Coronavirus Australia: Hotel quarantine may remain for years, even with vaccine

One of the most contentious and despised elements of the pandemic is to remain in Australia for a long time yet, even long after a vaccine.

Travellers flying to Australia may be sent into hotel quarantine “for years to come”, even after a vaccine is rolled out, health experts warn.

The Federal Government is considering special entry for returning Australians and overseas visitors who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 but quarantine arrangements are likely to stay.

Enforced hotel quarantine has been credited as a key element in helping Australia avoid the worst of the global outbreak but leaks in state-run hotel quarantine systems have been attributed to devastating local resurgences of infection.

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AstraZeneca and Pfizer have produced the two vaccines that will be used in Australia and a vaccine program is due to be rolled out in March, with the aim of population-wide coverage – excluding people who are unable to take the vaccine – by October.

But experts expect hotel quarantine for incoming travellers will remain for a long time after that.

“At this point in time, I would be (expecting) we are going to be living with the virus at least for the next five years, and it may never go away,” infectious diseases expert Adam Kamradt-Scott from the University of Sydney told Nine newspapers.

“I suspect that we are going to have to have some form of hotel quarantine system in place for probably at least the next two years, if not longer.

“We may then also have to have restrictions on Australians going overseas and coming back.”

Associate Prof Kamradt-Scott said that was because of differences in the supply of vaccines to countries around the world, and uncertainty over whether the vaccine would deliver ongoing immunity.

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Experts say hotel quarantine will remain for a while yet, even with a vaccine. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Geraghty

Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Omar Khorshid told Nine newspapers Australia’s quarantine arrangements would have to remain “until we have at least all of our vulnerable population vaccinated and possibly the entire population”.

Dr Khorshid expects coronavirus will be circulating for a long time and governments needed to decide what level of herd immunity they wanted to achieve.

“At some point you’ve got to open up and accept that it is going to come through the population and just make sure that the vaccines have been distributed,” Dr Khorshid said. “There is no doubt these vaccines are not the silver bullet for our borders and we’re going to see quarantine stay in place for many months to come … if the Government decides it wants the whole population vaccinated before we open up.”

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Travelling may not be the same for years to come. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) have warned people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 will still need to take precautions, including quarantine, until herd immunity is achieved, Nine newspapers report.

WHO’s chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan told a virtual press conference there was no evidence yet that a COVID-19 vaccine would guarantee people could enter a country without the risk of spreading the virus.

“I don’t believe we have the evidence on any of the vaccines to be confident that it’s going to prevent people from actually getting the infection and therefore being able to pass it on,” she said.

“We need to assume that people who have been vaccinated also need to take the same precautions ’til there’s a certain level of herd immunity. This is a dynamic in an evolving field.”

Last month, Qantas boss Alan Joyce made international headlines when he said proof of COVID-19 vaccination would be a non-negotiable condition of international travel on Qantas flights in the future.