New Zealand will again suspend quarantine-free travel between Australia and its own country for at least eight weeks from Friday evening. As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced, the decision was made because Australia is fighting against an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
“We have always said that as the virus developed, our response would evolve. This is not a decision we made lightly, but it is the right decision to protect the New Zealanders, ”said Ardern.
Majority of Australians in lockdown
New Zealand had already taken this measure at the end of June, but only for three days at that time. In Australia, after a sharp increase in the number of infections in large parts of the country – in the metropolises of Sydney and Melbourne as well as the state of South Australia with the city of Adelaide – a strict lockdown was recently imposed again. Almost 14 of the 25 million Australians are in lockdown.
New Zealand, with around 4.8 million inhabitants, has had just over 2,800 infections since the pandemic began, with 26 people dying with or from the virus.
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