(CNN) – Australia will put up a travel corridor with New Zealand, allowing quarantine-free travel, with flights likely to start in the week – but there is a catch.
Initially quarantine-free travel from New Zealand to Australia will be the only option, and the deal will include a limited number of destinations, according to Michael McCormack, Australia’s deputy prime minister.
Speaking at a press conference in Canberra on Friday, McCormick said territories following travel restrictions recognized by Australian states and the Commonwealth could be included in the new arrangement.
For now, the travel bubble will include only New South Wales and the Northern Territory. It will begin at 12.01am on Friday 16th October.
McCormack said New Zealand players who did not have a coronavirus hotspot in the previous 14 days would be allowed to enter Australia without having to leave. Under existing rules, anyone who travels to Australia must undergo a 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense.
“This is the first phase that we hope to see as a trans-Tasman bubble, not just between that state and that region, but between the two countries,” McCormick said.
“I just got a call from (Northern Territory) Chief Minister (Michael) Gunner, who says fish bites and beer is cold. And he wants to see as many New Zealand cousins and friends as possible.”
Australian politicians seem more attracted to the idea than those around Tasman.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday that New Zealanders who accept the Australian Australian take fur must be kept separate even after their return.
“We will not open quarantine-free travel borders with Australia unless it is safe to do so, as doing so too early risks losing all the freedoms in our economy,” he said.
Ardern said it was a question of safety and encouraged New Zealanders to “spend their dollars here locally”.
McCormack said the Australian Australian Department of Health had determined that New Zealand posed a “low risk” of covid-19 transmission in ov Australia.
Right now, New Zealand’s borders are closed to international travelers under restrictions to limit the spread of coronavirus. McCormack said it would be up to Arden to decide whether to make an exception for Austral Australians.
“If (New Zealand’s Prime Minister) Jacinda Arden … if the Australian wants to go to New Zealand, it will be up to him and New Zealand to decide how and under what circumstances,” McCormick said.
Under the Commonwealth Coronavirus Hotspot System developed by Act Australian Chief Health Officer Fischer Paul Kelly, a city is considered a “Covid-19 hotspot” if it has an average of 10 locally acquired coronavirus cases or at least 30 cases over a three-day period. Three days in a row.
For rural or regional areas, the number is lower – an average of three coronavirus cases received locally in three days or nine cases in three days.
McCormack said South Australia is likely to be the next state to come on board with the definition, although he could not confirm that.
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