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Coronavirus pandemic: Scott Morrison hints at ‘modified quarantine’ for vaccinated Australian

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Sarah IsonThe West Australian
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VideoThe federal government has inked a deal with the US-based pharmaceutical giant.

Australians who are vaccinated could be able to travel overseas and return in a “modified quarantine arrangement”, the Prime Minister has revealed.

Just over 2.8 million Australians have received a vaccine, with the Federal Budget on Tuesday revealing everyone who wanted a jab would be able to get it by the end of the year.

However, it is not clear whether that timeframe accounts for both jabs — administered up to 12 weeks apart – which are required to fully vaccinate someone.

The Budget also assumed international travel will not restart until mid-2022.

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But Scott Morrison today said he was looking at a plan allowing Australians who were fully vaccinated to travel.

“I’ve been seeking to get support for where Australians who are vaccinated would be able to travel overseas and return in some sort of modified quarantine arrangement,” he said on 2GB radio.

“Borders are not a binary option of open one day and shut the next, there are various grades of that.”

It follows Health Minister Greg Hunt urging Australians who are eligible to get the jab, saying international travel was a “incentive” for people to be vaccinated.

More than 134,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents have been permitted to leave the country since the pandemic began, more than 37,000 of which were allowed to do so for compassionate reasons, the Herald Sun reports.

Almost 14,000 have left the country more than once.

Mr Morrison confirmed 10 million Moderna vaccine doses would arrive in Australia by the end of the year, to be offered to people under 50.

“That will particularly support the back end of the year,” he told 6PR.

“There’s then another 15 million of what’s called booster doses — now that’s a different vaccine again and that’s next year and that’s to do with possible variants and things like that.

“We’re well in the phase of what’s coming next. Because the pandemic is not going anywhere.”

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