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Australia-New Zealand air travel bubble unchanged after Auckland airport worker tests COVID-19 positive
April 20th 2021
Quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand, which began yesterday, was expected to continue despite an aircraft cleaner working at Auckland Airport testing positive to COVID-19. Read More » New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told reporters these sorts of scenarios had been anticipated by the governments of both countries. “When we opened on both sides we knew we would continue to have cases connected to our border,” Ardern said. “We accept that's going to be part of our journey together."
Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, said today he had "full confidence" in New Zealand's system. "New Zealand knows how to deal with this," Hunt told reporters. "We've seen them deal with the inevitable outbreaks, and there will be other days when there are cases in Australia." The airport worker had received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in February and March. Australia's Department of Health told New Zealand's Stuff news website there was no change to current travel arrangements at this stage.
