Photo-Supplied
By Neeraj Nanda
MELBOURNE, 14 May 2021: Australia’s second flight with medical supplies and equipment today took off for India from Sydney earlier today. This flight was carrying another 1056 ventilators, 60 oxygen concentrators, and other essential supplies. It adds to the more than 1000 ventilators and 43 oxygen concentrators we sent last week.
In a Facebook post today PM ScoMo says, ” At midnight tonight, the temporary pause on flights from India to Australia ends and facilitated commercial flights by the Australian Government will resume as promised, with a strict pre-flight testing regime to keep Australians safe.
That pause has worked. Active cases of COVID-19 in our hotel quarantine have dropped by over 40 percent over the past few weeks, down from 292 to 171.
Photo- Supplied
In the NT, where our first flights will return, it fell from 53 to 4 active cases.
The pause gave our quarantine system much-needed breathing space to minimize the risk of COVID-19 getting out of quarantine into the community and having a third wave here. It’s all about keeping Australians safe and ensuring we can keep living the way we are in Australia, which is like few other countries in the world today.”
The plane which took relief supplies to India today on its return will act as a Government-facilitated flight for Australians to return home from India, focusing on the most vulnerable Australians.
Passengers will have to return both a negative COVID-19 PCR test result and a negative rapid antigen test result prior to departure.
