Australia will temporarily reduce its intake of international passengers by 50 per cent over concerns about the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement after today’s national cabinet meeting that also discussed the possibility of home quarantine and vaccination passports for international passengers.

Mr Morrison said reducing the passenger caps would alleviate pressure on quarantine facilities.

“While the reduction of those caps will certainly, right across the system, obviously take some pressure off, as we have observed over the course of these past 18 months, that alone does not provide any fail safe regarding any potential breaches,” Mr Morrison said.

“We have seen breaches occur, predominantly as a result of infection control procedures and human error and so on. Those issues need to continue to be strengthened.

“So simply reducing the caps doesn’t necessarily provide a fail safe, but because of the particular virulency of the Delta strain, it is believed that is a prudent action while we remain in this suppression phase of the virus.”

The passenger cap change will come as a blow to around 34,000 Australians still waiting to return home from overseas.

However, some states have called for a reduction of incoming travellers as the country deals with outbreaks of the Delta variant.

The current weekly cap on international arrivals is 6070, with NSW taking in half of those arrivals.

After the intake is cut by half, arrivals to Australia will be capped at 3035 a week.

Sydney will still receive half, with 1505, and Melbourne and Brisbane will be capped at 500 each (plus 150 surge capacity for Brisbane).

A maximum of 265 passengers will be allowed to arrive at Perth and Adelaide airports per week.

The PM said during the cap reduction, the federal government would increase the number of repatriation flights for Australians stranded overseas. They will be taken to the Darwin quarantine facility at Howard Springs.

Passenger caps ‘will come at a cost’

National cabinet also agreed to extend its international freight subsidy scheme to ensure air supply lines were maintained during the period of reduced incoming flights.

Mr Morrison said reducing the cap on commercial flights “will come at a cost to the Commonwealth Government.”

“This is not a costless exercise,” he said. “Medicines, vaccines come in by plane. Essential freight comes in by plane. The Commonwealth’s decision to support this reduction in those commercial caps comes at a fiscal cost to Commonwealth taxpayers but we agree that it is an important part of managing this.”

International arrivals was a key item at today’s national cabinet meeting. Photo / News Corp Australia

Today’s national cabinet meeting also discussed trials of alternative quarantine options, including home quarantine for returned travellers who have been vaccinated.

“The work that we have already done … shows that a vaccinated person doing quarantine for seven days is stronger than an unvaccinated person doing quarantine for 14 days,” Mr Morrison said.

“There is clear medical evidence to suggest that vaccination means that shorter periods of quarantine is possible without any compromise of the health and safety standards that is currently delivered by a 14-day quarantine for unvaccinated persons.”

Vaccine passports coming

Mr Morrison said vaccine passports would be introduced for international travellers.

“We will recognise and adopt the Commonwealth’s existing digital Medicare vaccination certificate that is automatically generated for every vaccination,” the PM said.

“That is something that is already there now. By the end of the month, it will be at another level which would see it being able to be incorporated in things like Apple Wallets and the like. We will put in place a digital vaccination authentication at border.”

He said there would also be a further review of national hotel quarantine.

Last month, about 84 per cent of international arrivals were returning Australians, the Australian Border Force told state and territory leaders.

State leaders divided on passenger numbers

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian — whose state takes in about half of all overseas arrivals — said reducing the weekly intake didn’t guarantee against future outbreaks.

“I am disappointed for those thousands of Australians that can’t come home. We will follow the national cabinet decision and I appreciate that some members of the community in NSW will be relieved at that,” she said on Friday.

“But please don’t assume this means that mistakes aren’t going to happen. Please don’t assume that outbreaks aren’t going to happen just because the numbers have been reduced.”

However, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria have called for a cut to the number of returning travellers allowed to enter the country each week.

Prior to today’s national cabinet meeting, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she wanted to see weekly travel cap cut by 50 per cent to reduce the Covid-19 risk to the country.

She said this week Australia was facing a “pressure cooker moment”.

“There are a large number of people that are travelling overseas for business … and there are questions that need to be answered about why they are leaving without being vaccinated,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Wednesday.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has also called for the passenger cap to be reduced, saying lockdowns was the only way to handle the Delta variant, and it was “better to lock some people out than to lock everyone down”.

Text by Lauren McMah