Australia has banned ex-pats who enter the country from leaving again in a bid to ease the pressure on quarantine hotels under strain from the delta variant.
When non-resident citizens - Australians that live abroad - visit their country of origin, they will soon have to apply for an exception to leave again.
Under some of the world's toughest Covid-19 restrictions, citizens and permanent residents have been banned from going overseas since March 2020 - but people who don't normally live in Australia have been free to depart without permission.
That will now change from August 11, after which the updated rules will require ex-pats to apply for an exemption in order to leave.
Ex-pats hoping to leave Australia after a visit will have to demonstrate a 'compelling reason for need to leave the Australian territory' to the Australian Border Force Commissioner.
Australians who live abroad will soon have to apply for an exemption to leave the country should they visit it. Pictured: Passengers wearing PPE at Sydney Airport in July
The move is likely to force some ex-pats hoping to return home to re-think their travel plans, and could also leave families separated in not all members travelled back to the country at the same time.
'We've seen too many instances where people have left the country only for in relatively short order to put their names on the request list to come back,' Finance Minister Simon Birmingham told reporters in Australia's Canberra capital.
'That just puts additional pressure and additional difficulties in terms of managing the finite number of places that can safely be administered for returning Australians.'
Residents living in Australia are already banned from travelling overseas without a government exemption, which can be granted for reasons including compassionate grounds or travelling in order to receive urgent medical treatment that would otherwise not be available in the country.
Meanwhile, as the delta variant continues to spread, Australia's coveted status as a haven from the pandemic could be at an end, with experts warning that a sustained outbreak of the variant makes a return to 'Covid zero' unlikely.
After long stretches with zero local cases - what Australians once jokingly referred to as 'doughnut days' - a Sydney outbreak has now grown to 4,610.
Only 20.8 per cent of adults are double vaccinated due to a lack of supply, one of the lowest jab rates in the OECD group of 38 rich nations.
Pictured: Travellers prepare to board a passenger aircraft operated by Qantas at Sydney Airport. Under some of the world's toughest Covid-19 restrictions, citizens and permanent residents have been banned from going overseas since March 2020 - but people who don't normally live in Australia have been free to depart without permission.
Pictured: A graph showing new coronavirus cases in Australia per day
Record numbers of new cases are being reported each day despite widespread lockdowns.
Slowly but surely, some local authorities have shifted to talking about containing the virus rather than beating it.
'Given where numbers are, given the experience of Delta overseas, we now have to live with Delta one way or another, and that is pretty obvious,' said New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
After 18 months of advocating 'Covid zero', that represents a step-change in the country's approach.
For experts like Emma McBryde, an infectious diseases and statistical modelling expert at James Cook University, the shift in tone is a reflection of the new reality that Delta has
