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NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Announces Plans For COVID Travel Bubble With AustraliaWELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - APRIL 06: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on April 06, 2021 in Wellington, New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia will start on Monday 19 April. The travel bubble will aid economic recovery by safely opening up international travel between the two countries while continuing to pursue a COVID-19 elimination strategy. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the suspension of travel from India would begin on 11 April Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the suspension of travel from India would begin on 11 April Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

New Zealand suspends travel from India after jump in Covid-19 cases

This article is more than 2 years old

PM Jacinda Ardern said the government would look at risk management measures during suspension

New Zealand has temporarily suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, for about two weeks following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from the South Asian country.

The move comes after New Zealand recorded 23 new positive coronavirus cases at its border on Thursday, of which 17 were from India.

“We are temporarily suspending entry into New Zealand for travellers from India,” the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said in a news conference in Auckland.

India is battling a deadly second wave of Covid-19 with daily infections this week passing the peak of the first wave seen last September.

The suspension will start on 11 April and will be in place until 28 April. During this time the government will look at risk management measures to resume travel.

“I want to emphasise that while arrivals of Covid from India has prompted this measure, we are looking at how we manage high risk points of departure generally. This is not a country specific risk assessment,” Ardern said.

New Zealand has virtually eliminated the virus within its borders, and has not reported any community transmission locally for about 40 days.

But it’s been reviewing its border settings as more people with infections arrive in New Zealand, the majority from India.

Ardern said the rolling average of positive cases has been steadily rising and hit 7 cases on Wednesday, the highest since last October.

New Zealand on Thursday also reported one new locally infected case in a worker who was employed at a coronavirus managed isolation facility. The 24-year-old was yet to be vaccinated.

The travel suspension came just two days after New Zealand announced it would be launching a trans-Tasman travel bubble with Australia on 19 April.

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