The Prime Minister says he will not allow the country to return to rolling lockdowns following the appearance of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in Australia.
Key points:
- The Prime Minister says he will not return Australia to harsh pandemic measures
- Health Minister Greg Hunt says the government plans to move to reopen borders again on December 15
- ATAGI is considering whether to change how quickly people can get boosters
The government last night pushed back its planned reopening of the country’s borders to international students and other eligible visa holders, which was set for Wednesday, as it assessed the risk of the Omicron variant.
Mr Morrison said the government was being cautious, but he refused to allow a return to harsh restrictions on Australians.
“We’re not going back to lockdowns, none of us want that,” Mr Morrison said.
“What we did last night was protecting against that.”
He said that, if assessments showed the new strain to be more mild, the government would consider bringing forward the date to reopen borders again.
Mr Morrison will meet with state and territory leaders this afternoon to discuss the Omicron variant, which he said would be a chance for everyone to be “on the same page”.
“We need to make calm decisions and not get spooked by this,” he said.
Push to shorten booster vaccine time frame
On Tuesday morning, the Chief Medical Officer met with the country’s expert panel on vaccines to discuss whether the window between second doses and boosters should be shortened as Australia deals with the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
The United Kingdom is halving the wait time between a second dose and booster from six to three months.
When asked if Australia would follow suit, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said people needed to remember the UK was a different environment.
“We need to be cognisant of the international evidence and international decisions, but remember the northern hemisphere is in winter so boosters in winter…