After a lot of progress on the COVID-19 front over the last few months, New Zealand is agreed to establish a travel bubble with Australia.
Talks about a potential New Zealand/Australia trans-Tasman travel bubble has been going on for several months but nothing really come out of it other than Kiwis being allowed to come over to Australia but not the other way around.
Until now that is.
In her final post-Cabinet press conference of 2020 (via SBS News), NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand’s Cabinet has agreed in principle to establish a trans-Tasman travel bubble with Australia in 2021.
Now before travellers get too excited, Ardern has said that there’s no set date for when this travel bubble will be in effect other than early 2021 as there are still logistical details that need ironing out.
“It is our intention to name a date… in the New Year, once remaining details are locked down,” says Ardern.
These details include issues like segregation of staff, contingency plans in case of another outbreak, and whether travellers will be required to quarantine for 14 days, which is subject to Australian government approval. At the time of writing, Australia allows Kiwis to come into the country without needing to quarantine for two weeks.
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So in short, this exciting new travel arrangement is now contingent on two important factors: the Australian Government signing off on the agreement and keeping the COVID-19 pandemic under control in both countries in case there’s another outbreak.
“We would need to make arrangements to have potentially thousands of New Zealanders brought back to New Zealand in numbers that we wouldn’t be able to facilitate, necessarily, managed isolation,” says Arden.
This is obviously extremely exciting for those who’ve been itching to get out of the country but let’s stay cautiously optimistic for now and see how this whole travel bubble situation develops because who knows what will happen from now until the start of 2021.
https://twitter.com/BloombergAU/status/1338308012436492288
