New Zealanders will once again be allowed to fly into Australia without undergoing quarantine, after three cases linked to a mutant COVID-19 strain caused Australian authorities to put the safe travel zone on hold.
Green zone flights between Australia and New Zealand will resume from 2pm today, Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd has announced.
Professor Kidd said the move was made because New Zealand hadn't recorded any new COVID-19 infections after the initial three cases of the B1351 variant, commonly known as the South African variant, were detected.
"The three cases all originated from transmission within hotel quarantine at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland," Professor Kidd said.
"All close contacts of these three New Zealand cases have returned negative test results and there have been no further cases found to date in the casual contacts, in the previous residents of the hotel or in the staff of the hotel."
However, New Zealanders won't be completely free of coronavirus restrictions.
They will have to undergo pre and post-flight COVID-19 screening for the next 10 days.
As well as monitoring for coronavirus symptoms, the screening will ensure no one who flies to Australia is a close contact of a confirmed case or has visited any of the contact tracing areas of interest without receiving a negative COVID-19 test.
In addition, travellers must have spent at least 14 days in New Zealand before making the trip to Australia, not including time spent in their quarantine hotels.
