The federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced that the requirement for international travellers to provide a negative COVID-19 test before they fly to Australia will be removed.
The decision will come into force from April 17 2022.
Previously international travellers needed to show a negative Covid-19 test in order to board a flight to Australia, even if they were up to date on vaccinations.
“The country is ready to move on from the emergency declaration made two years and one month ago. I will not be renewing the biosecurity emergency determination,” Minister Hunt told reporters on the Gold Coast.
Health Minister Greg Hunt explained that the government would no longer make it a condition of entry that people had to show they had tested negative for the virus before they travelled here.
“Given that the vaccination requirements remain and the masking requirements, the medical advice is that (the COVID test) would no longer be required,”
Mr Hunt said.
Minister Hunt explained that the decision will also make travel easy for people who come from those jurisdictions which have issues having access to those tests or proving those tests.
Mr Hunt said he spoke to the chief executive officers of both Qantas and Virgin airlines.
“But we also took the medical advice of the Chief Medical Officer,” he said.
“That was the view, that we progressively take away those items which are no longer required,”
added Minister Hunt.
The pre-departure tests were introduced at the beginning of last year in an effort to stop as many COVID cases as possible from arriving in Australia.
