By Elishya Perera
SYDNEY, Australia (CWBN)_Hundreds of passengers from New Zealand arrived in the first of the trans-Tasman flights in Sydney yesterday (Oct 15). According to a new agreement between the two nations, passengers from New Zealand will be permitted to travel quarantine-free into New South Wales and the Northern Territory, if they have not been in a COVID-19 hotspot, 14 days prior to the flight.
In March this year, as new COVID-19 cases continued to surge, Australia declared a new travel ban on all non-residents and non-citizens coming into the country. While the nation endured a second wave of infections recently, only one new locally acquired case was reported in New South Wales, in the past 24 hours.
According to Air New Zealand, around 90 percent of those who traveled with the Airline yesterday were booked to travel one-way, since they would still have to complete 14 days of quarantine when they return to New Zealand, at a personal cost of around $NZ 3100 ($2900) for the first person, and more for additional family members. This is owing to the fact that the arrangements are not yet reciprocal.
Meanwhile, New South Wales State Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said that she hoped New Zealand would loosen restrictions on people arriving from Australia shortly, however, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters, observed that it’s better to be safe than sorry. “I think in Australia’s case, we are only a few days away to be able to say certain states are on top of (the virus) so to speak,” he said.
Nevertheless, the current arrangements provide a glimmer of hope for the struggling tourism sector in Australia.
Edited By Chathushka Perera
