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(CNN) – Australia will establish a travel corridor with New Zealand to allow quarantine-free tourism, and flights are likely to start in a few weeks, but there is a catch.
The quarantine-free travel will initially be one-way only, from New Zealand to Australia, and a limited number of destinations will be included in the deal, according to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.
At a press conference in Canberra on Friday, McCormack said Australian states and territories that follow Commonwealth-approved travel restrictions could be included in the new agreements.
For now, the travel bubble will include only New South Wales and the Northern Territory. It will start at 12:01 on Friday, October 16.
McCormack said New Zealanders who have not been to a coronavirus hotspot in the previous 14 days would be allowed to enter Australia without having to isolate themselves. Under existing rules, anyone flying to Australia must undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine at the hotel, at your own expense.
“This is the first stage of what we hope to see as a trans-Tasman bubble between the two countries, not just that state and that territory,” McCormack said.
“I just got off the phone from the Chief Minister (of the Northern Territory) (Michael) Gunner, who says the fish are biting and the beers are cold. And he wants to see as many of his New Zealand cousins and friends as possible.
McCormack said the Australian Department of Health had determined that New Zealand had a “low risk” of transmission of Covid-19 to Australia.
Right now, New Zealand’s borders are closed to international travelers under restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
“If (New Zealand Prime Minister) Jacinda Ardern … wants Australians to go to New Zealand, then it will be up to her and New Zealand how those agreements can be implemented and under what conditions,” McCormack said.
Under the Commonwealth coronavirus hotspot system, developed by Acting Australian Health Director Paul Kelly, a city is considered a ‘Covid-19 hotspot’ if it has an average of 10 locally acquired coronavirus cases during three days, or at least 30 cases over three consecutive days.
For rural or regional areas, the number is lower: a three-day average of three locally acquired coronavirus cases, or nine cases over three days.
McCormack said South Australia is likely the next state to join the definition, although he could not confirm this.
