National Cabinet has agreed to a four-stage plan that would see Australia transform into a vaccinated nation that manages COVID-19 with few restrictions.
The goal, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, is for Australia to begin treating COVID-19 “like the flu”.
It would mean governments shift from focusing on case numbers to focusing on rates of hospitalisation and death as Australians learn to live with low rates of mild illness in the community.
To get to a point beyond lockdowns and border closures, Australians will need to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated, but leaders are yet to agree how many jabs it will take to open up.
Here’s what we know about the early draft of the plan.
Phase 1: The one we’re already in
The plan agreed to on Friday still needs some work to iron out the details, but broadly speaking it would begin with where we are now.
AAP Images: Joel Carrett
)That is, a partially vaccinated nation that relies on harsh measures affecting all citizens to control, contain and suppress outbreaks of COVID-19.
But there are some changes afoot, including:
- Slashing the number of arrivals allowed into Australia by 50 per cent to 3,085 per week
- Increasing Commonwealth-facilitated flights to Australia
- Experimenting with alternative forms of quarantine like seven-day home quarantine for vaccinated travellers
- Developing digital ways of verifying a person’s vaccination status
Mr Morrison said lockdowns would only be entered into as a “last resort” in this phase — however, he did not clarify whether an agreed standard of “last resort” had been decided.
How do we move on to phase 2?
Crucial to the road back to normalcy is knowing when to move from one phase to the next.