The participation of unvaccinated tennis players at the 2022 Australian Open remains unclear with confirmation of regulations yet to be finalised, but Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says there will be no exemptions. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters Australian Open Australian Open: no exemptions for unvaccinated tennis players, Victoria premier says State leader Daniel Andrews says it is ‘the only fair thing to do’

Daniel Andrews said refusing to consider exemptions for players like Novak Djokovic, who has repeatedly refused to reveal his vaccination status, was “the only fair thing to do”, given fans and people working at the tournament are required to be double-jabbed.

“I am not going to ask and require people sitting in the grandstand, people working at the event to be vaccinated while players aren’t. We’re not going to be applying an exemption. Therefore the issue is basically resolved.”

Earlier, Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, had indicated those athletes who have not taken a Covid vaccine would still be allowed into the country for the season’s opening grand slam, as long as they undertook two weeks of quarantine.

Morrison’s comments contradicted those made a week previously by federal immigration minister, Alex Hawke, who said “our health advice is that when we open the borders, everyone that comes to Australia will have to be double vaccinated ... that’s a universal application, not just to tennis players”.

“Same rules have to apply to everyone” Morrison told the Seven Network on Wednesday. “If I was not double vaccinated when I came home to Glasgow I would be doing two weeks of quarantine. But if you are not vaccinated you will have to quarantine in Victoria. The states will set the rules about the quarantine.”

The Victorian health minister Martin Foley said the state’s public health team would have to “consider what the prime minister said”, but Andrews took aim at the mixed message from the federal government.

“I was perfectly supportive of minister Hawke’s view, which I took to be the view of the federal government and it appears that is not the case,” Andrews said.

“The federal government manages the border and to the extent that anything the federal government says on this is clear, because their position has gone 180 [degrees] from what the immigration minister said, which at the time, I agreed with.

“I am not intending to control the borders, we do not … We will host the event but we will not be applying for an exemption for unvaccinated players to come here. And that is the only fair thing to do. We have all achieved amazing things.”

“I believe there will be a lot of restrictions just like this year, but I doubt there will be too many changes,” he said.

Source: The Guardian

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