We need to learn to live with indefinite international border closures

Australia’s strict system of 14-day hotel quarantine for overseas arrivals has been a crucial weapon in the fight against COVID-19, but many will have heaved a sigh of frustration at the news there is still no plan or time frame to end it. Some might have hoped the rapid deployment of vaccines would allow Australia to open up sooner, allowing them to take off on that long-delayed holiday or visit loved ones overseas. But federal Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy said over the weekend that he expected the current system to remain in place for most of this year.

Professor Murphy says borders could stay closed even after a large percentage of Australia’s population has been vaccinated, because it is still unclear whether vaccination will prevent transmission of the virus rather than simply stop people getting seriously ill. If borders are opened, he implies, people in Australia who cannot or will not be vaccinated could still be at risk.

Australian biosecurity staff enter a tennis charter flight in Melbourne on Friday.Credit: Getty Images

International travel restrictions have been a crucial part of Australia’s strategy to suppress COVID-19. That is one of the reasons the Australian Open tennis players now complaining about the rigours of hotel quarantine sound so petulant. Some of the players might be right that they were not adequately briefed on what hotel quarantine involved, and the ban on court time for all those on flights with positive cases will certainly disadvantage players who cannot practise.

But the 446,000 Australians who have returned to Australia in the past year have also sat in quarantine bored, frustrated and watching television. Melbourne lived through a 15-week lockdown in order to fight the disease. The players are not being singled out. They should realise that in many respects they are lucky to be here at all.

As with the closure of state borders, however, the international travel restrictions carry significant costs, which go well beyond making it hard to hold tennis tournaments. With international borders staying closed, the tourism industry says it needs help to cope after the end of JobKeeper in March. Premier Daniel Andrews said at the weekend that he had shelved his plan to restart the $32 billion international student sector, because of the reduction in hotel quarantine capacity to help keep out new, more contagious strains of the virus.

Professor Murphy has said he wants to open borders as quickly as possible but, just as with state border closures, it will be hard to decide what risk is acceptable. Unless future studies show vaccinated travellers cannot spread the disease, allowing them in will involve risk.

The federal government could start by letting in people selectively from countries with low infection rates, similar to Australia, in ‘‘bubble’’ arrangements such as that planned with New Zealand. In the meantime, federal and state governments should be looking at improving and expanding the current hotel quarantine system to meet more of the unmet demand and make it more pleasant and safe.

Ending state border closures would be a quick way of freeing up places in quarantine hotels that are now being taken by interstate travellers. But the federal and state governments should also open up more facilities, not just in hotels. At the weekend, the federal government announced another 20 repatriation flights for stranded Australians overseas, but that is a drop in the bucket. Army bases and detention centres with outdoor spaces could also be used for quarantine. Countries such as Taiwan have let many travellers quarantine at home, using phone apps and tracking devices to check their whereabouts.

The hotel quarantine system was started as an emergency measure, but if it is to last indefinitely, the federal government must commit more resources.

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