Proposing a dedicated quarantine program under a new plan, the Victorian government has announced that over 100 international students could enter Victoria next month. The program would be similar to the set-up adopted for the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been urged to allow up to 120 international students to enter Victor every week from May 24, who would undergo mandatory quarantine in an economic cohort quarantine hotel.
Along with overseas students, major events employees will also be brought in on commercial flights who will be subject to the same strict quarantine regulations in place for foreigners.
Each adult arriving in Victoria would be required to pay a fortnightly fee of over $3,000.
Outlining the details of the program, Acting Premier James Merlino said that this will be a step towards supporting and recovering Victorias and Australias economic sector.
With these students expected to be brought in on commercial passenger flights, the 120 new arrivals would not impact Victorias international arrival limit of 1,000 arrivals every week.
Mr Merlino, in his letter, asked the Australian government to approve the states plan and start issuing visas to the new arrivals.
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Further, he added that the program would ensure the highest levels of safety and that the economic cohort quarantine hotel staff would have been vaccinated with at least the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
All the new arrivals or international students will also have to undergo the state Covid-19 testing protocol as in the standard quarantine hotel program.
However, it remains unclear if any of the proposed cohorts would arrive from India after Australia suspended all passenger flights to and from India until May 15.
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