At her coronavirus update today, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian gave us long-suffering plebs some much-needed good news: the state will be trialling one-week home quarantine for people arriving in NSW from overseas.
This is huge for NSW residents currently overseas who are currently faced with a $3000 fee for one adult to complete mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine. Each additional adult costs $1000, while kids over three years of age are $500.
After announcing NSW’s 1284 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths that had occurred overnight, Berejiklian revealed the proposed home quarantine trial that will be open to returned travellers who have had both doses of a TGA-approved coronavirus vaccine.
NSW will trial home quarantine for just *seven* days, down from 14 in a hotel, in a pilot program next month
Participants must have two doses of a TGA approved vaccine pic.twitter.com/nuJIvTXL5s
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) September 17, 2021
According to 9 News, the trial, which is based on South Australia’s home quarantine pilot programme, will go for four weeks starting next month. It will involve 175 people, including Qantas air crew.
Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said at the presser: “This will build on the evidence collected through the South Australian trial as part of the national plan where we utilise technology, particularly facial recognition and location-based services apps on your phone to allow police and health to continue to check in on a person during their home-based quarantine.
“This is a really critical step to be able to build and operationalise a home-based quarantine system so ultimately, we can phase out the majority of hotel quarantine. This is a really big step and a light for every Australian who are still overseas. We can’t stay closed forever. Australia must reopen.”
Hear bloody hear.
Fingers crossed this NSW trial proves to be a success and Australia can start to offer this home quarantine option across every state of our fine country. We can dream!
