A person wearing a face mask walks along the harbour waterfront across from the Sydney Opera House during a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Sydney, Australia, October 6, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Loren Elliott)

“The wait is over,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison instructed a Sunday briefing on the Melbourne International Airport.

Australia’s opening to tourists is the clearest instance but of the federal government’s shift from a strict zero-COVID strategy to residing with the virus and vaccinating the general public to minimise deaths and extreme sickness.

Australia has been regularly reopening since November, first permitting Australians to journey out and in, then admitting worldwide college students and a few employees.

From Monday, leisure travellers and extra enterprise travellers could enter.