What great news for international students who are unable to enter Australia! Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was “very possible” that Australia’s borders could reopen if the COVID-19 vaccine national roll-out strategy proves successful. 

The prime minister stated that as the country moves through its vaccine roll-out strategy, things can start to change. He also said that the opening of Australia’s borders wouldn’t depend on the roll-out strategy of the country alone, but on the success of COVID-19 vaccine programmes of other countries around the world such as India, for example, where over 8.4 million people have already received their COVID-19 vaccines. 

However, an expert stated that immunization doesn’t mean a quick return to pre-pandemic days. “We don’t want to get into a situation where we start traveling to countries in our region that don’t have the health system that Australia is fortunate to have. We wouldn’t want to put undue stress on international settings that can’t cope with any variations in COVID numbers,” said Professor Holly Seale, Health Associate of the School of Population Health, University of New South Wales. 

According to reports, international students will be granted the COVID-19 vaccine in Australia for free under the country’s five-phase vaccination strategy. Australia has secured 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and rolled out the vaccination plan in January with priority given to doctors and nurses followed by the elderly and finally, the youth. The roll-out plan already started on the 22nd of February and will continue until mid-October.