Out of nowhere it seems, Greg Hunt is now speaking in Melbourne and is hit straight away with a question about the border opening to students and skilled migrants from December 15.
“We are on track for that. That has been reconfirmed over the weekend. We said on the 29th of November that we were intending to reopen on December 15. That has been through the national cabinet process,” he says.
“Victoria is taking steps yesterday and so that reopening is scheduled, will be going ahead and has been reaffirmed over the weekend.”
Hunt moves to allay fears after a pre-paper study in Britain said AstraZeneca gave limited protection against omicron, saying the advice from Australia’s chief medical officer was that all the vaccines remain effective.
“The advice continues to be that all of our vaccines provide strong, clear protection against serious illness, hospitalisation and loss of life,” Hunt says.
“[The chief medical officer] and the international evidence are cautiously optimistic that the omicron variant is showing clear signs of being milder.
“It’s too early to call out definitively, but the evidence is growing that it may well be more transmissible on the one hand, strong protection against serious illness and hospitalisation and loss of life on the other hand, and finally, as a variant, it may well be milder and that could turn out … to be a quietly positive development for the world,” the minister says.