Canberrans are right to be nervous, given the experiences in other states where hotel quarantine has become the most likely source of infections, one of the few entry points for the virus.

The deadly second wave in Melbourne started when the coronavirus escaped through the substantial cracks in the city's hotel quarantine system. Thankfully, that wave has now been defeated.

In South Australia, the initial thought the virus had slipped through that state's hotel quarantine net prompted the announcement of a statewide six-day lock down, which was later revised and shortened.

But Canberra must also play its part in a national effort to return citizens home from the reaches of a now very uncertain world. It is unfair to say those who are still overseas should remain there, having had the opportunity to return and passed it up.

Staying in place to ride out COVID-19 was a very different prospect in the pandemic's early months. Considerable time has passed, people's circumstances will have changed and there is a poor outlook for bringing the virus under control without a vaccine in other parts of the world.

Australia has a duty to its citizens to find a safe way for them to return if they wish to do so. That means not cutting corners on hotel quarantine, and making sure those hotels are adequately staffed by correctly trained people, who do not need to work second jobs. They are the first defence against widespread outbreak.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said this week that hotel quarantine in Canberra was not a zero-risk situation.

"But there is also a real positive when you look at the tens of thousands of Australians who have returned to Australia through these hotel quarantine arrangements throughout the country," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

The Minister is right. Many thousands have got through isolation and returned safely into the community. Hotel quarantine is the best imperfect system the country has.

If the ACT authorities can show their quarantine protocols are safe and significantly minimise the public infection risk, then Canberra ought to host more returning passengers.

Sealing off the ACT, an enclave within NSW, has never been a sensible long-term solution. Instead, authorities need to keep the needs of community safety and the right of citizens to return evenly balanced.

While this city has room at the inn and the risk to community is low, shutting people out would be an avoidance of responsibility.