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New Zealanders wishing to travel to Australia will have to wait until the last minute to find out whether quarantine-free flights will resume after Sunday afternoon.
A 72-hour hiatus to the one-way travel bubble will expire at 4pm Sunday (New Zealand time).
Australia’s Acting Medical Director Michael Kidd announced on Saturday that the Australian Health Protection Main Committee (AHPPC) would await final test results for the contacts of three people in New Zealand diagnosed with the South African variant of Covid. -19.
They were expected to be shared on Sunday morning.
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Currently, the restrictions on the travel bubble will expire on Sunday afternoon.
“We will then provide advice to the Australian government,” he said.
New Zealand health authorities were doing an “excellent job” of following up with close contacts of community cases, as well as staff and other guests at the quarantine hotel the people shared, Kidd said.
The Australian government made the decision to close its borders to New Zealanders on Monday after the detection of a community case of Covid-19 in Northland.
The suspension of green flights was extended for an additional 72 hours on Thursday after two more cases were confirmed in Auckland.
On Saturday, Australia recorded its thirteenth consecutive day with no new community covid-19 cases, it said.
It was the longest stretch since March 2020.
Since several Australian states opened their borders to New Zealanders without the need to quarantine themselves in October, more than 16,500 people have crossed the trench.
Earlier in the week, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said the thousands of arrivals included Australians, New Zealanders and other citizens from New Zealand.
The flights would restart the eco-travel program as soon as possible, he said.
Work is also continuing on Tasmania’s bidirectional bubble. The group tasked with forming the bubble believes a deal could be in place in eight weeks.
