• More Australians will be allowed to return home after the National Cabinet agreed to boost state intake caps.
• From February 15, NSW will accept 3,010 people each week, while Queensland will welcome 1,000 returning Australians.
• Caps in Victoria and South Australia will also be lifted, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison reiterated Australia’s border remains closed.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

More Australians stranded overseas will be allowed to return home from February 15, after the National Cabinet agreed to boost returning traveller caps across the nation.

Speaking in Canberra on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the National Cabinet has agreed to return the weekly intake caps of New South Wales and Queensland to their previous levels.

NSW will soon accept 3,010 people each week, while Queensland will welcome 1,000 returning Australians.

In addition, National Cabinet has agreed to increase Victoria’s intake to 1,310, with South Australia’s weekly intake level bumped by 40 people to 530.

“It was agreed once again that the return of Australian residents is the priority, in terms of arrivals to Australia,” Morrison said.

He said alterations to Western Australia’s intake are yet to be confirmed, pending news on the state’s recent coronavirus scare.

“They’re obviously still working through some of the issues of this latest case,” Morrison said, “and so we just want to make sure that that’s appropriately paced, about when they might be able to return to those previous caps in Western Australia.”

The intake caps were slashed in mid-January over fears of new and highly virulent strains of COVID-19 entering Australia.

While reiterating “borders are actually shut,” Morrison today said “the risk matrix, as we spoke about it today, has shifted.”

News of the reworked intake caps will come as welcome news for the many Australians still overseas who are yet to secure tickets home.

Repatriation flights organised by the federal government have reportedly sold out in minutes.

The recent arrival of pop stars and international tennis pros competing in the Australian Open have also come under scrutiny.

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