Sydney, Australia, Nov 23 (EFE).- Australia's national carrier aims to resume part of its international commercial flights in mid-2021, its executive director said Monday.

Alan Joyce said on local television that Qantas' plan will depend largely on the availability of the vaccine against COVID-19 after Australia closed its international borders in March due to the pandemic, although the airline has operated domestic routes and repatriation flights.

Joyce also said studies by Airbus, Boeing and IATA show the probability of contracting COVID-19 in an airplane is "very low," insisting that aircraft have hospital-grade filters.

"The air is pulled 20 times and that's five times an hour. Boeing has shown that sitting next to someone on an airplane is the equivalent of being seven to eight feet apart (between 2.13 and 2.74 meters) from someone on land," the Qantas representative told Australian media.

Australia has registered 27,820 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 907 deaths, of which about 20,349 infections and 819 deaths correspond to Victoria state. Its outbreak due to alleged failures in security in quarantine centers unleashed a second wave of the coronavirus in the country.

South Australia is fighting an outbreak of COVID-19, detected more than a week ago which forced its 1.7 million residents into a three-day confinement to contain the spread after detecting that a Spaniard with a temporary visa lied about his contact with others. EFE

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