January 6 According to a report by Australia.com, in recent days, with the highly infectious mutant coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, Australia has begun to urgently call for mandatory nucleic acid testing for passengers returning to the country.
Australian states call for stronger control: ban British flights from entering the country and impose mandatory testing on incoming passengers.
According to the Daily Mail on the 5th, so far, New York, Victoria and South Australia have found mutant carriers of the novel coronavirus among their returning overseas travelers.
Western Australia also confirmed recently that three incoming passengers in quarantine were infected with more infectious mutant viruses.
On November 19, 2020, local time, citizens walk on the empty streets in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.
In response, Western Australian Governor McGowan took the lead in calling for mandatory nucleic acid testing for returning passengers.
“I think this would be a good security mechanism for travelers from many countries around the world to test before boarding and confirming their test results are negative,” he said.
In addition, Victoria also requires the crew not only to undergo nucleic acid testing, but also to be quarantined.
Because eight of the 1,096 crew members who have arrived in Victoria in the past two weeks have tested positive, twice as many confirmed cases as incoming passengers.
Victoria Police Minister Neville said other states should follow their example by testing and quarantine crews because they are at high risk of infection.
According to the strict new regulations implemented by Victoria on December 23, 2020, the crew needs to undergo nucleic acid testing within 90 minutes after arriving at the quarantine hotel in Victoria.
Neville also suggested that Australia should consider closing airports and banning flights from the United Kingdom due to this “worrisome” mutant virus.
Omar Khorshid, president of the Australian Medical Association, also expressed concern about the recent cases of isolated tourists from hotels in the country spreading the virus into the community.
“We’ve seen that Australia’s isolation system is not foolproof, and Australia faces a greater risk for the currently highly contagious variant virus,” he said.
To this end, Colsheed supports the recommendation that all passengers should be tested for nucleic acid and provide negative results before boarding the plane to enter Australia.
Prime Minister Morrison opposes mandatory testing and flight blockade, saying it is inappropriate.
According to reports, Australian Prime Minister Morrison said that mandatory nucleic acid testing for inbound passengers is not the solution to the problem.
Because this may give people a false confidence that “all staff are healthy” when the plane arrives in Australia.
Morrison said: “Most airlines will do this, and we do the same for returning passengers from Australia on government charter flights. But we should emphasize that this will not reduce the risk of infection.
In some cases, this situation can be aggravated because people may not have symptoms…or symptoms have not yet been shown on the journey, which may cause complacency for the traveler.”
