Covid 19 coronavirus: South Australia outbreak highlights risk of hasty bubble, prime minister says

A Covid-19 outbreak in South Australia shows why it is important that New Zealand has not been in a rush to organize more flexible transtasman trips, says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

A cluster in the state has risen from three cases yesterday to 17 this morning, casting doubt on moves to reopen Australia’s internal borders for Christmas, just days after the plans were announced.

The outbreak prompted warnings and closures in Adelaide, and was now causing panic on the interstate, and Western Australian Prime Minister Mark McGowan made a swift decision requiring anyone entering from South Australia to enter mandatory hotel quarantine. for 14 days.

Queensland was now the last jurisdiction to follow suit and announce that they will also close the border with parts of South Australia as of midnight tonight.

Australia has previously indicated that it wants a “hot spot” regime for travel between states, where borders were not closed until there were as many as 10 or more cases daily for three days.

While New Zealand health officials have been exploring how unquarantine travel with Australia could work, Ardern has pointed out that the hotspot regime could prove too risky for our country.

Speaking to the media today, Ardern said: “For me, what is happening in South Australia only further reinforces the importance of having a good understanding of how Australia intends to manage its internal borders when there are outbreaks. .

“Because, of course, if they have an outbreak, but they have instituted strong border controls, then it is manageable.”

“But if they have a tolerance level for community transmission that is higher than ours, then that is problematic. So those are still issues that we are working on.”

He said it was important to make sure there was a good understanding of the protocols that existed between each state.

“But I think what it underlines is why it’s so important that New Zealand didn’t rush into this,” he said.

“They have had a very long period of very, very successful, but they are experiencing the reality that we all have, that, from time to time, you have cases.

“So it’s just a matter of us having a good understanding of how it’s managed and doing a risk assessment.

“We have a very low tolerance for risk … we currently have good economic freedom because of that.”

Ardern has previously said that he hoped to have some sort of trans-transman travel arrangements by the end of the year, but there were no indications of imminent round-trip trips without quarantine, as some Australian outlets have recently claimed.

New Zealand’s borders have been closed to international travel since March, except for returning New Zealanders and waivers for healthcare workers and some key industries.

In September, New South Wales and the Northern Territory began accepting travelers from New Zealand without requiring them to self-quarantine.

But that’s a one-way arrangement. Kiwis returning to New Zealand still need to do their 14-day period in controlled isolation. And Australian tourists cannot travel to New Zealand.

– Additional reports: news.com.au