India open for Aussie Covid-19 vaccines as Scott Morrison tries to put out flight ban fires

A top Indian diplomat says Australia could send locally manufactured AstraZeneca vaccines to the COVID-ravaged country.

Acting Indian high commissioner in Canberra Palaniswamy Subramanyan Karthigeyan.

A top Indian diplomat says Australia could send locally manufactured AstraZeneca vaccines to the COVID-ravaged country, as Scott Morrison attempts to stem a political backlash against his government’s ­travel ban by asking the states to lift their quarantine caps.

Despite daily coronavirus cases in India reaching a record 412,262 on Thursday, the country’s acting high commissioner in Canberra, Palaniswamy Subramanyan Karthigeyan, said he was hopeful the temporary ban on Indian flights would lift “as soon as possible”.

Noting India has sent more than 66 million vaccines to about 80 countries, Mr Karthigeyan was supportive of Australia exporting some of the one million weekly ­AstraZeneca doses that CSL is manufacturing locally in a show of solidarity.

“It would be helpful if we get ready to use vaccines from any country around the world, and Australia being a close friend and strategic partner, I mean why not,” he told The Australian.

While Mr Karthigeyan said he would not characterise the flight ban until May 15 — or Health Minister Greg Hunt’s controversial emergency powers — as racist or unconstitutional, and added that he wanted flights to resume with a greater capacity than before the pause was announced on April 27.

Since Monday, anyone who arrives in Australia and has been in India within 14 days of arrival faces jail time of up to five years or a fine of up to $66,600 under Mr Hunt’s determination.

“We would like our connectivity to continue,” Mr Karthigeyan said. “We know the situation we’re in. It’s not a normal situation and health is of paramount importance. But what was happening even before the 27th of April and 30th of April announcements (on the travel power and emergency powers) was very limited.

“We had a once-a-week flight to Sydney coming with about 30 people, and then about 20 people in a flight that normally has a ­capacity of 225.”

After The Australian revealed on Thursday that the federal government was considering using the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory to exclusively quarantine returned travellers from India, the Prime Minister said he’d welcome other states ­accepting repatriation flights.

The federal government’s national security committee on Thursday did not sign off on a new quarantine plan for Howard Springs — which is set to be expanded from a capacity of 850 to 2000 — as details with the NT government were being finalised.

But Mr Morrison will ask his state counterparts on Friday to do more heavy lifting in accepting ­returned travellers in the hotel quarantine system.

“If any of the other states and territories wish to take repatriation flights into their states then, of course, we would welcome that,” he told 3AW radio.

“We’re focusing our attention on bringing them through the ­facility we’ve ­established with that 2000 person capacity. But I know that in NSW Gladys Berejiklian has been very supportive of these efforts and of the pause.”

A Liberal MP who did not want to be named said the flight ban and the invoking of emergency powers through the Biosecurity Act were drastic measures that were taken in response to an extreme risk.