From 1st November fully vaccinated passengers can fly into Sydney and travel to NSW, Victoria and ACT without any requirement for quarantine. From 15th December, this will also apply for those travelling to Tasmania.
Travel is initially be limited to Australian citizens, permanent residents and special visa holders. We do expect this to extend to business travellers and tourists soon after. Parents , or parents-in-law of Australian citizens and permanent residents , who are fully vaccinated are eligible to apply for approval to travel to Australia at https://travel-exemptions.homeaffairs.gov.au/tep
The requirements for vaccination certificates valid for travel to Australia include that;
- The certificate is in English;
- The certificate shows the traveller’s name as it appears in the passport
- The certificate shows either traveller’s date of birth or passport number
- The certificate shows the vaccine brand name, and either the date of each dose or the date on which the traveller completed a full course of immunisation.
Certificates valid for travel includes (amongst others) the PNG International Certificate of Covid Vaccination (ICCV), the WHO yellow card, or the Australian Covid-19 Digital Vaccination Certificate.
The Green Card PNG Vaccination Certificate is not valid for international travel, as it does not include either the persons Date of Birth or their Passport Number. However the PNG National Department of Health has been good enough to provide the capability for the ICCV to be issued at the airport prior to the departure of PX001 on Monday 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd November. For passengers travelling to Sydney with only the Green Card PNG Vaccination Certificate they can have the ICCV issued in the international terminal after completing their PCR test but prior to check-in. Passengers without any valid certificate of vaccination valid for travel cannot be checked in.
The PNG International Certificate of Covid Vaccination is also available from NDoH at email: martzpogo@gmail.com or nonwovienna@gmail.com Presently lead time for this document is three to four weeks.
Vaccines deemed acceptable (as at present) for purposes of travel into Australia are;
- Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd (Comirnaty)
- AstraZeneca Pty Ltd (Vaxzevria)
- Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd (COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen) (also called Johnson & Johnson)
- Moderna Australia Pty Ltd.(Spikevax)
- Coronavac (Sinovac)
- Covishield (AstraZeneca/Serum Institute of India)
Travellers need to have completed two doses (one dose for Johnson & Johnson), plus an additional seven days prior to departure.
Passengers are required to complete a new “document” being the Australian Travel Declaration/ATD including as part of this an attestation (confirmation) that the passenger is fully vaccinated and the certificate is valid. The ATD is a mobile phone App and available for download at the Apple iPhone Store for iPhone, and Google Store for Android phones. Initial one off entry of set-up information takes about 15 minutes, so it is recommended this is downloaded and updated prior to coming to the airport. Manual paper forms will be available at check-in if required.
Children under 12 are exempted from the vaccination requirements, but children 12-18 who are not fully vaccinated must enter 14 days hotel quarantine (with a parent/ guardian).
All passengers departing internationally will still need to complete a negative PCR test at Port Moresby airport, at time of check-in. Wearing of face masks in the terminals and on board the aircraft is mandatory, hand sanitisers are provided for your protection, and social distancing is followed wherever practical in order to ensure your international travel remains as safe as possible.