New Zealanders trapped in New South Wales have had their escape flights cancelled at the eleventh hour and will now have to isolate on their eventual return.
Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins has giving an update on the trans-Tasman bubble after New South Wales (NSW) this afternoon announced 44 new cases of Covid-19 in the community.
Watch the announcement here:
Hipkins said Cabinet had decided to delay "return green flights" from NSW meant to repatriate people, which were due to start at 11.59pm tonight.
New Zealand would not resume "green flights" with NSW until the government was confident the outbreak had been contained, Hipkins said.
The earliest flight to come in would be from Tuesday.
Anyone arriving into New Zealand from NSW will also now be required to spend 14 days in MIQ. They will not have to pay for their stay.
The government expected to free up 1000 rooms for people travelling from NSW, and would work on releasing more rooms in the near future.
Hipkins asked those who did not need to urgently return to New Zealand "to hold back", to allow those who urgently need to travel to do so.
Travellers should expect to hear from airlines in the next 24 hours and further information will also be on the Covid-19 website in the next 24 hours, Hikpins said.
"Clearly there is an escalating risk in New South Wales and no one wants to see Covid-19 coming into New Zealand, which is why we have made this difficult decision and I acknowledge that for people who have been stuck in NSW for some time now that this will be a difficult decision for them, it further delays their ability to return home and it does mean for those returning home that they will be doing 14 days in MIQ. It is one of the risks in travelling at the moment."
About 2000 to 2500 people were in NSW waiting to return and would be affected by today's decision, Hipkins said.
Hipkins said it was better to do it this way than have Covid-19 cases arrive in the country.
Cabinet's concern grew yesterday as NSW's premier expressed concern people were not following the rules, he said.
"That adds additional risk to us here in New Zealand."
He said it was a "last-minute call". Cabinet started working on it last night.
Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Flights for returning New Zealanders based in Queensland would resume at 11.59pm tonight as the Covid-19 situation in the state was contained, Hipkins said.
Internal border restrictions in Australia are very tight, so the government was confident someone in NSW would not be able to arrive from New Zealand from another state.
"They will almost certainly be caught, if not by Australia, by New Zealand - and there will be consequences for that."
About 10 percent of people departing Australia to New Zealand were "more thoroughly checked", but everyone had to declare if they had a pre-departure test, Hipkins said.
New Zealand officials were also based in Australia doing random checks, and about 50 percent of people were checked upon arrival in New Zealand but the government was looking at increasing that figure..
"So we have been picking up people who haven't been following the rules.
"I think there is big disincentive for people not to break the rules here," Hipkins said, citing they would have to spend time in MIQ or face fines.
"We will continue to look at this but those people are breaking the law and they should be following the rules."
In NSW, Premier Gladys Berejiklian today announced new restrictions would be put in place as the upward trend of cases continued to worry authorities in the Australian state.
She stressed the importance of strict lockdown measures to avoid deaths.
"Do not think that the NSW Government thinks we can live with this when our rate of vaccination is only at 9 percent," she said.
Hipkins would not comment on Australia's management of Covid-19, saying it was down to individual states.