice, even this is proving difficult.
The country is only allowing 3,000 citizens a week to return to reduce pressure on its quarantine system.
It’s estimated some 34,000 Australians are currently stranded abroad.
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Because even Australians are struggling to get back into their country, this means travel for leisure to Australia for Brits is off the cards for the foreseeable future.
Many are predicting the borders won’t reopen until 2022 at least.
Australia’s finance minister Simon Birmingham told local media in May 2021 that Australians “won’t be seeing borders flung open at the start of next year.
He continued: “Given uncertainties that exist not just in the speed of the vaccine rollout, but also the extent of its effectiveness to different variants of Covid, the duration of its longevity and effectiveness.”
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