SYDNEY – Tight Australian control has made it the epidemic of coronavirus. Now, with a revolution in the country’s largest city, authorities are rushing to fill what they see as a gap: pilots and flight attendants on lines from international flights.
Starting next week, an international airline arriving in Sydney will be required to stay at two hotels near the airport and under police guard to ensure compliance with quarantine rules. , officials said. Earlier, air crews were dispersed in more than two dozen hotels and officers took the word that they were separating as needed.
The change comes after authorities found the respect system was not fully effective. On Friday, police said they fined 13 airlines $ 1,000 Australian dollars, or about $ 760. Police said several crew members, at least one of them on a South American flight in early December, left their hotel and went to local businesses.
Australia’s success in introducing the coronavirus is based in part on the geography of the islands, which makes it easier for authorities to control who enters the country. Australia closed its international border to tourists in March, and returning citizens must quarantine, usually in a hotel, at their own expense for 14 days. Australia has recorded around 28,000 cases and just 908 deaths since the outbreak began.
Robust detection programs have also helped officers monitor close links of coronavirus cases to alert them indiscriminately, which will stop the virus’s early spread in a revolution without detection. the need for extensive locks.
Other countries, including the US, have not closed their international borders to the same extent as Australia and have not strictly enforced quarantine requirements. Angela Webster, a professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Sydney, said coronavirus is so common in the US that a broad-based vaccine is needed at this stage and a protective strategy would not work in Australian style.
How to handle an aircrew is a difficult balancing act for government officials. International flights are needed to carry important goods, including coronavirus vaccines, as well as Australians living abroad. Up to 3,000 airlines fly through Sydney each week, local officials say.
“Unfortunately there have been a number of times where people have broken the guidelines or chosen not to separate themselves when they should have,” said Gladys Berejiklian, New South Wales’ chief state officer, who into Sydney.
Globally, the company’s industry has been campaigning against strict testing and quarantine requirements for airlines, arguing that it would make flying too expensive and inconvenient for airlines.
Subhas Menon, chief executive of the Asia Pacific Airlines Association, said carriers want to avoid aircrew quarantine requirements for 14 days like normal passengers. But he said there is more security to ensure an aircrew stays in their hotels to land a night or two before the next route is reasonable.
“If they want to make sure that people are going to stay in their rooms, that is the government’s right,” he said, adding that Australia so far has not been much tougher for a team. air of other countries.
After weeks of small community outbreaks, officials in Sydney say 28 people in one group have tested positive for the virus over the past few days. Genomic tests show that the strain of the virus appears to be from the U.S., and resembles a strain found in a returning traveler and quarantined in a house- hotel earlier in December.
It is not yet clear what caused the uprising, or whether there is a connection between the returned passenger and the rest of the cases. Authorities said it is possible that a member of the aircrew was in contact with someone. These concerns surfaced earlier in the week when an employee who drives an aircrew from Sydney airport to hotels confirmed, although officials said there does not appear to be a connection. the driver to the other issues.
“We are in the midst of a 1-in-100 pandemic,” said Brad Hazzard, Sydney’s regional health minister. “Don’t let him be complacent.”
The new uprising is striking right as many Australians were preparing to travel for the Christmas holidays. Australian states had not recently opened their internal borders after months of travel restrictions. On Friday, some states said people who had been in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney – the area at the center of the uprising – would not be allowed without a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Residents in that area have been told to stay at home for the next three days.
Some people who paid attention said he called for health officials to be tested, waiting for the line for hours.
Josh Buckingham, 38, and his partner Claire Edwards, 34, were tested on Friday in Sydney because they wanted to make sure they did not spread the virus to their parents. Mr Buckingham also said a person who tested positive for the coronavirus visited a café he also supported.
“We feel like we’re in the group, as we run the virus across the country,” said Mr Buckingham, who was locked up in Melbourne earlier this year. “It feels like we’re a little cursed. ”
—Alice Uribe contributed to this article.
Write to Mike Cherney at [email protected]
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