OREANDA-NEWS. Australia will keep the ban on international travel and leave the borders closed for at least another four months. This was announced on Thursday by the country's chief sanitary officer Brendan Murphy during an online speech in the parliamentary committee to counter the pandemic.

"The international situation at the moment is such that any weakening of border measures would be an extremely risky step. I recommended that the National Security Committee extend the strict ban on the departure of Australians from the country and only allow citizens returning from abroad to enter its territory", said Murphy.

He also noted that the spread of the virus in the world is extremely active and shouldn't "expect significant changes in the next four months", which means that, despite some easing of the epidemiological restrictions within Australia, the country's borders should remain closed. Murphy said that in the near future an opportunity will be considered to remove the restriction on holding mass events, but "large-scale events will still be banned".