Australian Open: Prime Minister Andrews - "No exceptions for unvaccinated players"
Is everything unclear again? Daniel Andrews, the Prime Minister of the Australian state of Victoria, has now declared that only vaccinated players should take part in the Australian Open 2022. He does not want to ask for an exemption.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 28, 2021, 01:27 pm
This is reported by Australian media, including the daily newspaper The Age .
Andrews contradicted messages from Sunday: An email from the WTA had been leaked to their players stating that in addition to vaccinated players, unvaccinated players were also allowed to participate in the first Grand Slam tournament in 2021 after a two-week quarantine. Victoria's Minister of Sport, Martin Pakula, had already stated that the matter was not over and that a decision would be available in 14 days at the earliest.
Victoria's Covid Commander also stated that the Australian Open was only for vaccinated spectators and vaccinated players, and that people generally only wanted vaccinated people at this major sporting event.
There is therefore a great disagreement between those responsible. Prime Minister Scott Morrison had indicated that unvaccinated actors would be allowed to participate after a quarantine, Defense Secretary Hawke had previously mentioned double vaccination as a prerequisite for participation.
Daniel Andrews: topic "clarified, so to speak"
Morrison was referring to exceptions that have already been granted for workers with special skills, including tennis players. He also referred to the great economic importance of the tournament.
Andrews, however, virtually ruled this out, the subject was "clarified, so to speak". He wanted to make it clear that the state of Victoria "will not ask for exceptions for unvaccinated players". You don't ask for an exception, so there won't be any, said Andrews. "I will not require people sitting in the stands or working at the event to be vaccinated while the players are not vaccinated."