sydney australias international borders are unlikely to open to travellers this year despite the rollout of coronavirus vaccines a top health official said mondayhealth department secretary brendan murphy a key adviser in australias virus response said freeflowing travel to and from the country was not expected to resume in 2021i think that well go most of this year with still substantial border restrictions he told public broadcaster abceven if we have a lot of the population vaccinated we dont know whether that will prevent transmission of the virusand its likely that quarantine will continue for some timeaustralias border has been largely closed to overseas visitors since march 2020 to stem the spread of covid19 with a limited number of citizens and their families allowed to return each weektens of thousands of australians remain stranded overseas as a result while returning travellers must pay about aus3000 2300 to quarantine inside a hotel room for 14 daysthe country has secured access to both the pfizer and oxfordastrazeneca vaccines with the rollout scheduled to begin in late february but still awaiting approval from medical regulators