Quarantine-free travel from Sydney will be paused following the detection of two new Covid-19 cases in the community.
Flights from New South Wales will be suspended for 48 hours from 11.59pm Thursday.
Around 6000 people who arrived from Sydney over the last six days will be contacted by the National Contact Tracing team via email, and then over the phone, if required. Passengers will be asked if they visited any of the locations of interest linked to the community cases in Sydney.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said they would then lift the travel restrictions or extend them, depending on how the situation unfolds. New Zealand health officials have been working with their Australian counterparts since the case emerged.
The decision was made following the detection of two community cases in Sydney. The cases have been serologically linked to a case at the border, but how they were infected remains unknown.
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It is possible” there’s a missing link with these cases, he said.
Hipkins acknowledged the flight pause will cause disruptions for travellers, but the possibility of turning the tap off and on was worked into the trans-Tasman bubble arrangement from the start.
This isnt a decision we take lightly, but we indicated when we opened up the trans-Tasman travel bubble that we would continue to be cautious.
The travel pause affected flights coming to New Zealand from NSW. It was up to New South Wales to make a decision on flights arriving in Sydney, Hipkins said.
Hipkins said he has a lot of confidence in the NSW contact tracing system, and is confident they’ll know more in the next 24 to 48 hours.
We’ve just got to let them do their job, he said.
On Thursday, Australian officials confirmed the wife of the man who tested positive for the virus on Wednesday had also returned a positive test result.
New South Wales (NSW) Health said the mans case had been linked to an overseas traveller who brought the virus into the country, but officials still dont know how it spread between the two people.
A range of restrictions have been announced for the greater Sydney area following emergence of the virus in the community.
The wife of a man who had tested positive for Covid-19 in Sydney, has also returned a positive test.
Officials in talks
Speaking to media, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said they are monitoring the situation across the ditch very closely.
He said health officials were in close contact with Australian officials, and further talks were underway on Thursday afternoon.
Well continue to monitor it, and obviously well make decisions where we need to.
At this stage, flights between New Zealand and Sydney are continuing, with some additional screening measures added for Australian passengers travelling to Aotearoa.
Hipkins said if a decision was made to pause any flights, then they could do that reasonably quickly. If were to pause, it would take effect probably tomorrow [Friday], taking into account flight schedules and logistics, he said.
He added that New South Wales had a very good contact tracing system.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says NZ officials are monitoring the situation in Sydney.
The Sydney outbreak is made up of an Indian variant of Covid-19, but not a variant of concern, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant told Australian media on Thursday.
A range of restrictions have been announced for the greater Sydney area in order to curb any potential spread of the virus. From 5pm (local time) no more than 20 visitors are allowed peoples homes, including for weddings.
Mask-wearing at indoor places will be compulsory for the next three days, as well as on public transport and supermarkets.
Travel bubble with Sydney
From Thursday, all flights from Sydney to New Zealand are operating with additional passenger health screening in place prior to boarding, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said.
The measures were put in place at the request of the Ministry of Health.
The screening asks whether the traveller has recently been in any locations of interest in New South Wales.
Flight schedules had not been impacted as a result of the community case in Sydney, she added on Thursday morning.
From Thursday, all flights from Sydney to New Zealand are operating with additional passenger health screening in place prior to boarding, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said.
Officials search for missing link
Australian officials confirmed the new community case in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. The man is in his 50s and lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Genomic sequencing has linked that man to a traveller who returned from the United States and stayed at a managed isolation facility, the Park Royal at Darling Harbour.
The traveller tested positive for Covid-19 on day 1 and moved to a quarantine facility on April 28.
NSW Health officials are reviewing CCTV footage to look at how the transmission occurred and raised concerns about the missing link between the two cases.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told Australian media that the man was very active in the community before he tested positive to the virus.
9 Newsreported that close to 20 venues have been revealed as locations of interest in Sydney, including a gym, chemist, supermarket, and a golf club.
The man was tested on Tuesday, but officials believe he may have been infectious since Friday, April 30, 9 News reported.
Berejiklian said the new restrictions announced for great Sydney were reasonable, adding that they know for sure that someone infectious with Covid-19 had been moving around in the community.
At least one person with the virus has been going around their business and we haven’t found them yet, she told Australian media.
We don’t know where they’ve been. We don’t know if they’ve been to major events. We don’t know who they’ve sat next to.
The measures, particularly the use of masks, would help protect members of the community, The Guardian reported her saying.
On Wednesday, New Zealands Ministry of Health deemed the public health risk as low, and recommended no change to quarantine-free travel with Australia.