'Arrivals to Aus from Covid-19 safe nations could quarantine at home'

Canberra, Sep 29 Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday that people arriving in the country from "Covid-19 safe" nation could be allowed to quarantine at home, than at a hotel.

Since late March, international arrivals to Australia were to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine at their port of entry, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said in a news report.

Addressing the media, the Prime Minister said that the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), the government health advisory body, was currently mulling the move to allow people coming in from "safe" countries to quarantine at home.

"I think home quarantine can play a role in the future and it's something that is being considered by the AHPPC, particularly as we move beyond the phase we're in now.

"(As) we do look to have our borders open up at some point to safe locations, whether it be New Zealand or parts of the Pacific, or places like South Korea or Japan, or countries that have had a much higher rate of success, then there are opportunities to look at those alternative methods," the ABC news report quoted Morrison as saying.

The development comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Australia has increased to 27,044, while the death toll stood at 875.

 

( With inputs from IANS )