Cook Islands travel bubble expected bymay
New Zealand and the Cook Islands are working towards a travel bubble by May, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.
The statement was made during an official visit by Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown yesterday. Brown said he was confident quarantine-free travel could be achieved in that timeframe.
Brown was officially welcomed by Ardern in Auckland. Brown, the first international leader officially welcomed into the country since the coronavirus struck, was accorded a Ma¯ori welcome at the Auckland War Memorial Museum grounds by Nga¯ti Wha¯tua rakei, who performed a wero and powhiri.
Both leaders had aimed for two-way quarantine-free travel by the end of this month but after two level 3 lockdowns related to Auckland’s February cluster, that was unlikely to happen.
There is currently one-way travel allowed from Rarotonga, which began in January, with no quarantine required for new arrivals into New Zealand.
Brown said before his arrival he was hoping to progress active discussions on two-way travel in his talks with Ardern.
He said he would be working very hard to secure a confirmed new date for the twoway quarantine-free travel. ‘‘There is noone who wants those borders open more than me, both as the prime minister and as the minister of finance,’’ Brown said. ‘‘I know better than anyone the costs our business community is bearing.’’
Cook Islands recently took another step to strengthening travel opportunities with the roll-out of its new contact tracing app, Cooksafe+, compatible with New Zealand’s tracer app. Developed in conjunction with Rush Digital RUSH, the same software design and technology provider used by New Zealand’s Ministry of Health to build its NZ Covid Tracer app, Cooksafe+ utilises Bluetooth technology.
Pacific health expert Colin Tukuitonga said the upgrade of the Cook Islands tracer app was vital. He visited Rarotonga recently to assess its health structure and how New Zealand could make two-way quarantine free travel as safe as possible.
He said both governments already had checks in place to minimise spread, such as mandatory Covid-19 free results 96 hours before travel and strict overnight isolation for flight crews.
The Cook Islands Government also set up a new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) lab to lift its testing capabilities for Covid-19.