Jayne Hrdlicka,chief executive of Virgin Australia.Credit:Ben Searcy
Ms Hrdlicka said she believed,with a viable vaccine in place for a large enough portion of Australia’s population,the country needed to reopen its borders or risk being left behind by the rest of the world.
The airline boss said as long as vaccination levels were high enough and vulnerable people were protected,the country should take the risk of fully opening again sooner than June 2022.
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“COVID will be part of the community,we will become sick with COVID and it won’t put us in hospital,and it won’t put people into dire straits because we’ll have a vaccine,” Ms Hrdlicka said.
“Some people may die,but it will be way smaller than with the flu.
“We’re forgetting the fact that we’ve learnt how to live with lots of viruses and challenges over the years,and we’ve got to learn how to live with this.”
It is estimated that more than 3.3 million people have died worldwide from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. In the US,the virus killed 584,495 people between January 2020 and last Friday,according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.