Australia allowing vaccinated residents to leave country without exemptions

Australia announced on Wednesday that fully vaccinated permanent residents and citizens will be allowed to travel outside of the country without special exemptions beginning on Nov. 1.

Authorities noted that the country is seeking to ease restrictions as vaccination rates continue to rise, according to Reuters.

Previously, Australians were only able to travel abroad for more than 18 months if they had a government waiver. Thousands of residents of Australia who were living abroad and fully vaccinated against the coronavirus were also unable to return to the country due to a return cap imposed in an effort to mitigate the spread of the virus, Reuters noted.

Now, many of those travelers are reportedly expected to return to Sydney and Melbourne, where quarantine rules will have ended. Other Australian cities aim to loosen their border restrictions as vaccination rates increase.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Seven News that the development means that the “national plan is working.”

“[It] is about opening Australia up and that is because the vaccination rates are climbing so high,” he said.

Nearly 90 percent of people in Australia who are 16 or older have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Reuters reported.

Since the start of the pandemic, Australia has reported about 164,000 COVID-19 cases and 1,669 deaths, according to the news service.