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Australia on Friday pressed over-50s to get their coronavirus shots, as fears mounted that vaccine hesitancy could be priming the country for disaster. Australia is one of the few countries in the world to eliminate community transmission of Covid-19, but vaccine rollout has been slow. After chronic delivery delays, there is growing evidence that older Australians are more concerned about the AstraZeneca vaccine's side effects than catching the virus. ‘I encourage those over 50 to get the jab,’ Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday, ‘and if you are over 70, I would very much encourage you to.’ ‘My mother has had it, my mother-in-law has had it, and they are doing great,’ Morrison added, trying to ease concerns about widely publicised risks of blood clotting. The World Health Organization recommends continued use of the AstraZeneca shot, arguing that the benefits far outweigh the associated rare risk of clots. But according to a recent poll by Essential Report, only 42 percent of Australians say they would get vaccinated as soon as possible, and almost a third would get the Pfizer shot but not AstraZeneca. The poll showed a notable jump in vaccine hesitancy among over-55s since early April, when the government said under-50s would get the Pfizer rather than AstraZeneca jabs. A separate Resolve Strategic poll for the Sydney Morning Herald showed similar results. An estimated 25 percent of the 4.6 million vaccine doses distributed across Australia so far have not been used. Peter Doherty, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1996, weighed in Friday, tweeting: ‘I'll be getting my second shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine.’ Blood clots are ‘certainly a risk we could do without’, he said. ‘But one fatality with more than a million doses beats the 5-10,000 deaths (+ much, much more chronic illness) per million we might expect if the virus cut loose here.’ - 'We're dawdling' – Experts say Australia's runaway success in eliminating Covid-19 could be leading to complacency. They point to Taiwan as evidence that a stellar record of combating the virus can quickly be lost. The island with a population of 24 million -- similar to Australia's 25 million -- has recorded well over 1,000 new infections in five days. Australia bet heavily on the AstraZeneca jab after efforts to produce a local vaccine failed. It has since increased orders for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are based on a different mRNA technology. The government's critics say the slow rate of vaccination means Australia's borders, which slammed shut in March 2020, will have to stay closed long into next year. ‘We're dawdling,’ said opposition labour member of parliament Andrew Leigh. ‘The health minister should be encouraging everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible.’    

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pointed to strong trade with China as evidence of a valuable relationship despite Chinese criticism, as Australia’s main opposition party accused him of using alarmist rhetoric for domestic gains. Bilateral ties have sunk to their lowest point in decades, and China has in recent months moved to restrict imports of Australian products such as barley and beef after Morrison led calls for a global enquiry into the origins of Covid-19. But Morrison said sales of other commodities illustrated the relationship had not broken down. “The relationship still exists, look at trade alone – there have never been bigger volumes. That’s a bit of a proof point. “When all’s said and done, there’s still great value in the relationship,” Morrison  said. China is Australia’s largest trading partner. In the 12 months to March, Australia exported A$149bn ($116bn) worth of goods to China, down 0.6% from the previous year. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded by saying that China “has always held that health and stable China-Australia relations are in the fundamental interests of both countries”. However, Zhao, speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing, said the responsibility for the decline in relations was not “not at all China’s” and that Australia should treat China with “objectivity” and “rationality”. Morrison’s comments came as Labour shadow foreign affairs minister Penny Wong accused him of indulging in political opportunism in foreign affairs. “My concern is that not only does he not fully comprehend Australia’s interests in relation to China, he doesn’t even seek to,” she said at a book launch yesterday.

Australia unveiled the uniforms their athletes will wear at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, a milestone that world champion canoeist Jessica Fox said made her third trip to the Games ‘a bit more real’. The opening ceremony is scheduled for July 23 but it is certain to be very different to previous Olympics because of Covid-19 health protocols, and with athletes arriving in Japan closer to their events than usual. The uniforms, designed by Sportscraft, were unveiled at an ocean pool in the Sydney suburbs built in 1907 by the father of Mina Wylie, who won a swimming silver at the 1912 Stockholm Games as one of Australia's first female Olympians. ‘I think it's the milestone moment of revealing the uniform and it kind of makes everything a bit more real,’ said Fox, who won K1 canoeing silver in London in 2012 and a bronze four years later in Rio. ‘We don't know yet what the opening ceremony in Tokyo will look like but ... it is very special.’ Uncertainty continues to surround the Games, which have already been delayed by a year because of the pandemic. A top medical organisation on Monday threw its weight behind calls to cancel the Olympics with hospitals already overwhelmed as Japan battles a spike in coronavirus infections. Opinion polls in Japan show up to 83% of the population want the Games cancelled or postponed again but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japanese government are pushing ahead with preparations. Taekwondo athlete Safwan Khalil said he was well aware of the health issues and was doing everything he could to reduce the possibility he might make the situation in Japan worse. ‘We don't want to threaten the safely and security of the Japanese as well, that's really important for us,’ he said. ‘But we're trying to block out all that noise and just focus on what's in our control and that's our training and our preparation, get over there and do out absolute best.’    

The Australian government needs to do more to avoid a repeat of the scores of seats left empty on the first post-ban repatriation flight from virus-ravaged India, one community leader has said. Eighty Australians touched down in Darwin yesterday morning and were moved to the Howard Springs quarantine facility on the city’s outskirts. But about 70 seats reserved for returning Australians were empty after 40 people tested positive before the flight from Delhi, with another 30 identified as close contacts. Dr Yadu Singh, the president of the Federation of Indian Associations of New South Wales and the head of the Council of Indian Federations of Australia, said: “They need to think about a different mechanism so as not to waste those seats.” Total cases of Covid-19 have topped 24mn in India, with the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, saying the country was “on a war footing” as more than 4,000 people died from the virus for a third straight day. India is experiencing a spread of cases associated with the B.1.617 variant, which some experts say could be more transmissible than other variants. The World Health Organisation this week declared it a “variant of concern”. Indian community leaders in Australia said statewide lockdowns in the subcontinent and higher case numbers in cities was making the job of repatriating Australians harder. Some 10,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents have told the government they want to return from India. First in line for repatriation flights are about 1,000 people the government has deemed vulnerable. Singh said he sympathised with the people who were blocked from travelling, but it was the right decision to protect other people. He said: “I’m very pleased the flight has arrived. But what they could do differently is have a mechanism to bring people to the city where the plane is leaving and have them in quarantine and test them several times. “I hope they will learn from what has happened and have a better testing system to bring as many as possible home. “They are Australian citizens and there are moral obligations to look after them.” The department of foreign affairs and trade declined to answer Guardian Australia’s questions about whether efforts had been made to fill seats that became available on the repatriation flight and if a standby system would be in place for future flights. The department also did not say if the government had plans to set up quarantine for Australians stuck in India to isolate before the flight.

Australia is in talks with Moderna Inc to establish domestic manufacturing of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines such as the company's Covid-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday. Australia, which on Wednesday agreed to buy 25 million doses of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, has pledged to spend A$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) to revitalise manufacturing across six sectors, including pharmaceuticals. The move to put manufacturing at the centre of a long-term recovery plan comes amid a realization that Australia has been too reliant on Asia for the supply of essential goods. Sour relations with top trading partner, China, and the pandemic’s impact on global supply chains have also strengthened that view. ‘Onshore manufacturing would ensure a secure, long-term supply of Moderna's mRNA-based vaccines against Covid-19, including variants, and for potential future pandemics,’ Morrison said in a statement. MRNA vaccines prompt the body to make a protein that is part of the virus, triggering an immune response. Minister for Health Greg Hunt said Moderna was one of several companies Australia was in talks with over domestic production. ‘Our hope is that we will have at least one, if not more than one, manufacturing operation in Australia,’ Hunt told reporters in Canberra. ‘I am confident that over the future period, we will have mRNA production in Australia. STAGNANT INOCULATIONS Hunt also said the deal with Moderna would aid Australia's inoculation programme. Citing delays in securing supplies, Australia now expects to finish inoculating its near 26 million population by the end of the year. But this timetable relies on deliveries of vaccines from Pfizer after Australia in April restricted the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine in people below 50 years due to rare blood-clotting cases. Australia on Thursday reported seven likely cases of blood clots in people who had recently received AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine. Australia has administered about 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with 18 people believed to have developed the condition. Moderna will supply Australia with 10 million shots designed to protect against the original strain of the coronavirus this year, and 15 million doses of its updated variant booster shot in 2022. Australia has fared much better than many other developed countries in keeping its Covid-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 29,900 cases and 910 deaths.  

Australia yesterday set a new target of vaccinating all willing adults by the end of 2021, hoping to speed a glacial vaccine roll-out that threatens the country’s pandemic success story. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg – unveiling a free-spending, crisis-tinged budget – said the continuation of the country’s “roaring” economic recovery depended on “effective suppression of the virus”. To that end, he said, the conservative government expected Australia’s borders to remain closed well into 2022 and for all adults “who seek to have that vaccine” to have received two doses by the end of the year. Australia has ridden out the coronavirus pandemic by effectively sealing itself off from the rest of the world, and with a series of snap local lockdowns. It remains one of the few places where there is no widespread community transmission and daily life is relatively normal. But very few Australians are immunised and there have been repeated outbreaks linked to quarantine facilities, raising fears success could be fleeting. “We don’t know what is around the corner with respect to the virus,” Frydenberg said. “The assumption is that there will be new cases.” So far Australia has delivered just 2.5mn vaccine shots, versus the roughly 50mn jabs needed to vaccinate the entire population — lagging other rich countries, and the government’s own targets. After a series of problems with vaccine delivery and the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under 50, the government is now in talks to manufacture promising mRNA vaccines domestically. Frydenberg also unveiled a new round of tax cuts and stimulus spending that could set the stage for an election as soon as this year. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is seeking re-election and a fourth consecutive victory for his conservative Liberal-led coalition. Jettisoning the party’s traditional talk of belt-tightening and fiscal prudence, Frydenberg said “unavoidable” spending would see the deficit swell to A$161bn ($125bn) this year, almost 8% of GDP. The government has committed A$291bn to virus-related stimulus, including a swathe of tax cuts and income support that is equivalent to almost 15% of gross domestic product. The deficit explosion was limited only by increased tax revenue – as people go back to work more quickly than expected – and surging iron ore prices. “We’re giving a very big thanks to Western Australia and the iron ore industry,” Frydenberg said.

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state reported zero Covid-19 cases for a fourth straight day on Monday, but concerns about new infections remained as the missing link in a case that has reinstated restrictions continued to elude officials. Australia's most populous state on Sunday extended social distancing curbs in Sydney by a week after authorities could not find a transmission path between an infected overseas traveller and a resident in his 50s who tested positive last week. "There has been a lot of work to identify how the transmission event occurred. Unfortunately, we haven't found that missing link," NSW state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters in Sydney. Chant said the man may have contracted the virus through brief contact with a currently unidentified person who was infectious. "So, because of that, we are still concerned that there may be chains of transmission in the community that are yet unrecognised," she said. More than 5.3 million people living in and around Sydney, Australia's biggest metropolitan area, have been ordered to wear masks on public transport and at indoor venues, while house gatherings are limited to 20 guests until May 17. NSW on Monday opened a mass vaccination hub in Sydney aiming to administer up to 30,000 vaccines every week to ramp up a national vaccination programme that is behind schedule. With just over 29,900 Covid-19 cases and 910 deaths, Australia has fared much better than many other developed countries but its countrywide immunisation drive has hit roadblocks. The federal government was developing a plan to open Australia's borders in stages and would consider options to make it easier for vaccinated people to leave the country and return, Health Minister Greg Hunt said. Australia closed its international border to all but citizens and permanent residents in March 2020. Overseas travellers, except from New Zealand, must undergo two weeks of hotel quarantine at their own expense. A Federal Court judge on Monday dismissed an application to overthrow the government's ban on travellers from India, including Australian citizens, imposed due to the surge in Covid-19 cases there, a court spokesman said. The ban is due to be lifted on May 15. More than 35,000 Australians abroad have registered with the foreign ministry to return home but the country allows only about 5,800 people to enter each week. More than 2.65 million vaccine doses had been administered as of Saturday, far short of the 4 million pledged by the end of March.

A knife-wielding attacker stabbed four people in a New Zealand supermarket Monday, critically injuring three, in a rampage authorities said was "random" and not terror related. Police said the attack -- highly unusual in the normally peaceful South Pacific nation -- occurred at a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin at 2:30pm (0230 GMT) and a man had been taken into custody. Witnesses told local media a man carrying two knives stabbed staff in the supermarket and bystanders who tried to stop him were also injured. The most recent mass-casualty attack in New Zealand was the Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, when a white supremacist gunman murdered 51 worshippers and severely injured another 40. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her first question to police was whether the Dunedin attack had national security implications but they assured her it did not. "At this stage, there's nothing to suggest from the police's perspective that this is what they would define as a domestic terror event," she told reporters. Southern police district commander Paul Basham characterised the incident as a "random attack" and said the perpetrator would face court on Tuesday. Authorities initially reported five people were stabbed but later revised it down to four, with Basham saying the attacker received a minor injury during the incident. He described the actions of those who stopped the man as "nothing short of heroic", saying they had prevented more injuries. Basham said three of the victims were due to undergo surgery overnight. Countdown's managing director Spencer Sonn said everyone at the supermarket chain was "shocked and devastated" by the attack. New Zealand introduced tough gun laws in the wake of the Christchurch attack to limit access to firearms.

* Repatriation flights from India to resume next week * No approval to restart commercial flights * NSW authorities report no new Covid-19 cases * Social distancing restrictions in Sydney over weekend Australia will lift a ban on its citizens returning from Covid-ravaged India next week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, as state officials reported that an outbreak in Sydney appeared to be contained. Morrison stood by his decision to impose a biosecurity order last month barring all travel to and from India, a policy that drew heavy criticism from lawmakers, expatriates and the Indian diaspora. Morrison said the travel ban, which was controversially backed by jail terms and financial penalties for anybody who attempted to circumvent it by flying via a third country, had prevented Australia's hotel quarantine system from being overwhelmed. ‘The order that we have put in place has been highly effective, it’s doing the job that we needed it to do, and that was to ensure that we could do everything we can to prevent a third wave of Covid-19 here in Australia,’ Morrison told reporters. Australia will charter three repatriation flights between May 15 and May 31, prioritising around 900 people deemed most vulnerable, Morrison said. The government estimates around 9,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents are in India. Prospective travellers will need to return a negative Covid-19 test, and will be required to undertake the standard 14-day hotel quarantine imposed on incoming travellers. Morrison said his government is unlikely to allow the resumption of direct commercial flights from India in the near term and has instead asked state authorities to accept additional repatriation flights. The Australian leader, who has rejected suggestions the hardline approach will damage the country's bilateral relations with India, said he will speak with his counterpart Narendra Modi later on Friday. SYDNEY OUTBREAK STABLE New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian, meanwhile, said New Zealand's decision to partially suspend a travel bubble with Australia as a result of new infections in Sydney was an ‘overreaction.’ State health officials were still trying to track the missing links in the case of a 50-year-old man who was diagnosed earlier this week with an Indian variant of Covid-19 that he passed on to his wife. Genomic sequencing had linked the case to a returned traveller from the United States, but there was no clear transmission path between the two people. However, state health officials reported on Friday that more than 13,000 tests conducted over the past 24 hours had found no additional cases, easing concerns about a wider outbreak. Berejiklian on Thursday imposed new social distancing restrictions in greater Sydney, including mask wearing on public transport and limits on home gatherings. With many people expected to gather over the weekend for annual Mother's Day celebrations, the restrictions are scheduled to remain in place until Monday morning. ‘We may never find that missing link,’ Berejiklian told the Nine Network ‘Today’ show about the Sydney case, the first in NSW in more than a month. ‘That’s why we ask everybody to come forward and get tested. Every time there’s a positive case, we can match it to see if it’s part of the same strain.’  

* Officials hunting missing links in India variant case * Social distancing restrictions imposed in Sydney * NZ partially suspends travel bubble * Five more AstraZeneca vaccine blood clot cases * Coronavirus detected in sewerage network   Australian officials reinstated social distancing measures in Sydney as New Zealand partially suspended the pair's ‘travel bubble’ on Thursday, amid fears an Indian variant case of Covid-19 could spur a significant outbreak. The swift action was taken a day after a 50-year-old man became the first reported local transmission case in New South Wales state in more than a month, with the source of his infection baffling health officials. Further testing determined the man was infected with a variant first detected in India and genomic sequencing had linked the case to a returned traveller from the United States, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said on Thursday, but there was no clear transmission path between the two people. ‘We can't find any direct link between our case, so what we're concerned about is there is another person that is as yet unidentified that infected our case,’ Chant said. New Zealand's minister for Covid-19 response, Chris Hipkins, said his country was halting quarantine-free travel to and from New South Wales while authorities investigated. ‘With several outstanding unknowns in the situation in Sydney it is safest to pause the QFT (quarantine-free travel agreement),’ Hipkins said in a statement. The so-called ‘travel bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand opened less than a month ago. The NSW suspension comes into effect at midnight. The case of the unidentified Sydney man, who passed the virus on to his wife, appeared to be the first time officials had reported the local transmission of an India virus variant in Australia. Tests on the infected man had showed a higher viral load than typically seen in infected people, potentially increasing the chance that the man has spread the disease, officials said. With many people expected to gather over the weekend for annual Mother's Day celebrations, the NSW state government restricted household gatherings to 20 guests and limited aged care facility visitors to two people per resident. Masks will be mandatory on public transport and at indoor venues. All the restrictions, which cover around 5.3 million people in the country's biggest metropolitan area, take effect at 5 p.m. local time and are scheduled to last until Monday morning. ‘We believe this is a proportionate response to the risk we have ahead of us,’ NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters. The measures will also cover Sydney's neighbouring regions of Wollongong, the Central Coast and Blue Mountains. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet entered self-isolation on Thursday after he visited a restaurant at the same time as the infected person, classifying him as a close contact, his office said. Perrottet, who attended a sitting of state parliament on Wednesday, has tested negative. Authorities also asked thousands of residents in the city's inner west to seek testing for any mild flu symptoms after fragments of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 were detected in the sewerage network used by several suburbs. Separately, health authorities reported five new cases of blood clots in people who had received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the inoculation being used for the majority of the country's population over the age of 50. Australia has now recorded 11 blood clot cases after administering 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. INDIA BAN Speedy tracing systems, movement curbs and border restrictions have largely reined in the spread of Covid-19 in Australia, which has recorded 29,865 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began. The federal government is currently under some pressure to overturn a temporary travel ban on travellers, including its own citizens, from COVID-ravaged India. Australia has blocked all direct flights from the country until May 15. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Thursday, citing unidentified sources, said at least two repatriation flights will be dispatched to India every week from the middle of this month to bring home around 9,000 Australians. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, however, said the situation would be constantly reviewed. ‘We are not going to commit to that at this point,’ Morrison told radio station 3AW on Thursday.  

Australia's most populous state reported on Wednesday its first locally acquired coronavirus infection in more than a month, with health authorities working to track down the source and the variant involved. The first local infection in southeastern New South Wales since March 31 strengthens prospects for a resumption of social distancing curbs, many of which had been eased as cases dwindled. Although Australia has largely eradicated Covid-19, a man in his 50s with no known links to hotels used to quarantine people who have arrived from overseas tested positive on Tuesday, the state's health ministry said in a statement. The unidentified man visited several spot in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, the state capital and Australia's biggest city, the ministry said. Testing showed a higher viral load than typically seen in infected people, potentially increasing the chance that the man has spread the disease, the ministry said. He is considered to have been infectious since April 30. ‘That give us some cause for concern,’ the state's chief health officer, Kerry Chant, told reporters in Sydney, adding that all those who had been in close contact with the man had been told to self-isolate and get tested. Authorities are testing whether the case is genetically linked to anyone in the quarantine system or cases in other states, Chant said. They are also checking which virus variant is involved. Australia's hardline approach to rein in Covid-19, with measures including snap lockdowns, border controls and swift contact tracing has kept its tally of infections at just over 29,800, with 910 deaths since the pandemic began. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has drawn wide criticism for a decision to block all travel for two weeks from India, which is battling a massive second wave of Covid-19 infections. Anger surged after the government vowed on Saturday to punish attempts to enter from India with jail terms of up to five years and fines. For more than a year, Australia has allowed only citizens and permanent residents to return, though they must spend two weeks in strict quarantine. Morrison defended the ban on Wednesday, saying it had prevented hotel quarantine sites from being overrun. ‘This was a necessary step to ensure that we could help more Australian citizens and residents get home, safely, in a way that did not risk a third wave in Australia,’ Morrison told a televised news briefing in the northeastern state of Queensland. Academics and lawyers have questioned the validity of the India ban, despite the government's assertion that it was temporary, and on Wednesday a legal challenge was launched. Lawyers for Gary Newman, a 73-year-old who has been stuck in India since he travelled there in March 2020, will argue that Australia's conservative government does not have the constitutional power to block people returning from India. No ruling was given, with Justice Stephen Burley agreeing to set a hearing date within 48 hours.  

Australia's prime minister fended off accusations of racism and having blood on his hands Tuesday, as he retreated from a threat to jail Australians trying to escape Covid-wracked India. Scott Morrison's government moved to ban travellers from India from entering Australia until May 15, threatening rule-breakers -- including Australian citizens -- with prison time. Amid a widespread backlash, Morrison on Tuesday said it was ‘highly unlikely’ that Australians who skirted a ban would be jailed. ‘I think the likelihood of any of that occurring is pretty much zero,’ Morrison said in a breakfast-time media blitz on Tuesday. Around 9,000 Australians are believed to be in India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases are being detected every day and the death toll is soaring. Among those trapped are some of Australia's most high profile sporting stars -- cricketers playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League. Commentator and former Test cricket star Michael Slater was among those who pilloried Morrison's decision, saying it was a ‘disgrace’. ‘Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this,’ he tweeted. ‘If our Government cared for the safety of Aussies they would allow us to get home.’ Morrison said the idea he had blood on his hands was ‘absurd’. ‘The buck stops here when it comes to these decisions, and I'm going to take decisions that I believe are going to protect Australia from a third wave,’ he said. ‘I'm working to bring them home safely,’ he added, indicating that repatriation flights could begin soon after May 15. The decision came into force on Monday and was denounced by rights groups and some of Morrison's most prominent allies including Sky News commentator Andrew Bolt who said it ‘stinks of racism’. Australia has largely avoided the worst of the pandemic through some of the strictest border controls in the world. There is a blanket ban on travel to-and-from the country unless an exemption is secured. Non-residents are mostly banned from entering and anyone who does come into the country must carry out a mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine. But that system has come under increasing strain as the virus has jumped from quarantine facilities and caused a series of outbreaks in the largely unvaccinated community. The conservative prime minister faces reelection in the next 12 months, and had hoped Australia's relatively successful handling of the pandemic would propel him to victory. But the India travel ban and a glacial vaccine rollout have prompted criticism. Australia has administered 2.2 million vaccine doses out of a population of 25 million people, who each need two doses to be fully immunised.    

New Zealand on Sunday agreed to reopen its travel bubble with Western Australia, 24 hours after grounding flights when three people in Perth tested positive for Covid 19. Health officials said that following consultation with their Australian counterparts they determined the risk to New Zealand was not significant and flight could resume on Monday. However, anyone who has been at "locations of interest" identified by the Western Australian government cannot travel to New Zealand within 14 days of exposure. "While the public health risk is deemed low, we must all remain vigilant as we enjoy the opportunities quarantine-free travel has given us," the director-general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, said. It was the second disruption to the ground-breaking travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia in the two weeks since it opened, ending more than a year since both closed their international borders due to the pandemic. Flights between New Zealand and Western Australia were briefly suspended when the Perth and Peel regions were sent into a three-day lockdown after recording a case of community transmission on April 23. Flights two other states and territories have not been affected. The bubble, which followed months of negotiations between the largely coronavirus-free neighbours, has been hailed as a major milestone in restarting a global travel industry that has been crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Australia is set to consider a proposal on Tuesday to suspend flights from India to prevent more virulent coronavirus variants entering the country following a surge in positive Covid-19 cases in the world's second-most populous nation. Queensland state has urged the federal government to halt all flights from India due to the high risk of potential Covid-19 outbreaks from highly contagious virus variants in Australia's hotel quarantine system. "I sent a letter to the Prime Minister at the end of last week asking for the suspension of flights coming in from India ... and I know that the federal government is considering it today," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday. Australia's national security committee will meet later on Tuesday to consider halting flights from India and will also unveil measures including sending medical supplies to help India, Australian media reported. The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to requests seeking comments on the reports. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said he has "enormous sympathy for India at the moment" but urged the federal government to suspend flights from the country after the state reported four new cases, all returned travellers from India in quarantine. "India, there needs to be a suspension ... there is huge pressure now on all our quarantine facilities as a result of people coming from India," McGowan told reporters in Perth. Last week, Australia announced it would cut the number of its citizens able to return from India and other red-zone countries to contain the risk of more virulent strains of Covid-19 spreading. India has ordered its armed forces to help tackle the Covid-19 crisis, as nations including Britain, Germany and the United States pledged urgent medical aid to try to contain an emergency overwhelming the country's hospitals. On Monday, India reported more than 352,000 new Covid-19 cases, a global record for the rise in daily cases for the fifth straight day, eclipsing even the United States at the height of its pandemic last year. More than 2,800 deaths were recorded over the last 24 hours, an all-time high. Australia closed its borders to non-citizens and permanent residents last March to prevent the new coronavirus reaching the country. All returning travellers have to undergo a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine at their own expense. The quarantine system has largely helped Australia to keep its Covid-19 numbers relatively low, with just under 29,700 cases and 910 deaths.

More than 2 million people in the state of Western Australia on Saturday began their first full day of a snap three day lockdown after a coronavirus outbreak in a hotel quarantine facility led to community transmission. People in the state capital Perth and the neighbouring Peel region have been asked to stay home except for essential work, and medical and shopping purposes. Ceremonies to honour Australia's military personnel on the Anzac Day holiday on Sunday have been cancelled. Last year, the coronavirus pandemic forced most traditional memorials to be cancelled across Australia for the first time in decades. Anzac Day originally commemorated a bloody battle on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey during World War One. On April 25, 1915, thousands of troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were among a larger Allied force that landed on the narrow beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula, an ill-fated campaign that would claim more than 130,000 lives. Today, Anzac Day honours all Australian troops from all conflicts. Australia's topflight A-League soccer match between Brisbane Roar FC and Perth Glory scheduled for Sunday has been postponed while an Australian football game between Fremantle and North Melbourne will go ahead, but there will be no crowd. The latest lockdown was ordered after a returning traveller who tested negative on release from a Perth quarantine hotel later tested positive for Covid-19, with authorities suspecting he became infected while in the hotel. The man spent several days in Perth and infected another person before his infection was diagnosed. Having closed its borders more than a year ago, Australia lets mostly citizens and permanent-residents return from abroad. Returned travellers, however, except from New Zealand, must undergo two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense. The hotel quarantine system, together with snap lockdowns and swift tracking limiting coronavirus has helped Australia to keep its Covid-19 numbers low compared with other developed countries, with just over 29,500 cases and 910 deaths. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) urged on Saturday a review of the hotel quarantine system to prevent further outbreaks. ‘Everything that can be done in hotel quarantine needs to be done right now and, unfortunately, in Western Australia as in some other states, that is not the case,’ Omar Khorshid, AMA's president told the ABC national broadcaster. ‘There are still holes that can be plugged.’    

* Australia reports 2 coronavirus cases on Friday * One case, in Melbourne, linked to a Perth quarantine hotel * Second case in Perth a close contact of the first case Western Australia's capital of Perth and the neighbouring Peel region will enter a snap three-day lockdown from midnight on Friday after two people tested positive for Covid-19, the first cases of community transmission in Australia in a week. Australia has all but stamped out the virus thanks to mandatory hotel quarantine for returning residents and citizens and snap lockdowns to arrest the infection. The first case related to a man in Melbourne who likely contracted the disease during his two-week quarantine stay in a Perth hotel. The second was his close contact in Perth, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said in a televised news conference, where he announced the lockdown. ‘I know this is hard to take and I wish we didn't need to do this. But we can't take any chances with the virus,’ McGowan said. The lockdown will close down most public spaces including pubs, restaurants, places of worship, libraries, and cinemas. Several sporting events scheduled for Friday night will go ahead, however, with masks mandatory. Footage broadcast on national television showed instances of panic buying at supermarkets in Perth, and authorities said they were aware of heavy road traffic as people try and escape the lockdown for the long weekend marking ANZAC Day. Dawn services on Sunday in Perth on the national day of remembrance to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during the First World War, have been cancelled for the second year in a row. HOTEL QUARANTINE Having closed its borders more than a year ago, Australia lets mostly citizens and permanent residents return from abroad. Returned travelers, except from New Zealand, have to undergo two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense. The hotel quarantine policy has helped Australia to keep its Covid-19 numbers relatively low compared with other developed countries, with just over 29,500 cases and 910 deaths. But the system is not fool-proof either. ‘The hotel quarantine system, despite all of its improvements, has to face increasingly complex variants of concern,’ Victoria state Health Minister Martin Foley said earlier in the day. Western Australia and New South Wales states are separately investigating cases of travellers in quarantine contracting the virus from infected guests staying in nearby rooms. McGowan said he has requested the federal government to cut the number of international arrivals per week into Western Australia to 512 from 1,025. Australia has already tightened its border controls by reducing the number of travellers from India and other virus hotspots.  

New Zealand authorities reported on Tuesday that a worker in Auckland airport has tested positive for Covid-19, but doubted whether the new case would warrant ordering a pause in quarantine-free travel with Australia. Australia and New Zealand opened a travel bubble on Monday, after both countries had closed borders in March 2020 to non-citizens and permanent residents to contain the pandemic. ‘When we opened, on both sides, we of course knew we would continue to have cases connected to our border,’ New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. ‘We accept that's going to be part of our journey together, I think Australia accepts that.’ New Zealand's health authorities were liaising with their Australian counterparts, Ardern said, with no initial indication that the so-called 'travel bubble' would be halted. The infected worker, who was fully vaccinated for the virus, had been cleaning airplanes coming from countries with known virus outbreaks, Ardern told reporters in Auckland. The worker had tested negative on April 12 but on Monday tested positive as part of routine testing, she said, adding that contact tracing was underway. Australia Health Minister Greg Hunt said he has ‘full confidence’ in New Zealand's health system to contain the new infection. ‘We've seen them deal with the inevitable outbreaks and there will be other days when there are cases in Australia,’ Hunt said during a televised media briefing in Melbourne. Border closures, snap lockdowns and speedy tracing systems have helped Australia and New Zealand keep their Covid-19 numbers relatively low. Australia has recorded just over 29,500 virus cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began, while New Zealand has had just over 2,200 confirmed cases and 26 deaths.  

Families yesterday reunited in emotional scenes as Australia and New Zealand launched a quarantine-free travel bubble that opened the border almost 400 days after its pandemic-enforced closure. There were group hugs and enthusiastic welcomes at airport terminals on both sides of the Tasman Sea as the long-awaited bubble sparked joy and relief. Lorraine Wratt, a New Zealander stranded by the pandemic while visiting family in Australia, said that travelling again was “wonderful”. “We came to Australia on December 11 to spend Christmas with our children... planning to go back in February, it’s been a bit of a nightmare,” she said. On a grass embankment at the foot of Wellington Airport’s runway, the words “WELCOME WHANAU” (family) were spelled out in giant letters and Maori dancers performed a traditional greeting in the terminal. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the joyful scenes were like something from a movie. “Love Actually...I imagine it’s pretty close to that,” she said, referencing the 2003 British romantic comedy. Ardern said she shared the elation, and was preparing to welcome some of her own loved ones back home. The bubble, which followed months of negotiations between the largely coronavirus-free neighbours, was hailed as a major milestone in restarting a global travel industry that has been crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic. The arrangement means that for the first time since Covid-19 closed borders worldwide, passengers can fly between Australia and New Zealand without undergoing mandatory quarantine on arrival. “We hope more travel bubbles will be established across the region when it is safe to do so as part of overall efforts to restart international air travel,” International Air Transport Association Asia-Pacific vice president Conrad Clifford said. Australia was New Zealand’s largest source of international tourists before the pandemic, accounting for about 1.5mn arrivals or 40% of total visitors in 2019. But on the first day of the bubble, most of the travellers were returning New Zealanders, with tourists expected to start arriving in large numbers during the upcoming Australian school holidays. Queenstown local Sean Mackenzie said the travel bubble was a shot in the arm for the South Island tourist hub, where businesses have struggled without overseas visitors. “I reckon the future’s great for Queenstown now...all the Australians come over and then international, China all of that — it will be packed,” he said “In six months, I reckon it will be packed. It’ll be sweet.”

Australia is no hurry to reopen its international borders and risk the country’s nearly coronavirus-free lifestyle, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday. Australia closed its borders to all non-citizens and non-residents in March 2020 and has been permitting only limited international arrivals in recent months, mainly its citizens returning from abroad. The border closure, together with snap lockdowns, swift contact tracking and high community compliance with health measures, have made Australia one of the world’s most successful countries in curbing the pandemic, limiting coronavirus cases to under 29,500 infections and 910 deaths. “Australia is in no hurry to open those borders, I assure you,” Morrison said at a televised briefing. “I will not be putting at risk the way we are living in this country which is so different to the rest of the world today.” For months now, except for some short snap lockdowns, Australians have been able to dine out, gather nearly freely and stop wearing face masks in most places. They exchanged their international forays for local trips, with government figures showing big annual increases in intra-state travel in the first months of 2021. From today, Australians and neighbouring New Zealanders will be able to travel between both countries without the need to apply for an exemption or spend time in mandatory quarantine. New Zealand has had only 2,239 confirmed coronavirus cases and 26 related deaths. Morrison yesterday said vaccinated Australians could be able travel overseas “for essential purposes” and return via home quarantine in the second half of the year, but that possibility is only in “planning stages”.

* Reports first Covid-19 death of the year * Shelves plan to buy J&J's one-dose vaccine * Reports second case of blood clot linked to Astra dose Australia said on Tuesday a second person had been diagnosed with a blood clot after receiving the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine but there had been no rise in inoculation cancellations as authorities try to steady a bungled immunisation campaign. This week Australia abandoned a goal of vaccinating all of its nearly 26 million population by year-end, after Europe's drug regulator reported rare cases of blood clots among some adult recipients of AstraZeneca doses, suggesting a link. This prompted Australian officials to recommend that those younger than 50 receive the Pfizer Inc's vaccine in preference to AstraZeneca's shot, throwing the vaccination programme into disarray. "We had anticipated potentially a significant drop (in vaccination numbers, but that is) not what we have seen at this stage," Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Canberra. Authorities meanwhile said they have no plans to add Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine to its immunisation drive, as Australia wanted to move away from procuring vaccines that were under review of potential links to blood clots. The Covid-19 vaccines of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca use an adenovirus, a harmless class of common-cold viruses, to introduce coronavirus proteins into cells in the body and trigger an immune response. Both products are under review by Europe's drug regulator after it found possible links with blood clots, although it has said the advantages still outweighed the risks. "The government does not intend to purchase any further adenovirus vaccines at this time," a health ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. Australia's immunisation drive was heavily reliant on the AstraZeneca vaccine, with plans to manufacture 50 million doses in the country. The policy change prompted authorities last week to double an earlier Pfizer order to 40 million shots. Australia has reported zero or low single-digit cases for most days this year helping authorities to ease restrictions and putting the economy into a faster recovery trajectory. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the setbacks in the vaccine rollout should not "derail momentum in our economic recovery". "With the successful suppression of the virus and substantial reopening of the economy both household and business confidence are now higher than before the pandemic," Frydenberg said in an emailed statement. Australia began vaccinations much later than some other countries due to low Covid-19 case numbers, recording just over 29,400 infections since the pandemic began. It reported its first Covid-related death of the year on Tuesday after an 80-year old man died after contracting the virus overseas, taking the total tally to 910 deaths.