One of New Zealand’s top epidemiologists says the Government's decision to pause quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Western Australia was the correct one.
It comes after two people in Australia spent several days in the community while infectious, leading to a snap three-day lockdown in Perth.
Yesterday, the Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced a temporary suspension on travel between New Zealand and WA to "set out in our Trans-Tasman bubble protocols".
University of Otago's Dr Michael Baker said there was a "very low" chance of an outbreak in New Zealand should a person from Australia arrive in the country while infected with Covid-19.
"A lot of planning has gone into the green zone with Australian quarantine-free travel ... [it] does have a range of scenarios built into it," he told 1 NEWS.
"A wide range of options from very small outbreaks or border failures where the source is well defined, right up to a poorly controlled outbreak.
"So, really, the system is designed for these kinds of scenarios."
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a traffic light system designed to manage the trans-Tasman travel bubble.
Ardern said people travelling between the two countries will do so "under the guidance of ‘flyer beware’."
"People will need to plan for the possibility of having travel disrupted if there is an outbreak," she said.
From April 19, quarantine-free travel from Australia will be possible but it’s a case of “flyer beware”.
"Just as we have our alert level settings for managing cases in New Zealand, we will also now have a framework for managing New Zealanders in the event of an outbreak in Australia, which involves three possible scenarios: continue, pause, suspend."
Meanwhile, numbers given to 1 NEWS on Thursday suggest many Australians travelling to New Zealand are following advice and downloading the NZ COVID Tracer app.
Statistics from the App Store and Play Store indicate the NZ COVID Tracer app was downloaded on 6200 iPhones and 3200 Android phones with their region set to Australia since the travel bubble was announced on April 6.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Health said they'd "like to remind visitors from Australia that even if their phone region is set to Australia, they can download the NZ COVID Tracer app if they search for the exact name of the app or follow a working link".
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