Australia won’t allow overseas tourists to enter until at least 2022, the prime minister announced Tuesday, adding that the country will instead give priority to the return of skilled migrants and students.
The plan for lifting some of the longest and most stringent COVID-19 travel rules of any democracy included Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s benchmark for reopening its international borders: the Australian population aged 16 and older must be 80 percent vaccinated, a goal the country is expected to reach Tuesday.
Morrison recently announced plans to allow vaccinated citizens and permanent residents to fly overseas in November, the first time since the onset of the pandemic that such travel has been allowed.
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