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Fully vaccinated South Africans can now visit Canada for non-essential purposes without needing to quarantine. After a tentative reopening plan, the updated regulations were finalised and came into effect today 7 September. Children between the ages of 12 and 17 need to be vaccinated to avoid quarantine. However, vaccines in South Africa have not yet been approved for anyone under the age of 18, so teenagers will still need to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has announced that it is prepared for a boost in travel to and from Abu Dhabi following the government’s announcement to remove the quarantine requirement for all vaccinated travellers arriving from abroad. Fully vaccinated travellers with vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation can arrive from all international destinations without the need to quarantine. All travellers will require a PCR test within 48 hours of departure, a test on arrival and retesting on select days depending on the country they have travelled from. Unvaccinated travellers, however, should follow the rules according to the destination they are arriving from.

Western Australia is reclassifying Victoria as a high risk COVID-19 state due to the ongoing outbreak there. WA Health Minister Roger Cook said it would take effect from 12:01am on Monday, 06 September 2021. It means anyone entering WA from Victoria or who has travelled through Victoria in the previous 14 days will have to show proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test in the 72 hours prior to departure and proof they have had at least one dose of a vaccine.

The majority of Victoria's restrictions will stay in place until 70 per cent of Victorians aged 16 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced. The Premier said the state could no longer "hold out hope" that case numbers would fall and must instead focus on suppressing the outbreak's growth while racing to reach higher vaccination coverage. "We will not see these case numbers go down," he said. "They are going to go up. The question is, by how many and how fast." Mr Andrews confirmed the shift in approach meant Melburnians would remain under some form of lockdown for weeks.

South Australia will lift all restrictions on people travelling from Katherine in the Northern Territory, and the 11 LGAs in South East Queensland. People arriving from those regions had been required to undertake COVID tests and self-isolate until returning a negative result. From today (Tuesday, 31 August 2021) there will be no requirement for testing.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has announced that the lockdown in the ACT has been extended until midnight on Friday, 17 September 2021. The lockdown was originally scheduled to end on Thursday, 02 September 2021.

New Zealand is extending alert level 4 restrictions in Auckland for at least another two weeks but lowering the alert level for other parts of the country. The number of new coronavirus cases in New Zealand reported today (Monday, 30 August 2021) fell significantly for the first time since the outbreak was detected nearly two weeks ago. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that New Zealand south of Auckland would move to alert level 3 on Tuesday, 31 August 2021, with Northland expected to join them at level 3 on Thursday, 02 September 2021.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has confirmed a further extension to its reopening plans with the Phuket Sandbox 7+7 programme. The new system will provide fully-vaccinated international travellers with even more options to visit multiple Thai destinations bringing back the opportunity to enjoy multicentre, island-hopping itineraries, without the need to quarantine.The decision, however, comes against a backdrop of Thailand being added to the red list in the UK.

The New Zealand Government announcement last night that all of New Zealand, south of the Auckland border will move to Alert Level 3 from 11.59pm, 31 August. Auckland will remain at Alert Level 4 for a further 2 weeks and Northland will remain at Alert Level 4 until at least 11.59pm, 2 September 2021.

New Zealand is extending its nationwide lockdown until Tuesday as its COVID outbreak worsens with 70 new cases. In a 1:00pm press conference, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that all regions below the Auckland boundary would move to a lower alert level – alert level 3 – on August 31.

Emirates will restart flights to Newcastle Airport (NCL) from October 15th, responding to the easing of international entry protocols and an upsurge in passenger demand. The airline will resume services to the north-eastern hub with four weekly flights, all operated by B777 aircraft, across two classes.

It has been announced that the lockdown currently in effect in Regional NSW has been extended. The lockdown is now planned to lift on Friday, 10 September 2021.

The striking and familiar livery of SAA will once again be visible in the skies as the airline resumes operations on Thursday, the 23rd of September 2021. Flights will open for ticket sales on Thursday, 26 th of August 2021 with Voyager bookings and Travel Credit Voucher redemption available from Monday, 6th of September 2021. The first phase of rebuilding SAA’s network will see the launch of flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town, Accra, Kinshasa, Harare, Lusaka and Maputo with more destinations to be added as market conditions allow.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate (DCC) and UK NHS Covid-19 Pass can now be uploaded into IATA Travel Pass. Both act as verified proof of vaccination for travel. Travelers holding an EU DCC or UK NHS Covid Pass can now access accurate Covid-19 travel information for their journey, create an electronic version of their passport and import their vaccination certificate in one place.

Western Australia is easing border controls with South Australia — it's being reclassified from low risk to very low risk, meaning no quarantine is required. The hard border with Queensland is coming down, it's being reclassified from medium to low risk. There are still some restrictions in place. A hard border is being put up with New Zealand due to the outbreak there, and it is now designated medium risk.

Premier Palaszczuk has announced QLD's hotel quarantine system is at capacity and from noon on Wednesday, 25 August 2021, hotel quarantine arrivals would be paused for two weeks. People with compassionate exemptions and medical exemptions are not included in this, but people who are relocating from other states will need to wait. No one currently in a declared hotspot will be permitted to enter QLD’s hotel quarantine for two weeks, except for those with exemptions such as compassionate reasons. New arrivals and QLD residents will have to reapply for a border pass.

Unsurprisingly, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced an extension to level 4 lockdown nationwide with Auckland set to remain in Level 4 until 11.59pm on Tuesday the 31st of August and the rest of New Zealand until 11.59pm on Friday the 27th of August.

WA Premier Mark McGowan has announced that NSW will be moved to its highest border control classification from Thursday, 26 August 2021. This gives people wanting to return to WA from NSW until then to be able to do it, provided they have a negative test and at least one vaccine dose.

NZ PM Jacinda Ardern has confirmed that the country's nationwide COVID lockdown until at least midnight on Friday, 27 August 2021. It comes after the country recorded 35 new cases in the last day, bringing the total of this current outbreak to 107. Auckland will remain in lockdown until at least Tuesday, 31 August 2021 - that's where the outbreak began.

Air Astana has unveiled plans to resume direct flights from Nur-Sultan, capital of Kazakhstan, to London Heathrow. The service will return on September 18th, initially with two frequencies per week on Saturdays and Wednesdays. Flights will be operated by the latest Airbus A321LR aircraft, with the flight time being seven hours and 15 minutes outbound to London and six hours and 30 minutes on the return to Nur-Sultan