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The government of the Australian state of Western Australia (WA) has announced new COVID-19 'lockdown' measures, to be imposed with immediate effect from 18.00 (local time) on 31 January until 18.00 (local time) on 5 February; the measures are due to be enforced based on health advice following a positive COVID-19 case detected in a hotel quarantine worker. The 'lockdown' will affect the Perth metropolitan area as well as the Peel and South West regions.

The governments of the Australian states of Queensland, Northern Territory (NT) and Victoria have announced that they have declared the city of Perth, and other parts of the state of Western Australia (WA) as COVID-19 'hotspots', imposing additional restrictions on arrivals from those states following the news that a hotel quarantine security guard tested positive for the virus.

The government of the Australian state of Queensland has confirmed that it will re-open its border to travellers from the Greater Sydney metropolitan area, in the state of New South Wales (NSW) from 1 February. The decision means that those arriving in Queensland from Greater Sydney, as well as Wollongong, Central Coast and the Blue Mountains will no longer be required to quarantine on arrival.

The airline has outlined plans to restore a 'significant' proportion of its international flight network by the end of 2021, with frequency increases on key routes to the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Among these increases in frequency are plans to offer a daily flight from the country's capital of Kuala Lumpur to the UK by July. In Australia, the airline has said that it expects to operate 39 weekly return flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth by late December; services to New Zealand are set to resume from late March.

The government of Australia has taken an immediate decision to suspend its travel bubble arrangement with New Zealand for at least 72 hours from today, 25 January, following the discovery of New Zealand's first community COVID-19 case in many months; after completion of the mandatory quarantine measures on arrival in New Zealand, a passenger then tested positive for a South African variant of the virus after re-joining the community. This prompted immediate reactive measures from the governments of both New Zealand and Australia.

The airline has announced that all passengers flying outbound from Singapore, and inbound to Singapore from Indonesia, will soon be able to book pre-departure COVID-19 PCR and serology tests as part of a new trial service; the scheme will be operated in partnership with the medical services provider Collinson. Subject to success, the programme is expected to be expanded to include more cities in the Singapore Airlines and SilkAir network, and is the first time that the airline has offered pre-departure testing services with a global partner to its passengers.

The government of the Australian region of the Northern Territory (NT) has announced that it is now mandatory for face masks to be worn at all major NT airports, and while on board an aircraft travelling to or from the area. Children under the age of 12 and people with a specified medical condition are not required to wear a mask.

The country's government has published updated entry requirements; if travelling to Australia on or after 22 January, passengers must present evidence of a negative COVID-19 PCR test result to their airline at check-in; the result must have been obtained a maximum of 72 hours prior to departure. If passengers transit through a third country on their return journey to Australia, they are required to check on any local requirements at their transit destination and confirm with their airline any specific requirements for onward travel. Masks must be worn on all international flights, including at airports, and limited exemptions from the pre-departure testing requirements can be found on the Australian Department of Health website.

The governments of the Australian state of Tasmania, as well as the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) have confirmed that they are further easing COVID-19 restrictions for domestic interstate travel. Among these relaxations, the Tasmanian premier announced yesterday , 18 January, that Greater Brisbane is now downgraded to be classified as ‘medium risk’, meaning travellers from the area are allowed to visit Tasmania. The Greater Sydney area and Wollongong in New South Wales however will remain unchanged as 'medium risk' for the time being. The Tasmanian government has also lifted restrictions for hotspots in the state of Victoria, meaning all travellers from the state are now classified as 'low risk' and can enter Tasmania without having to quarantine. From 22 January, a public health directive for face masks to be worn on commercial flights in Tasmanian airspace, both from interstate and within the state, and at airports, will come into force.

The country's government confirmed yesterday, 18 January, that it had suspended entry to passengers from Australia, Brazil, Ireland and New Zealand following the discovery of its first imported case of a new variant of COVID-19 first detected in the UK; these measures are in addition to the suspension of entry to UK passengers which was imposed in late December. On 23 December, the country also imposed a nationwide four-week curfew from 21.00 to 06.00 (local time) daily to curb the spread of the virus.

The New Zealand Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands. The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 23.59 (NZT) on 25 January, to minimise disruption for those passengers with imminent departures. Other countries will be considered for exclusion if their situations change.

The tropical cyclone is predicted to make landfall in the area around Cardwell, in Australia's state of Queensland, on the evening of 18 January; a warning has been issued for an area covering from Port Douglas to Lucinda. The cyclone is expected to continue south-west and to cross the coast between Innisfail and Lucinda. Destructive wind gusts up to 150 kilometres per hour are predicted along with heavy rainfall, abnormally high tides and flash flooding.

The national government of Australia has announced that it has now revoked a COVID-19 'hotspot' declaration for the Greater Brisbane area, after the state of Queensland recorded no new cases of the virus via community transmission. In Greater Brisbane there is still however a mask mandate in place and restrictions on venues, events and gatherings. Residents and visitors must wear a mask indoors at shopping centres, supermarkets, cinemas, on public transport, in taxis and rideshares, at the library and places of worship.

The government of the Australian state of Victoria have announced that residents and visitors from Brisbane, in the further north state of Queensland, will be able to now travel to Victoria without needing to apply for an exemption under a relaxation of the states' COVID-19 border restrictions. From 18.00 AEDT on 16 January, the local government areas of Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Logan and Ipswich have been downgraded from a 'red zone' to an 'orange zone'. People travelling from 'orange zones' can apply online for a permit to enter Victoria. Arrivals need to get tested for COVID-19 within three days of arriving in Victoria, but only need to isolate until they get a negative result.

The Dubai-based airline has announced that it will be suspending all flights to and from the Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane until further notice due to unspecified operational reasons. Each route will operate its final outbound and inbound flight from Dubai between 16-20 January, and then will remain suspended until further notice. The airline will, however, continue to operate a twice-weekly service to the Australian city of Perth.

An Australian government COVID-19 lockdown of more than 2.3 million residents in the south-east of the state of Queensland will end as scheduled at 18.00 (local time) on 11 January, after the state recorded no new locally-acquired COVID-19 cases on Monday. There is a list of requirements in place, including the carrying of masks at all times. The full list can be accessed online.

The government of the Australian state of Queensland has announced that residents and visitors in the city of Brisbane's Metro North, Metro South and West Moreton Hospital and Health Services - the council areas of Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Logan and Redlands, will be required to stay at home during a three-say COVID-19 lockdown due to start today, 8 January at 18.00 (local time). The measures are currently set to end at 18.00 (local time) on Monday 11 January.

The government of the Australian island-state of Tasmania has declared the area of Greater Brisbane a high-risk COVID-19 area. Any passenger arriving in Tasmania from 8 January, who has been in the Greater Brisbane area since 2 January 2021, will be required to immediately self-isolate for up to 14 days.

The government of the Australian state of Western Australia (WA) has announced that it will enact a hard border closure on arrivals from the state of Queensland as of midnight (local time) on 8 January 2021. All existing 'G2G' travel passes will be cancelled and only people with a valid exemption will be allowed to enter the state from Queensland. Additional quarantine requirements have also been imposed for passengers who have arrived into WA since 2 January.

The Australian airline has said that it has started taking bookings for international flights from 1 July; Qantas had previously said that it did not expect to fly internationally until much later in the year. Ticket sales for Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which had been set to start in March, have been pushed back to July, while other destinations like London have been brought forward from October. New Zealand is the only overseas destination to which Qantas is currently flying.