New Zealand on Friday paused its newly opened journey bubble with Australia, the federal government in Wellington mentioned, after a COVID-19 outbreak in its bigger neighbour.
“As set out in our Trans-Tasman bubble protocols, journey between New Zealand and Western Australia has been paused, pending additional recommendation from the state authorities,” a statement on the New Zealand government website said.
The decision came after Western Australia announced that the regions of Perth and Peel were entering a three-day lockdown, starting midnight Friday to Saturday, due to a traveller testing positive for the coronavirus.
The decision to lock down followed “a positive COVID-19 case from hotel quarantine who was active in the community”, a press release on the Western Australia authorities web site mentioned.
Local media reported {that a} man in his 50s flew into Melbourne from Perth on Wednesday and examined constructive for the coronavirus earlier Friday.
He underwent the legally required quarantine in a Perth resort and, as soon as launched, went to eating places, a college, a public pool, a physician’s workplace and a pal’s home earlier than leaving the world.
“He spent as much as 5 days in Perth, and we now must assume he was infectious,” Western Australia premier Mark McGowan told a press conference.
Local media reported that the friend the man visited has since tested positive.
New Zealand and Australia had opened their quarantine-free travel bubble on Apr 18, almost 400 days after they closed their borders due to the pandemic.
The bubble, which followed months of negotiations between the largely coronavirus-free neighbours, was hailed as a major milestone in restarting a global travel industry that has been crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It meant that passengers from Australia and New Zealand – both of which have largely contained COVID-19 – could fly across the Tasman Sea without undergoing mandatory quarantine on arrival.
The leaders of both nations had hailed the bubble, which also would have provided a much-needed boost to New Zealand’s beleaguered tourism industry, and urged residents to take advantage of it.
Before COVID-19 brought New Zealand’s tourism industry to its knees, it was the country’s biggest export industry, with Australians accounting for about 40 per cent of the international visitors.
After the travel bubble was announced, a spokesman for Australian flag carrier Qantas said tickets to New Zealand were “selling like hot cakes” with a powerful “load” to Queenstown, which is billed as the country’s “Adventure capital”.
New Zealand authorities revealed on Apr 20 that an Auckland airport employee had examined constructive for COVID-19, however Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern mentioned on the time it will not have an effect on the bubble, which was then barely 24 hours outdated.
Ardern mentioned the cleaner labored on planes arriving from “pink zone” countries deemed high risk, not Australia.
She said both Australia and New Zealand expected to handle border cases, and had systems in place to do that without closing the long-awaited travel bubble.
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