Australia prioritizes air service to three countries

Australia's prime minister said Thursday the government was giving priority to reopening air services to Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had discussed reopening air routes with the leaders of all three countries. He described Japan and South Korea as "two countries that have done particularly well" in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

"There are a number of countries we're looking at to see what we can do probably next year. We're not going to rush into this," Morrison said in Portsmith.

The three Asian countries "are my current priorities in how we would pursue that," he added. Australia will allow travellers from neighbouring New Zealand to arrive without hotel quarantine from Friday. New Zealand has eradicated community transmission of COVID-19. But New Zealand will continue to insist travellers from Australia quarantine for two weeks on arrival. Australia reported only 12 new cases of community transmission of the virus on Thursday. Australia's most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, reported six each.

(Image Credits: AP)