Virgin Australia boss wants border reopened soon, even if it means ‘some people may die’ from COVID-19

Virgin Australia's boss has likened COVID-19 to the flu and says the border should reopen soon — even if it means ‘some people may die’.

Virgin Australia’s chief executive has likened COVID-19 to the flu and says she wants the international border to reopen soon even if it unfortunately means “some people may die” from the virus.

Federal budget papers last week indicated Australia would not reopen until mid next year, but airline boss Jayne Hrdlicka said if vaccination levels were high enough, Australia should reopen sooner.

“COVID will be part of the community,” she told a business lunch in Brisbane on Monday.

“We will become sick with COVID and it won’t put us in hospital, and it won’t put people into dire straits because we’ll have a vaccine.

“Some people may die, but it will be way smaller than with the flu.

Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka wants the border to reopen sooner than mid next year. Picture: David Crosling

“We’re forgetting the fact that we’ve learnt how to live with lots of viruses and challenges over the years and we’ve got to learn how to live with this.”

More than 3.3 million people are estimated to have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

A Virgin Australia Group spokesman later said the airline wold continue to work closely with state and federal governments to support the safety of the community.

“We agree with state and federal leaders that eradication of COVID-19 cannot be the goal for our country,” he said.

“The question is not if but when we will be sufficiently vaccinated to protect our people and our hospital system to open our international borders.

“We must learn to live with COVID-19 in the community in a way that protects the health and safety of our people, but also opens Australia up to the rest of the world.”

Ms Hrdlicka is not the only one to recently comment about reopening the border. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Ms Hrdlicka’s comments come after Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said Australia needed to come to terms with “letting COVID run” once vaccinations were widely available.

In recordings obtained by The Age from an event in April, Professor Sutton said Australia needed to accept there would be cases of coronavirus after borders reopened.

“We need to somehow communicate to the public that we’ve gotten to a place of complacency because we’ve driven transmission to zero but we will face newly emerging transmission, and a critical juncture where we need to make a call on letting it run,” he said.

The Virgin Australia boss says once vaccination levels are high enough, the border should reopen. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Crosling

Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth has also said the idea of eradicating COVID-19 indefinitely was a “false idol”.

Dr Coatsworth said Australia needed to embrace the reality of the virus circulating in the community.

“I think we’ve been incredibly successful but with that success becomes a risk that we will be aiming for something that’s essentially not achievable,” he told the Today show on Sunday.

“If we’re not going to get to eradication because this virus is going to be circulating in the globe for many years, if not indefinitely, then at some point we need to consider that the virus will also be within our own borders ... we need to help the community come to terms with that reality.”