(REUTERS): Quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on April 19, country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today (Tuesday), creating a “travel bubble” for the neighbouring nations which have closed borders to the rest of the world to contain COVID-19.
Addressing a press conference, the New Zealand premier said the conditions for starting to open up quarantine-free travel with Australia have been met. “Our team’s success in managing COVID-19 and keeping it out over the past 12 months now opens up the opportunity to reconnect with loved ones,” she added.
“The Trans-Tasman travel bubble represents a start of a new chapter in our COVID response and recovery, one that people have worked so hard at,” Ardern told reporters in the New Zealand capital Wellington.
Though most Australian states allowed quarantine-free visits from New Zealanders for months, New Zealand has continued mandatory quarantine from its neighbour. Both nations have since contained COVID-19 outbreak and kept infection rates near zero.
Australians making the trip to New Zealand will travel on “green zone” flights which will carry conditions. Passengers will be required to have spent the 14 days before the flight in Australia only.
Those with cold or flu symptoms will not be allowed to travel, and all passengers must wear masks and give details to New Zealand authorities of where they will be staying.
About 568,000 New Zealand-born people live in Australia, according to 2018 figures, equivalent to 2.3 percent of the Australian population and Australia’s fourth-largest migrant community.
