Australia

No amount/estimate: April 2020, To support liquidity, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will conduct one-month and three-month repo operations daily until further notice.

(i) April 2020, The government is allocating up to AUD15 billion to invest in residential mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities to help funding for small banks and non-bank financial institutions; (ii) April 2020, To allow banks to lend more to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the period of disruption caused by COVID-19, RBA has established a Term Funding Facility (TFF) of at least AUD90 billion for SMEs lending (TFF will offer three-year funding to authorized deposit-taking institutions [ADIs]). On 1 September 2020, RBA announced an expansion to the TFF. ADIs will have access to additional funding, equivalent to 2% of their outstanding credit, at a fixed rate of 25 basis points for three years. ADIs will be able to draw on this extra funding up until the end of June 2021. As of June 2021, a total of AUD188 billion has been drawn down under the TFF. The current expansion brings the total amount available under this facility to around AUD200 billion. On 2 February, 2 March, 6 April, 4 May, and 6 July 2021, the RBA announced that it will maintain the parameters of the TFF. Given the facility provides funding for 3 years, it will continue to support low funding costs in Australia until mid 2024.

No amount/estimate: 2 September 2020, Government announced interest-free loans to Australians who are stranded overseas and in financial distress.

(i) 11 March 2020, The Australian Government has unveiled a comprehensive AUD2.4 billion health package to protect all Australians, including vulnerable groups such as the elderly, those with chronic conditions and Indigenous communities, from the coronavirus (COVID-19); (ii) 21 March 2020, The National Cabinet announced additional funding of AUD444.6 million for the aged care sector to ensure the continuity of the aged care workforce. 5 May 2020, The Australian Government is providing an additional AUD205 million in specific COVID-19 aged care funding. 31 August 2020, an additional AUD563.3 million has been allocated to the aged care sector. On 11 June 2021, the Australian Government announced that it will invest AUD60 million to extend support for COVID 19 response measures for Australia’s impacted aged care facilities until 30 June 2022; (iii) 29 March 2020, (a) AUD669 million will be provided to expand Medicare-subsidised telehealth services for all Australians, with extra incentives to GPs and other health practitioners also delivered; and (b) AUD74 million will be provided to support the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians; (iv) 15 April 2020, AUD3 million further funding to support frontline health workers with training and information on the treatment of coronavirus; (v) 15 May 2020, The government announced AUD48.1 million funding for the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Response Plan; (vi) 25 May 2020, An additional AUD20 million is announced for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research; (vii) 29 May 2020, The Commonwealth will invest an estimated AUD131.4 billion in the new 2020‑25 National Health Reform Agreement to provide additional funding to public hospitals over five years from 2020–21; (viii) July 8, AUD325.7 million investment in new home care packages by the government for older Australians; (ix) 7 September 2020, The Australian government will invest AUD3.2 billion in a supply and production agreement with pharmaceutical companies to provide free vaccines by 2021, if trials prove successful; (x) 18 September 2020, The government announced to extend a range of COVID-19 health measures, including mental health interventions until 31 March 2021 amounting to more than AUD2 billion; (xi) No amount/estimate: 13 November 2020, National Cabinet endorsed the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, which sets out the roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth, states and territories in rolling out COVID-19 vaccination. National Cabinet welcomed the Commonwealth Government’s announcement that Australia had secured access to 134.8 million doses of four leading vaccine candidates; (xii) 3 January 2021, AUD10.1 million from the government's Medical Research Future Fund’s Clinical Trials Activity Initiative is allocated for high potential COVID-19 related clinical trials; No amount/estimate: (xiii) 25 January 2021, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in Australia. On 15 February 2021, more than 142,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have arrived. This is the first shipment of 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine the Government has secured as part of Australia’s COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Strategy; (xiv) 8 February 2021, The Australian Government announced free training modules for the COVID-19 vaccination workforce, including for immunisation providers and non-clinical and administration staff; (xv) 16 February 2021, The AstraZeneca vaccine has been provisionally approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for people 18 years and older; (xvi) 24 March 2021, 87,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 55 or older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in phase 1B of the national rollout strategy; (xvii) 19 April 2021, Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to expand. To date 1,586,252 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia. As of 7 May 2021, 2,554,531 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia ; (xviii) No amount/estimate: 20 May 2021, Community pharmacies in selected rural and regional areas will be activated to support Australia's COVID-19 vaccine rollout out ; (xix) No amount/estimate: 26 May 2021, The Australian Government is releasing an additional 130,000 vaccines to support Victoria to accelerate vaccinations in the state, including in the Whittlesea Local Government Area ; (xx) No amount/estimate: 27 May 2021, The Australian Government is partnering with the Royal Flying Doctor Service to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to remote Australian communities ; (xxi) No amount/estimate: 27 May 2021, The role of General Practices in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is set to expand, with up to 900 additional general practices to come on board to administer the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as part of a targeted expansion to ensure more points of presence are available across the country; (xxii) No amount/estimate: 28 June 2021, National Cabinet agreed to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for residential aged care workers; (xxiii) No amount/estimate: 5 July 2021, More than 500 general practice clinics (GPs) around Australia are set to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to enable Australians to get vaccinated and help accelerate the pace of the rollout for younger populations; (xxiv) No amount/estimate: 9 July 2021, The National Cabinet agreed to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s (AHPPC) advice encouraging residential disability support workers to have their COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible, and in August 2021, consider mandating vaccination for disability workers by 31 October 2021; (xxv) 13 July 2021, The Australian government announced an AUD17.35 million package to boost mental health support and services; (xxvi) 19 July 2021, The Australian Government is providing AUD3 million to support young Australians in Victoria, ensuring they can access mental health support if and when they need it during this lockdown; (xxvii) No amount/estimate: 23 July 2021, The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approves Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds; (xxviii) No amount/estimate: 9 August 2021, The TGA granted provisional approval to Moderna Australia Pty Ltd for its COVID-19 vaccine - Spikevax (elasomeran) - making it the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to receive regulatory approval in the country; (xxix) No amount/estimate: 15 August 2021, One million additional Pfizer doses will begin arriving in Australia from 15 August 2021 after a significant agreement was reached with the Republic of Poland; (xxx) No amount/estimate: 4 September 2021, The Therapeutic Goods Administration has provisionally approved the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years; (xxxi) No amount/estimate: Ten new Head to Health pop up clinics will open across Sydney, the Central Coast and Illawarra to provide additional mental health support for people who have been substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic ; (xxxii) No amount/estimate: 12 September 2021, An additional 1 million Moderna doses will arrive within the next week and go directly to local community pharmacies across the country. This will allow family members aged 12-59 to be vaccinated together at their community pharmacy; (xxxiii) No amount/estimate: 8 October 2021, Australians who are severely immunocompromised were offered the option to receive a third COVID-19 vaccine dose to boost their protection against COVID-19 to the highest level; (xxxiv) No amount/estimate: 27 October 2021, The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 18 years and older [update].

20 March 2020, RBA has established a swap line with the United States (US) Federal Reserve for the provision of US dollar liquidity in amounts up to USD60 billion.

(i) March 2020, Travel restrictions, screening travelers who arrive in Australia and ensuring they self-isolate on arrival, continuing with border surveillance; (ii) 14 July 2020, State and territory governments have imposed a range of interstate travel restrictions, including the closure of certain state borders and 14-day quarantine period upon arrival of travellers; (iii) 16 October 2020, The Australian Government is facilitating additional commercial flights from the United Kingdom, India, and South Africa to help more Australians return amid the unprecedented travel disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This arrangement will create the capacity for more than 5,000 Australians to return over the next six months; (iv) 8 January 2021, Returning Australians and other travellers to Australia must have a negative COVID-19 test prior to departure; (v) 8 January 2021, All passengers and air crew are required to wear masks on flights and in airports; (vi) 8 January 2021, International passenger caps in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia will be temporarily halved from no later than 15 January 2021 to manage the flow of returning Australians and other travellers who have been potentially exposed to the new variants; (vii) 17 February 2021, All passengers on flights originating in New Zealand up until 12.01am (AEDT) on Sunday, 21 February, will need to go into 14 days of supervised hotel quarantine on arrival in Australia and adhere to the requirements of the State and Territory in which they enter; (viii) 6 April 2021, Quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on Monday, 19 April; (ix) 27 April 2021, Australia will implement a temporary pause on direct passenger flights between India and Australia for two weeks, with consideration of further flights to be made by 15 May 2021; (x) 2 July 2021, The government agreed to temporarily reduce the current international passenger arrival caps by 50% to manage the pressure on quarantine facilities due to the increased risks posed by the Delta strain of the virus from 14 July until 31 August 2021 and will be subject to a review before the end of August and on a regular basis throughout the remainder of 2021; (xi) 9 July 2021, The Australian authorities agreed that South Australia would be the first to commence a pilot program of home quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers who had been vaccinated in Australia, with an Australian approved vaccination, arriving from low and medium risk countries; (xii) 22 October 2021, The Australian Government has issued new guidance on foreign vaccination certificates for people who have had a COVID-19 vaccination overseas as it reopens on 1 November 2021 [update]; (xiii) 30 October 2021, From 1 November 2021, vaccinated Australians will be able to travel internationally without seeking exemptions, and vaccinated Australian citizens, residents and their families will be able to return quarantine-free to jurisdictions that are ready [update]; (xiv) 1 November 2021, The government announced that starting 21 November, quarantine-free travel arrangements will be available for fully vaccinated Singaporeans travelling from Singapore who present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure [update].