New Zealand PM says travel to some Australian states possible before Christmas

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, on September 28, said that travel to some Australian states is possible as both the nations have been reporting a lower number of COVID-19 infections. The two nations had been discussing plans for travel ‘bubble’, however, with the resurgence of new coronavirus cases in Melbourne followed by a second wave in Auckland, the talks had been halted. Now, with the virus largely contained in New Zealand and Australia, talks of a travel bubble have been revived. 

While speaking to TVNZ, Arden assured that Kiwis would be able to travel at least some Australian regions before Christmas. However, she added that she still needs to be assured that when Australia says ‘Okay we’ve got a hotspot over here’ that the border around the hotspot means that people aren’t able to travel into the states where New Zealand is engaging within trans-Tasman travel. 

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According to reports, under the potential plan, New Zealanders would be able to travel interstate and even to Australia, if a region was not deemed a hot spot. The travel may initially only be restricted to Kiwis heading to Australia and may be restricted to just travellers from New Zealand’s South Island, which has had not coronavirus cases for months. 

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COVID-19 outbreak in Australia, NZ 

While New Zealand has only 59 active cases and around 1,477 confirmed cases of COVID-19, Australia has reported over 27,000 cases and 875 deaths. Both nations have been reporting a lower number of cases as compared to other developed countries around the globe. So far, New Zealand has one of the lowest tallies in the world, Victoria in Australia, on the other hand, has been reporting fewer than 20 cases a day. 

Arden said that Australia was satisfied with both how New Zealand was tracking now and how they are tracking generally. Even though she said that travel before Christmas is possible, she also added that the country still needs a strategy of having COVID-free country, which will remain an ‘ongoing goal’ and a ‘way of operating’. Further, while giving the example of Queensland in Australia, the New Zealand PM said that the Australian state has had sporadic cases of community transmission, however, Western Australia has gone more than five months without community cases. 

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