The United States has advised travellers to avoid Australia due to our current COVID outbreak, which is a fun reverse throwback to 2020. Remember the good old days when we watched the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic happening from afar and weren’t afraid of catching the spicy cough every time we left the house?
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday updated its COVID-19 Travel Recommendations by Destination webpage and upgraded Australia and 21 other countries to a “Level 4: Covid-19 Very High”, which is a not so subtle way of saying “shit’s fucked”.
Other countries that were added include Israel, Egypt, Albania, Argentina, Uruguay and more. More than 100 countries are now on the list, which already included Canada, South Africa, France and the United Kingdom.
“Avoid travel to these destinations,” it advised.
“If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.”
Over on the page specifically about Australia, the CDC added an extra warning: “Because of the current situation in Australia, even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants.”
In a tweet shared on Wednesday, former prime minister Kevin Rudd blamed this new classification on the Morrison government’s recent inability to effectively manage the Omicron outbreak. He also touched on the irony of the US warning residents about travelling to Australia.
“As US allies, Australians were horrified by America’s mishandling of COVID. Now US citizens are being warned about travel to Australia.
“Another stellar COVID achievement by Morrison. It’d be humiliating if it wasn’t so tragic given our mounting death toll.”
As US allies, Australians were horrified by America’s mishandling of Covid. Now US citizens are being warned about travel to Australia. Another stellar Covid achievement by Morrison. It’d be humiliating if it wasn’t so tragic given our mounting death toll https://t.co/vBpvaB4roM
— Office of Kevin Rudd, 26th PM of Australia (@MrKRudd) January 19, 2022
According to a Melbourne-based data integration specialist, Australia is leading the world in infection rates.
“Case rates were very high, combined with a collapse in testing capability (60% positive rate),” he said on Twitter.
“A key difference appears to be the sudden drop in restrictions as Omicron arrived.”
Australia is probably the leading large country in the world for true infections in the latest week.
Case rates were very high, combined with a collapse in testing capability (60% positive rate).
A key difference appears to be the sudden drop in restrictions as Omicron arrived. pic.twitter.com/r0Jh2OotTL
— Mike Honey (@Mike_Honey_) January 18, 2022
But the US recorded 25% of the COVID-related deaths in the last week.
Australia recorded 84,615 cases today which brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country since March 2020 to 1,950,000. The country also recorded 70 new COVID-related deaths.
