Temporary travel ban the measured response to crisis

India, which recorded almost 400,000 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday and more than 3600 deaths, is the worst coronavirus hotspot. In keeping with Australia’s tried and tested method of containing the virus by temporarily prohibiting movement in and out of hotspots, the travel ban to and from India, including for Australian citizens, is consistent with government policy. It is backed by medical advice and, contrary to some claims, it has nothing to do with racism. But the messaging has been mishandled in Australia and by Australian authorities in India. Many of the 9000 Australians stranded in India and their families are angry, prompting claims about racism and heartless authorities ignoring the rights of Australian passport holders to return home.

As India’s death toll reached 215,000 from among 19.5 million COVID-19 infections, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said Australia’s objective “has to remain to keep Australians in Australia safe”. He recommended that the government impose the ban but warned that our citizens could die or be exposed to serious illness while it was in place. States and territories agreed in the early days of the pandemic that 2 per cent of infections in hotel quarantine “would be a benchmark of concern that we should take action once we got to that level”, Professor Kelly said. But more than 15 per cent of occupants in the quarantine facility at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory were infected with COVID, including more than 70 per cent of whom had returned from India.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has defended the government’s late-night decision to ban flights from India, saying it was vital to prevent a “third wave”: “We work 24 hours. That is, sadly, what’s required in a pandemic. I know I signed it off at about 11.50pm, once we had worked through the evening.” But the news emerging at a late hour, and the possibility that anyone who had spent time in India within 14 days of their intended arrival date in Australia could face a $66,000 fine and a five-year jail term, heightened resentments and anxieties. West Australian Labor Premier Mark McGowan rightly supported the “very harsh measure”: “We are obviously in a dangerous world and we want to make sure we prevent the ­importation and the spread of the virus within Australia.” Mr Hunt said the number of COVID cases in hotel quarantine from Indian travellers had jumped 15-fold between February and April, from 14 to 210 cases. On Monday Scott Morrison suggested the heavy fines and jail terms, which are part of the Biosecurity Act, are unlikely to be used. The act had been in place for more than a year, “and no one’s gone to jail”, he said. After accepting Professor Kelly’s advice that the emergency powers be invoked, the penalties take effect.

The Prime Minister rightly rejected claims that racism was involved. No such claims were levelled against Jacinda Ardern when the New Zealand Prime Minister suspended flights from India to her country for two weeks last month in a bid to curb the rising number of travellers testing positive on arrival. The ban covered New Zealand nationals and visitors. As Mr Morrison said: “There is a raging pandemic and we need to just continue to take decisions that are in the best health interests of Australia. What we’ve seen in recent weeks is the percentage of cases that are appearing in our quarantine from people who have arrived back, having been in India, go from 10 per cent to 50 per cent.” The commonwealth’s Howard Springs facility has experienced a seven-fold increase in infections among returning travellers from India. A pause — repatriation flights resume as soon as possible after May 15 — would allow time for quarantine arrangements to be strengthened and better testing to be put in place for those leaving India or arriving from third countries. Mr Morrison and Mr Hunt suggested on Monday that repatriation flights for Australians from India could be brought forward if infections at Howard Springs drop in coming days.

Much of the controversy has arisen because the commonwealth, which has constitutional responsibility for quarantine, has shied away from building the standard of quarantine facilities needed to do the job. It has expanded the Howard Springs facility from 850 to 2000 beds and should have built other facilities within reach of medical attention for those in need of it. If Australia is to open up, to welcome international students and workers to boost our skills base and workforce in the foreseeable future, such facilities will be needed in the months or years ahead. When those facilities are built, state health authorities, which deliver healthcare, would be best placed to care for those in quarantine. Politics should be taken out of the equation. Given the heartbreaking scenes emerging from India and problems in other parts of the world, it would be a happy day for Australia if and when such facilities became white elephants.