Time to ease India’s high-risk status and tight travel restrictions: experts
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Health experts say the federal government should reconsider ongoing stricter restrictions for travel to and from India, where new COVID-19 infections have dropped to about 40,000 a day from more than 400,000 at their peak in May.
At the end of April, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly declared India the first country to meet the threshold of a high-risk country, prompting a pause in flights and chaos for Indian-Australians.
While government-facilitated repatriation flights from India and indirect commercial flights resumed on May 15, India remains on the high-risk list, along with Papua New Guinea, and more restrictive travel arrangements apply both inbound and outbound.
Home » Website » National » Interviews » Govt Won’t Survive For A Day In Australia If People Die Due To Oxygen Shortage: NRI Cardiologist
Govt Won’t Survive For A Day In Australia If People Die Due To Oxygen Shortage: NRI Cardiologist
If what happened in India had happened in Australia, there would have been an independent and high-powered judicial investigation, Indian-origin cardiologist Dr Yadu Singh tells Outlook s Jeevan Prakash Sharma. PTI Jeevan Prakash Sharma 2021-07-05T09:47:52+05:30 Govt Won’t Survive For A Day In Australia If People Die Due To Oxygen Shortage: NRI Cardiologist outlookindia.com 2021-07-05T14:45:14+05:30
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May 17, 2021 Share
Expatriate Indian doctors in Australia have formed an emergency group to help overwhelmed colleagues and relatives struggling with COVID 19 back home.
Also, in Australia, a special task force is urging the government to abandon what some have termed a “fortress approach” to the pandemic due to the country’s decision to keep international borders shut.
Settlers from India are Australia’s second-largest group of migrants behind those from England.
They have become a valuable part of society and the economy. Now expatriate medical professionals from India have come together to help their colleagues back home during the pandemic.
Dr Yadu Singh, the president of the Federation of Indian Associations of New South Wales and the head of the Council of Indian Federations of Australia, said: “They need to think about a different mechanism so as not to waste those seats.”
Total cases of Covid-19 have topped 24 million in India, with the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, saying the country was “on a war footing” as more than 4,000 people died from the virus for a third straight day.
India is experiencing a spread of cases associated with the B.1.617 variant, which some experts say could be more transmissible than other variants. The World Health Organization this week declared it a “variant of concern”.
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Following the prime minister’s ban on Australian citizens returning from India, Fran Bailey has called the decision abhorrent and an indictment on the government.
By
Karen Middleton.
Former Howard government minister Fran Bailey.
Credit: Nine / Paul Jones
Fran Bailey, a former Howard government minister, has blasted Prime Minister Scott Morrison for locking Australians in India out of their own country, calling it “abhorrent”, “unconscionable” and “an indictment on the government”.
“I’m disgusted, absolutely disgusted by this decision,” Bailey says of the government’s declaration that there would be a temporary pause on travellers from India entering Australian territory from 12.01am on Monday, May 3.