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Virgin cabin crew member contracts COVID-19; Australian-New Zealand travel bubble suspended
June 28th 2021
A Virgin Australia (VA) cabin crew member from Sydney, who has tested positive to COVID-19 amid a fresh outbreak of the virus across the country, has led to the temporary suspension of quarantine free travel between Australia and New Zealand. Read More » The cabin crew member worked on five flights last week and spent one night in a Melbourne hotel while potentially infectious. VA said the cabin crew member was not aware of being a close contact of a positive case. In addition to a COVID-19 cluster in Sydney, there are reported outbreaks of COVID-19 in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia, a situation that prompted New Zealand to pause quarantine free travel with Australia for 72 hours. "I acknowledge the frustration and inconvenience that comes with this pause, but given the high level of transmissibility of what appears to be the Delta variant and the fact there are now multiple community clusters, it is the right to keep COVID-19 out of New Zealand,” NZ COVID-19 Response Minister, Chris Hipkins, said.
