BRISBANE, Australia (AP) – The talk about whether tennis players who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 should participate in the Australian Open starting in January intensified on Wednesday, when the prime minister and a state political leader they aired their discrepancies.
Interviewed on TV, Prime Minister Scott Morrison suggested that unvaccinated tennis players could get exemptions to enter the country, as long as they spent two weeks in quarantine inside a hotel.
But Daniel Andrews, Prime Minister of the state of Victoria, told reporters in Melbourne that he will not request exemptions for unvaccinated players.
Victoria is the home state of Melbourne Park, home of the Australian Open, and has imposed a mandatory vaccination policy for athletes competing in the national leagues. For months, the Andrews government has decreed lockdowns for Victorians.
In some cases, activities are only just beginning to reopen after high COVID-19 vaccination rates have been achieved.
The remarks issued Wednesday by Morrison, to clarify the federal government’s stance on the international border, come a week after his immigration minister suggested that any unvaccinated player would be barred from the Grand Slam tournament who It will be held from January 17 to 30.
Morrison told Australian television that there are exemptions to the long-term rules for the protection of international borders against the pandemic for those who meet certain conditions related to the entry of workers with certain skills or people who generate an economic benefit.
“If there is a special exemption that is justified for an economic reason, then this is possible,” he said. “But you have to follow the health rules in each state and adhere to a two-week quarantine for unvaccinated people,” Morrison told Australia’s Nine network.
Morrison added that the final decision on the Australian Open regulation rests with the state of Victoria, which has put a cap on the number of unvaccinated people who can arrive.
Andrews replied.
“What I want to make very clear is that the state of Victoria will not request any exemption for unvaccinated players,” the state ruler was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press. “I am not going to ask or require that the people who sit in the main stand be vaccinated or that the people who work in the event be vaccinated if there are players who are not,” he commented.
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