Exclusive: Risk of COVID ‘too great’ to reopen borders

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backtracked on his suggestion COVID-19 could be treated like a bad flu once the nation is vaccinated telling Sky News it is “not safe” to reopen the borders because the uncertainties are “too great”. In March, Mr Morrison told a conference COVID could be treated like a bad flu once the nation had a higher vaccination rate which raised hopes the reopening of international borders might not be too far off. However, in an exclusive interview with Sky News, Mr Morrison said, “I think what we’ve seen over the course of this year is we’ve seen the variants and we’ve seen the uncertainties only increase.” “COVID’s not the flu, COVID is killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world … and COVID is going into a whole new phase now. “The risks of COVID, if it comes into Australia, you can’t get it out. and at this stage of the virus and where it is globally the uncertainties of where it is going are too great and it’s not safe to move to that next phase. “We don’t know where it will be in a year from now and that’s why you can’t let it in”.

from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2T1FCDO