Anzac travel bubble major step in Covid-19 recovery

Australians have not lost the zest for travel. In anticipation of, and immediately after, Tuesday’s announcement of a quarantine-free two-way bubble with New Zealand, travellers from both countries rushed to book flights and accommodation on both sides of the ditch for family reunions, holidays and business. From April 19, airlines are expecting to carry close to 100,000 people a week between Australia and New Zealand. Qantas and Jetstar will operate 122 services a week on 15 routes, including new routes from Auckland to Cairns and the Gold Coast. Air New Zealand will fly on 19 routes by the end of June.

News of the opening up of our biggest international air route injected a spark to the return to work from the Easter break — a sense that slowly but surely life was on track to return to something like what it was at the start of last year. “This is the first of many more steps to come, I believe, as we get back to a normal, more normal position, not only over the course of this year but beyond,” Scott Morrison said. “And all in time for Anzac Day also, which is tremendous to see that occur in the true Anzac spirit of our two nations coming together again.’’

The practical benefits will be significant and a win-win for both countries: more planes in the air, more jobs on the ground and in the air for hard-pressed airlines. The agreement was a world first, as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in announcing it. New Zealanders have been welcome in Australia without quarantining since October. But until now they have had to quarantine when they return home. Given the nature of COVID, some interruptions and suspensions are possible.

The development helps put the row over the pace of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout into perspective. More than 850,000 Australians have had at least one jab. Yes, that is more than three million short of the government’s initial target of four million vaccinations by the end of March. On Monday, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said the mass rollout had been delayed by at least a month, with pharmacists unlikely to begin distributing vaccines until June. Grattan Institute director Stephen Duckett said GPs’ waiting rooms were too small to have large numbers of people going through. And University of NSW strategic health policy consultant Bill Bowtell has warned the virus is mutating across the world faster than Australia is administering jabs. The death on Monday of a 77-year-old man from Papua New Guinea in intensive care in a Queensland hospital from COVID-19 is a reminder that the virus is lethal.

But with no community transmissions across Australia on Tuesday, and the rollout at GP clinics gathering pace, there is no reason to panic or for governments to mobilise large-scale mass vaccination facilities such as those established in stadiums, town halls and cathedrals in the US and Britain. In those nations, infections and COVID deaths had soared to desperate levels before the rollouts. By Australian standards, the tolls remain high but they are falling rapidly as vaccines take effect.

Community concerns about Australia’s rollout demonstrate why the Morrison government’s most senior ministers must take the nation into their confidence and keep the public updated on vaccine developments. On Monday, some people felt they were in the dark when Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd could not say when the federal regulator would give the green light for all of Australia’s stockpiled jabs or when CSL would reach its production target. The Prime Minister clarified the situation on Tuesday. He said experts would take their time to make sure vaccines were safe. “There is no holdup,” he said. “The release of vaccines has always been based on them completing those processes, so the fact that they actually have to get approved by the relevant authorities and do the batch testing is not a holdup. It is a necessary part of the process to guarantee safety.”

As Mr Morrison has explained several times, the target of four million vaccinations by the end of March was not met because 3.1 million vaccines ordered from Europe were not supplied. While the elderly and other vulnerable people were being vaccinated, GP clinics were the best option, he said. In the next phase, when the bulk of the population would be offered jabs, pharmacies would become eligible to distribute them. Mr Morrison will discuss with state leaders at national cabinet on Friday whether vaccination figures should be published more often. The Australian believes they should be. The public is entitled to know the state of play at such a critical stage in the fight against the pandemic. Before Easter, 79,000 vaccines a day were being given. That rate needs to be expanded. It will be, as more GP clinics and, later, pharmacies join the program. Safety and supplies, including of Australian-made AstraZeneca, will be vital.