New Zealand joins Australia's coronavirus cabinet meeting to discuss travel hub

[webfact]

New Zealand joins Australia's coronavirus cabinet meeting to discuss travel hub

 

FILE PHOTO: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during a news conference prior to the anniversary of the mosque attacks that took place the prior year in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 13, 2020. REUTERS/Martin Hunter

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand's prime minister joined Australia's coronavirus cabinet meeting on Tuesday as the neighbouring countries discuss reopening their borders to trans-Tasman travel following their successes in containing the disease.

 

Both countries have a COVID-19 mortality rate of just 1% and have boosted their medical equipment reserves as they plan to slowly reopen their economies, including restarting travel across the Tasman sea.

 

Australia has recorded around 6,800 infections and 96 deaths, and New Zealand 1,137 cases and 20 fatalities.

 

Ahead of the 10:00 a.m. (1200 GMT) cabinet meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the premier of Australia's New South Wales state, Gladys Berejiklian, said she was hopeful that a travel "hub" could be formed between the two countries.

 

"We know that unfortunately international travel is a mid to long term vision, so if can establish a hub between New Zealand and Australia I think that would be a very positive move," Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney before joining the video-conferenced cabinet meeting with other state and territory leaders.

 

"I'm hoping that we'll get to a stage where our state borders can be relaxed and then we can potentially have a phenomenal New Zealand and Australia cooperation which would allow us to pull our economic resources, pull our trade opportunities but also move together into the future."

 

While Australia and New Zealand are keeping their borders closed to other countries, Ardern said on Monday the "next stage in our economic rebuild" could include trans-Tasman travel.

 

Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.

 

(Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney and Colin Packham; Editing by Stephen Coates)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-05

 

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[stevenl]

Coordination between countries, finally.

[keith101]

I would hope that every person will be tested before they travel between the 2 countries .

[inwardglee]

A similar example is East Africa with its East Africa visa, combining three countries. 

 

More of such will follow. An Indochina visa however is unthinkable at the moment, but would be extremely attractive to promote "domestic" tourism within the zone. A necessity now. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by inwardglee

[samran]

11 minutes ago, inwardglee said:

A similar example is East Africa with its East Africa visa, combining three countries. 

 

More of such will follow. An Indochina visa however is unthinkable at the moment, but would be extremely attractive to promote "domestic" tourism within the zone. A necessity now. 

Australia and New Zealand have had free movement of people for over a century with citizens able to live and work in each other’s countries with few restrictions.

 

This falls into the larger conversation of allowing that movement to restart without spreading transmission. 
 

A common visa for third country citizens isn’t on the agenda and never really has been. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by samran

[thedemon]

What that is also saying is that travel to Australia or NZ in a normal sense is a long way off.

[PingRoundTheWorld]

Good luck staying isolated for a year until there's a vaccine. Other countries will have herd immunity long before that. Limited regional tourism will begin this month, and limited international tourism in June. Thailand probably mid-June or July at the latest.

[samran]

1 hour ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

Good luck staying isolated for a year until there's a vaccine. Other countries will have herd immunity long before that. Limited regional tourism will begin this month, and limited international tourism in June. Thailand probably mid-June or July at the latest.

One year can go pretty quickly. If herd immunity happens in the rest of the world, then by definition it burns out.

 

My guess is that Australia's and NZ's undeclared goal is exactly what you write - let the rest of the world bear the brunt of the disease, so that we don't have to.

[tyga]

2 hours ago, samran said:

One year can go pretty quickly. If herd immunity happens in the rest of the world, then by definition it burns out.

 

My guess is that Australia's and NZ's undeclared goal is exactly what you write - let the rest of the world bear the brunt of the disease, so that we don't have to.

herd immunity, herd immunity, here we go again... as if anyone even knows it applies let alone it will be sufficient to base your country's covid fight on...

 

[samran]

4 hours ago, tyga said:

herd immunity, herd immunity, here we go again... as if anyone even knows it applies let alone it will be sufficient to base your country's covid fight on...

 

Fair point. I guess Australia and NZ now have the luxury of letting the rest of the world find out for us. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by samran

[coastguard]

How about Vietnam and Thailand doing the same thing? Both have very low numbers.

[Sunderland]

5 hours ago, tyga said:

herd immunity, herd immunity, here we go again... as if anyone even knows it applies let alone it will be sufficient to base your country's covid fight on...

 

You'd want to give your chief medical adviser a good slapping if (s)he encouraged herd immunity, and subsequently it was revealed that immunity only lasted 6 months. Imagine having to go through everything for a second time.

[AgMech Cowboy]

As the winter months approach I predict a severe second wave in these two counties.  I truly hope I'm wrong, but it will be with us just like the common cold.  Although, I hope it turns out to be more like SARS and MERS.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 5/5/2020 at 8:13 PM, tyga said:

herd immunity, herd immunity, here we go again... as if anyone even knows it applies let alone it will be sufficient to base your country's covid fight on...

 

Of course it applies. Why would you doubt it? What do you think a vaccine causes? Without herd immunity nothing will be "normal" ever again.