Australia’s Qantas To Stand Down 2,500 Staff As Lockdown Impacts Air Travel Across Australia

Lockdown has impacted air travel across Australia and as a result around 2,500 employees of Qantas will be stood down for almost 2 months. The Australian airline said that the decision has been taken because of the impact of the lockdown on air travel. The announcement comes at a time when some of the major cities of Australia are under lockdown. The lockdown in these cities has been imposed because of the increase in the number of cases of delta variant of Covid-19. Sydney and Brisbane are also under lockdown these days. It is pertinent to mention that these cities are the largest and third-largest biggest cities ¬¬¬respectively. Growing clusters of delta variants is a cause of concern in these areas.

Among those affected by the decision will also include employees of the budget subsidiary Jetstar. There is around 26,000 staff of the airlines in the country. Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce said that considering the present situation, it is most likely that the borders of Sydney will remain closed for another two months at least. Qantas is headquartered in Sydney. It is under lockdown since June 26. There are other cities too where similar curbs are in place. The lockdown will remain in place at least August 28.

Meanwhile, experts are saying that the focus should be on vaccinating as many people as possible. There were even suggestions from the opposition to the citizens for getting vaccinated. However, Australia’s prime minister has outrightly rejected the proposal saying it would be an insult to Australians. There is an urgent need to focus on vaccination strategy in Australia as just 19 percent of adults in the country had been vaccinated so far. The dismal figure is mainly because of the concerns over the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines. There were reports of blood clotting caused by AstraZeneca and this is why most people want Pfizer. However, Pfizer is short in supply in the country and the only alternative is AstraZeneca.