Australia: Quarantine Wasn’t Bad Enough; Now You May Have To Pay For It

by SharonKurheg

If you have plans to go to Australia, you probably will have quite a long wait. The land down under has a tentative schedule for reopening tourism and the U.S., quite frankly, isn’t on the shortlist.

But let’s say there’s some sort of emergency, or for whatever reason, you HAD to go to Australia and the Australian government agreed to it.

Back in March, all states and territories in Australia agreed that they would cover the cost of accommodations for travelers who had to be quarantined. Case in point, when the Australian couple who was stuck on the Diamond Princess cruise ship (the ones who received an order of wine via drone and was offered free porn) finally made it home, they had to stay in Australian military barracks for 2 weeks…but they didn’t have to pay a dime; the state did.

Welp, depending on where you go, apparently that’s changing.

According to the Brisbane Times, effective July 1, the state of Queensland is going to begin charging room and board to overseas arrivals quarantined in hotels. The cost will be up to AUD $200 (USD $137.60) per adult, per night, for their required 14-night stay. Daily meal charges will be an additional AUD $65/USD $44 per adult, per night.

Deputy premier and health minister Steven Miles said that the government had already covered the quarantine cost of more than 6,000 international arrivals since the coronavirus crisis began. “This is a significant cost and funding that could otherwise be spent on Queensland’s plan for recovery,” he said.

Visitors will not be footing the entire bill. Queensland will still pay for the hotels’ security costs, as well as transportation and logistics.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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