COVID-19: NSW to trial home quarantine in October

If you are double-vaccinated, and returning to NSW from overseas after the end of September, then you could be part of a trial of 175 people who will be able to quarantine at home for 7 days, instead of in a hotel for 14 as is currently required.

NSW Health will be doing the selection, and they are expected to pick from non-Australian residents, NSW residents and even Qantas flight crew.

The move was announced by Stuart Ayres, Tourism Minister, in a sign that hotel quarantine will be phased out.

The home quarantine trial will run over 4 weeks, with about 30 people each week.

Test participants will be selected before they board flights into Australia, and will total around 125 excluding Qantas flight crew.

All participants will need to be double vaccinated using a Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved vaccine, so that’s AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna. None of those Sino or Russian vaccines for the TGA!

Participants will not be charged anything for the home quarantine trial and will be transported to their homes at government expense

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

I know most returning passengers will prefer this, and in reality, so would I. But, I still hold on to the idea of being forced to remain in 5-star luxury for 2 weeks as being desireable, even though I know it would mess with my sanity!