Sydney, Jan. 25, (dpa/GNA) – Australia on Monday suspended quarantine-free travel for air passengers from New Zealand for 72 hours due to concerns about a case of a more transmittable strain of the novel coronavirus discovered there.
Since October, people have been able to fly from New Zealanders to Australia without quarantining, if they had been in New Zealand for 14 days or more and not been in a designated hotspot.
However, New Zealand on Sunday said it was working to contain any potential community transmission of coronavirus after a woman who had recently left isolation tested positive.
Authorities were later able to confirm that the woman had been infected with a highly infectious variant of the disease first discovered in South Africa.
There has been no known community transmission in the country since November, with all recorded cases being in arrivals from overseas.
She had returned to New Zealand from Europe on December 30 and tested positive on Saturday after completing the mandatory 14-day managed isolation in Auckland and returning home, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said.
The woman tested negative for the illness twice during her isolation, but developed symptoms of the illness on her return home to Northland on New Zealand’s North Island.
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Canberra on Monday that people should reconsider their need to travel.
“Anyone who has arrived in Australia on a flight from New Zealand on or since January 14 is asked to isolate and arrange to be tested and to remain in isolation until they have a negative test,” he added.
GNA