Grounded flights line up at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. Photo / Getty Images
Grounded flights line up at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. Photo / Getty Images
Australian PM Scott Morrison has placed a pause on all flights from India, but there is still a loophole travellers from the Covid-19-ravaged nation can use to bypass the ban.
The decision to pause flights came in a bid to reduce the number of infected travellers arriving in Australia, with hotel quarantine cases across the country skyrocketing in recent days.
However, it is still possible for anyone with a valid travel exemption to get around the ban by transiting through another country.
Almost 20 countries have now stopped flights from India, but Qatar and some Chinese carriers are still permitting travel.
Connecting flights from these countries are currently flying to Australian airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, news.com.au reported in spite of the ban on other indirect air links to India.
News Corp contacted the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the potential loophole and was referred to the comments PM Morrison made about the travel pause on Tuesday.
In his statement, Morrison mentioned indirect flights through Dubai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur have been paused, though possible transit through Qatar and China were not mentioned.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced passengers would be stopped arriving from India, via a second country. Photo / Rick Rycroft, AP
Currently Qatar requires arrivals from India and bordering countries to isolate on arrival 10 days quarantine in a dedicated quarantine facility, after which they will be permitted to fly.
According to national carrier Qatar Airways quarantine is mandatory, regardless of vaccination or pre-arrival test records.
"Travellers transiting Qatar with onward international flights to another country should conform to the entry requirements of any other intermediate transit point and their final destination," says the airline.
Several Chinese airlines have taken the decision to suspend services from India, indluding China Southern, added India to a list of 25 countries from which it would not allow passengers to transit through.
On Tuesday Sichuan Airlines retracted a decision to stop flying cargo routes from Xian to Delhi after it was revealed that the route was being used to transport much-needed medical and oxygen supplies for India's Covid response.
Australia's decision to pause all flights from India until May 15 has left thousands of Australians stranded in the country while it battles a deadly second wave of COVID-19 infections.
Other countries have placed a temporary ban on flights from India, including New Zealand, Iran, France, US, UK, Hong Kong and Canada.
When flights resume, people wishing to enter Australia will be required to have both a negative PCR test result and a negative Rapid Antigen test result prior to taking off.
Scott Morrison said priority would be given to vulnerable Australians wishing to return home.
Australian hotel quarantine cases still rising
It comes as multiple states and territories have experienced a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine.
NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory have all experienced a rise in infected returned travellers.
On Wednesday, NSW recorded nine new hotel quarantine infections, with Berejiklian warning Thursday's figures are expected to exceed this number.
"I was just advised that overnight we have already had double digit new cases in our hotel quarantine system, which we will report on tomorrow," she said during Wednesday's press conference.
"The increasing incidents of disease in some parts of the world is very substantial, it is impacting us in our quarantine system."
Authorities are still working to determine the source of origin for the new hotel quarantine cases but chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed there has been a rise in infections coming from India.
"As you would expect we are seeing a higher rate of positivity in returning travellers from India," she said.
It follows multiple days of high quarantine infections rates, with NSW recording 49 new quarantine cases since Friday.
Queensland, which had previously been recording low levels of daily infections in returned travellers, experienced a sharp rise with nine hotel cases confirmed overnight.
South Australia has also seen an increase in hotel quarantine infections, recording 14 new cases on Monday, up from the nine recorded on Friday.
Likewise, the Northern Territory has been battling a wave of international cases, recording four new infections on Monday, 10 on Saturday and 13 on Friday.
Of those quarantine cases, 24 had arrived on flights from India.
In the past two days, Western Australia has recorded eight new hotel quarantine cases, the majority of which have been linked to returned travellers from India.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan claimed more than half of Australia's active COVID-19 cases were now from people who had returned from India.
