COVID-19: Australia warns citizens not to travel to India as it considers more bubbles

Scott Morrison hints at expanding its travel bubble to other low-risk countries.
Scott Morrison hints at expanding its travel bubble to other low-risk countries. Photo credit: Getty

Australia has updated its travel advice for India as its daily COVID-19 infection numbers continue to soar past 100,000.

In the Government's latest travel advice issued on Wednesday, the day before New Zealand imposed a temporary ban on travel from India - Australians were warned not to travel to the Asian nation.

India recorded 145,384 new coronavirus cases on Saturday (local time) - a new daily record for the fifth time this week. 

It comes as Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison hints at expanding its travel bubble to other low-risk countries.

"The message from the National Cabinet is, we want to open up more, we want to do it safely," Morrison said at a press conference on Friday.

"We want to ease restrictions, we want to do that in a consistent way across the country, and we want to do that because we know we're not just managing health but we're managing the economics as well, for people's livelihoods and wellbeing."

Morrison says Singapore is the "obvious" next choice.

"At this stage that is still some time away."

Australia Tourism Minister Dan Tehan says there's still more work to be done before another travel bubble becomes a reality.

"Obviously, Singapore would be a very good next step to build on what we have already achieved with New Zealand," Tehan said.

"But we'll take our time, we'll work that through, and we'll make sure that we have got the expert medical advice backing our assessment that that is the way that we should proceed."

Other countries have also been mentioned as possibilities.

"We could look at other countries such as Japan, such as Vietnam - which has also done a very good job at dealing with COVID-19," Tehan says.

"There are so many options, so we'll continue to work through those."

Australian and New Zealand residents will be able to travel between the two nations without having to quarantine from April 19.