Covid-19: Australia, Thailand and Israel reopen their borders

If the pandemic is on the rise in Europe, other continents are starting to see the end of the tunnel.

To the point that several countries have just reopened their borders.

This is particularly the case for Australia, after more than 600 days.

On March 20, 2020, the huge island continent implemented one of the strictest border closures in the world in order to protect itself from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tens of thousands of Australians living abroad were unable to return to their homeland for 19 months.

Thefts were rare and nationals allowed to return had to undergo an expensive 14-day quarantine at the hotel.

The country's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, have decided to drop these measures and fully vaccinated Australians can now travel without quarantine.

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The Australian company Qantas had grounded a large part of its fleet and its CEO Alan Joyce was delighted with this resumption of international flights which "took a long time to arrive".

“It's wonderful to see that Australians can be reunited with their loved ones after such a long period of separation,” he said.

"It's a big day for Australia," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, posting a message on Facebook saying the country was now "ready to take off!"

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At Sydney airport, this Monday at dawn, the first passengers to disembark let their joy burst out, which gave rise to poignant scenes of embraces.

The frequency of flights is expected to resume gradually even if the number of passengers on the first flights were few.

More than a million foreign residents remain stranded in Australia, unable to return to see friends or families, with the easing measures mainly applying to Australian citizens.

Some Australian states where the vaccination rate remains low will remain virtually closed.

A mandatory 14-day quarantine will remain in effect.

Tourists in Thailand

Australia is not the only country to relax its rules.

Thailand welcomes its first vaccinated tourists this Monday morning.

A hope for the kingdom, which depends a lot on tourism and which recorded last year its worst results since the Asian financial crisis of 1997, with a drop of more than 80% in the arrivals of international visitors.

As of Monday, the government allows vaccinated travelers from more than 60 countries to stay in Thailand without quarantining.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and Phuket International Terminal (south) were the first to welcome visitors under this easing, before the rest of the country in the following days.

Last July, a pilot program allowed Phuket to reopen to vaccinated tourists on the condition of staying on the island two weeks before being able to travel elsewhere in Thailand.

But it attracted barely 60,000 visitors in four months, a drop in the bucket.

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“The most important thing that the government and I are thinking about right now is getting people's livelihoods back to normal,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said on Friday.

Tourism represents nearly a fifth of the economy, and the impact of the pandemic has spilled over to various sectors, from restaurants to transportation.

The return of tourists will be gradual and the authorities expect 10 to 15 million visitors next year, still far from the 2019 record of nearly 40 million.

The expected revenue for 2022 is around $ 30 billion.

“In 2023, we believe they will be close to the figure for 2019,” Tourism Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakarn said.

Very low quarantine in Israel

But the industry is less optimistic, as Chinese tourists, Thailand's main market, are still under strict quarantine when they return home and are not expected to come en masse for many months.

In addition, the kingdom still records around 10,000 cases of Covid per day and only around 40% of the population have received two doses of the vaccine.

In Bangkok, this rate is 80%.

This Monday, Israel also reopens its doors to vaccinated foreign tourists.

Travelers from all countries will be able to come to the territory without needing a prior entry permit.

They will still have to present a PCR test of less than 72 hours and take a second one upon arrival.

Once the latter is negative - usually within 24 hours - the quarantine will be lifted.

At the same time, the country continues to conduct its vaccination booster campaign.

It recorded a very sharp decline in the epidemic last week, with a decline of 41% of new daily cases.