Australia seems back to being normal after 18 months of some of the world's strictest coronavirus border policies. The country eased its international border restrictions for the first time during covid-19. The world saw many protests and agitations against coronavirus restrictions during the series of lockdown periods. Now people in Australia are free to travel without a permit or the need to quarantine on arrival into the nation. Passengers arrived in Sydney on the first flight from Singapore and Los Angeles. Many were greeted by tearful friends and relatives after they had not seen for several months. There are emotional scenes that appeared in Sydney as families reunited after a long time.
After months of video calls and missed milestones, these Australians have finally returned home. The island nation was closed its borders in March 2020. Citizens who were stranded outside Australia faced many hurdles to return to Australia. The government imposed many restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic after the failure of its zero Covid strategies. Australia aimed to maintain "Covid zero" by blocking foreign arrivals, hunting for every infection, and shutting state borders after outbreaks. People have criticized such measures affect their cost to people's livelihoods and mental wellbeing.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently said it was time to give Australians their lives back. As he mentioned, the country is slowly opening for around 45K citizens who are stranded abroad who registered to come back. The government gave the next priority to fully vaccinated skilled workers and international students by the end of the year. Only selected Australian states will reopen for now including New South Wales and Victoria. Singapore is the 2nd country to reopen borders with Australia. As per the latest information, Australia has completed 64.3% as fully vaccinated. 1.65 crores of people have been fully vaccinated.
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