[imagesource: Getty]

In January, or the ‘before times’ as I like to call everything that preceded March, we were talking about how over the past two years, the number of South Africans enquiring about Australian visas had more than doubled.

Fast forward to October, and anyone hoping to travel to the country that plays host to a festival that celebrates the mullet will have to delay their plans for the foreseeable future.

The Australian government has announced its intent to maintain rigid restrictions on international travel until there’s a COVID-19 vaccine.

The move, reports The Telegraph, will have a far-reaching impact on both Australians and would-be visitors.

Various scenarios are under consideration:

…with one forecast included in the budget predicting the economy will suffer a A$55 billion (£30.4 billion) hit unless a vaccine is available by 2021, partly because of the long-term absence of international tourism and foreign students.

The budget also includes a A$231 million support package that will bolster the tourism body in attempts to market local tourism and domestic travel.

Fewer than 10 000 international visitors arrived in Australia in the June quarter, which is a sharp drop from the 1,9 million visitors during the same period in 2019.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says:

“International travel, including by tourists and international students, is assumed to remain largely closed off until late next year and then gradually return over time, and a vaccine to be available around the end of 2021 is one of the assumptions in the budget.”

Yessir – international travel to largely closed off until late next year, with a gradual return from that time onwards.

Australians like Anna Seaman, who has been living in London for six years, was last able to visit her family in Perth in February:

“I got one of the last planes back before everything shut down,” she told The Telegraph. “Going home just doesn’t seem feasible at the moment, with two weeks quarantine and having to pay two grand for it, without even being able to go for a walk. I would like to be able to go home early next year.”

The country is allowing an earlier vaccine rollout that would be manufactured in-house.

If trials prove successful, the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca and the University of Queensland/CSL will provide more than 84.8 million vaccine doses for the Australian population, almost entirely manufactured in Melbourne, with early access to 3.8 million doses of the University of Oxford vaccine in January and February 2021.

As history has taught us, rushing a vaccine is never a good idea.

If you have family over there, it looks like Skype and Zoom until borders open.

[source:telegraph]