January 25th local time, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt announced that Australia will suspend its one-way “travel bubble” program with New Zealand for at least 72 hours due to the local community transmission of COVID-19 cases in New Zealand due to “precaution”.
Australia also requires that all people arriving in Australia from New Zealand from January 14 must be quarantined and tested for COVID-19 until they get negative results.
Last October, Australia unilaterally opened the “Travel Bubble” program, a green channel for travel with New Zealand, allowing New Zealanders to enter parts of Australia without isolation.
On January 24, the New Zealand Health Department announced that a 56-year-old woman in the North Island of New Zealand tested positive for COVID-19 after completing 14 days of entry quarantine.
On the 25th, the health department confirmed that the woman was infected with the mutant novel coronavirus found in South Africa.
Previously, another confirmed case was found in her quarantine hotel.
The woman, who tested negative for COVID-19 twice during the quarantine, was released from quarantine on 13 January and had traveled to many places in the southern part of the Northern Region before developing symptoms, according to the New Zealand health department.
Apart from the above two confirmed cases, there is no more people infected with the novel coronavirus.
