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Coronavirus: New Zealand won’t open borders to tourists for ‘a long time’ but agrees to travel bubble with Australia
- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined Australia’s coronavirus cabinet meeting to discuss reopening trans-Tasman travel
- They agreed to start work on a travel zone between the two countries, but only when Covid-19 is contained
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Australia and New Zealand have agreed to begin work on allowing travel between both countries and this arrangement could be eventually extend to other Pacific island nations, the countries said in a joint statement on Tuesday.
Such an arrangement would be put in place once it is safe to do so and necessary health, transport and other protocols had been developed and met, the statement said without giving a time frame for the move.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a separate news briefing in Canberra earlier in the day that the travel zone between both countries is still some time away.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined Australia’s coronavirus cabinet meeting on Tuesday to discuss reopening borders to trans-Tasman travel.
Both countries have a Covid-19 mortality rate of just 1 per cent, well below most other countries, and have boosted their medical equipment reserves as they plan to slowly reopen their economies, including restarting travel across the Tasman Sea without mandatory quarantine periods.
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