Wellington : New Zealand announced Friday it will keep its border closed to Australia for at least another eight weeks, said dpa international.
The so-called Trans-Tasman bubble began in April and allowed Australians and New Zealanders to travel between the two countries without the need to quarantine.
However, New Zealand paused the bubble in July as its neighbour struggled to contain new Covid-19 outbreaks.
When the bubble was established, both countries had “very few recent cases” of community transmission and a similar elimination strategy, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Australia is battling several outbreaks. The state of New South Wales has seen the highest case numbers and has been the first part of Australia to start shifting from an elimination strategy to a vaccination strategy.
New Zealand meanwhile is continuing efforts to contain an outbreak in its largest city, Auckland.
The travel bubble will be reviewed again in November to allow time for the country’s vaccination rates to improve.
New Zealand, a country of 5 million, has recorded about 3,650 coronavirus infections and 27 deaths.
Meanwhile, Australia, a country of some 25 million people, has recorded around 1,100 deaths and more than 80,000 cases since the pandemic began.
