After twenty-three months of voluntary isolation as part of its “zero covid” strategy, the island continent, where more than 93% of the over 12 years have already received at least two doses of vaccine, welcomes again the visitors.
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His son has not crossed the gates of the arrival hall of Sydney airport as a tear pearl already in the eyes of Glynnis Nancarrow. “He comes from Tokyo, I have not seen him for more than two years,” blows this mother of three children. “He lived in Japan when Australia abruptly decided to close his external borders in March 2020. He could have come back earlier but I did not want him to go fourteen days locked up in a quarantine hotel. I do not Expected to lose it for so long. “Monday, February 21, after twenty-three months of voluntary isolation, Australia finally reopened to all travelers doubly vaccinated.
Among the first 5,000 visitors, welcomed with plush koalas and free cafes under the applause of a Queen Drag group who came to “put the atmosphere”, tourists are rare and essentially Australian. They are the ones who, the first, were allowed on November 1, 2021, to cross the boundaries of the country transformed into fortress. “I left to see my mother in Vietnam. She is very sick. It was extremely moving to be able to finally shake her in my arms,” says Linh Huynh, who spent three weeks with his family.
As a third of the Australian population, she was born abroad. If she has supported the government’s decision to close the country’s doors to protect themselves from the pandemic, she has suffered from this long remoteness.
“Never cut mine”
For Leiei Giwmy, a student in commerce, this event was so painful that she decided to fold luggage and return to Vanuatu, the melanesian archipelago she is from. “It was necessary to wait twenty months for the authorities to begin loosening the vice, so that they allow our parents to enter the country, then international students, etc. I never want to find myself cut from mine”, Loose the girl waiting for her sister, arms loaded with a huge bouquet of flowers. In a month, she will leave with her.
A few steps away, Charmaine Nair, a New Zealand installed in Australia, and Desirerel Calvin Lawrence, a just just Washington landing, looking for someone to take pictures “in front of the airport logo Sydney “. This couple, who survived months of remoteness, still has trouble believing in the reality of his reunion. “At the end, I was afraid there is a problem and especially to catch the COVID-19. I had to do a PCR test and two different types of antigenic tests before leaving. All this experience was hyperstressing, “says the young man.
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