New Zealand aims to wide open travel and leisure bubble with Australia by April
14 December, 2020
New Zealand expectations to open a travelling bubble with Australia by April up coming year and is attempting to finalize the required anti-coronavirus border methods, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday.
Ardern said New Zealand's cabinet had agreed "in principle" to start a trans-Tasman travel bubble found in the first quarter of 2021 provided there are actually no key virus outbreaks in either country.
"It really is our intention to mention a good date for the commencement of quarantine-free trans-Tasman travelling in the new year, once staying details are locked straight down," she told reporters.
New Zealand closed its borders found in March and since then all international arrivals, including Australians, have already been required to undergo two weeks of managed isolation.
The country has been widely praised for its strict handling of the coronavirus which includes caused just 25 deaths in a population of five million.
Ardern said she'd not allow unnecessary risks to be taken to reopen travelling with Australia, which prior to the pandemic was first New Zealand's largest way to obtain overseas visitors.
She said a key consideration was how to prevent border facilities being swamped if there is a significant virus outbreak in Australia that prompted a large number of visiting New Zealanders to rush residence.
"It isn't a hypothetical -- there have been several (Australian outbreaks)," she said. "We'd have to make arrangements to have potentially a large number of New Zealanders brought back to New Zealand in numbers we would not necessarily be able to take care of in managed isolation."
Australia has allowed quarantine-free travel for New Zealand arrivals since October, but New Zealand hasn't reciprocated, maintaining its 14-day quarantine.
Over the weekend, New Zealand announced an identical plan for a travel bubble with the tiny Cook Islands in the Pacific in the first quarter of next year.
Source: japantoday.com
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