Source: New Zealand Government
Following an assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak in greater Melbourne, New Zealand’s Quarantine Free Travel pause with Victoria will continue for a further seven days, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says.
There are now 93 cases associated with the outbreak in greater Melbourne, spread over four clusters. Contact tracing efforts have identified more than 15,000 close contacts.
While the cases in the greater Melbourne outbreak are genomically linked to cases arriving from overseas, there are at least three cases where an epidemiological link is still to be confirmed.
“While the overall risk to New Zealand is low, today’s advice from New Zealand public health officials is that the travel pause should continue,” Chris Hipkins says.
“The Government is taking a precautionary approach in continuing the pause, which will be reviewed again next Wednesday.”
Everyone who is eligible can continue returning on “green flights”, meaning they will not be required to isolate when they arrive home. However they must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three-days of departure.
“These pre-departure measures, in addition to a further pause on Quarantine Free Travel, will continue to ensure New Zealand is best placed to keep COVID-19 out,” Chris Hipkins says.
Advice for Queensland and New South Wales travellers
Quarantine Free Travel to Queensland and New South Wales will remain in place as New Zealand public health officials deemed the risk from two new positive COVID-19 cases in Queensland to be low.
Anyone who was in in the New South Wales towns of Dubbo, Forbes, Gillenbah or Moree between June 1-5, or in Queensland in Toowoomba, Caloundra, Buddina and Baringa between June 5-8 should check the following websites to determine whether they were at any locations of interest:
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/case-locations-and-alerts.aspx
Anyone at these locations of interest at the specified times should call Healthline on 0800 358 5453, get tested and self-isolate until they return a negative result.
Anyone who was at a location of interest at the specified times also cannot travel to New Zealand within 14 days of the exposure event.
