New Zealand’s government has suspended quarantine-free travel from Victoria for three days after the discovery of five community cases this week.
The New Zealand government has put a temporary pause on quarantine-free travel from Victoria.
On Tuesday afternoon, COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said a three-day suspension would take effect from 8pm NZST tonight.
“The government understands the disruption this will temporarily cause affected passengers. It was a close call but the correct one given the current unknowns,” Mr Hipkins said.
“An epidemiological link has yet to be determined between these cases and there is currently no known link between people in the current outbreak and any of the exposure sites from Wollert.”
The suspension is the third pause since the creation of the trans-Tasman bubble last month.
Jacinda Ardern’s government blocked travel from WA and NSW following the discovering of community cases in those states’ capital cities, which led to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian calling the suspension an “overreaction” and saying the “response should also be proportionate to the risk”, given the NSW ‘outbreak’ was just two cases from a city of over five million.
Victoria has put restrictions into place that come into force tonight, limiting the size of gatherings and requiring the use of face coverings indoors.
The government says as with previous pauses the situation will be under constant review.
Source: AAP