Sydney: Australia has said it will end mandatory Covid isolation requirements from next month. Currently anyone who tests positive to the virus must isolate for five days, but that will end from 14 October.
At times nicknamed “Fortress Australia”, the country has had some of the strictest restrictions in the world since the pandemic began.
Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, said the “emergency phase” of its response was probably over.
But Prof Kelly said the decision “does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished”.
Mandatory isolation had been one of the few restrictions remaining.
Australia continues to record about 5,500 virus cases each day, official figures show. It is one of the world’s most vaccinated countries.
