New Zealand and Cooks Islands Announce Quarantine free travel.
New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown announced the “Arrangement to Facilitate Quarantine-Free Travel between the Cook Islands and New Zealand” on Saturday.
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden said in a joint statement, “The arrangement recognises the special ties between New Zealand and the Cook Islands. It will allow people to travel more easily between our two-way quarantine-free travel in the first quarter of 2021. Quarantine-free access for travellers will provide for the movement of people for delivering and accessing essential services while allowing officials to finalise preparations for a safe return to two-way quarantine-free travel.”
Since the COVID-19 propelled closure of borders across the world, it would be New Zealand’s first reciprocal “travel bubble”. Citing low infection rates and their “special ties”, leaders of the South Pacific countries instructed the officials to start making arrangements to resume free travel between them from the first quarter of 2021.
Mark Brown, the Prime Minister of Cook Island called the plan “the next step towards resuming many aspects of life in the Cook Islands that have been disrupted by COVID-19, including access to health and education, and reuniting family and friends.”
The Cooks Islands is the only country to have remained free of COVID 19. In order to stop the Coronavirus spread, New Zealand in March joined the countries around the world in shutting its border. Neighbour Australia has opened its border and wants to have similar travel bubble with New Zealand but so far New Zealand has declined.
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