New Zealand suspends bubble to all of Australia

New Zealand has suspended the trans-Tasman bubble to all of Australia for the first time – and hinted it could restart with passengers requiring a negative test to fly. “There are now multiple cases and outbreaks in Australia in differing stages of containment and the health risk for New Zealand in response to these cases is increasing,” said the country’s COVID Response Minister, Chris Hipkins. The move, set to initially last until Tuesday night, follows NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian putting the Greater Sydney region into a snap lockdown at just four hours’ notice. The city’s Bondi cluster grew by an extra 11 cases on Saturday, recording 29 locally acquired cases by 8pm Friday. Minister Hipkins said he was taking the “precautionary step of temporarily widening” the pause to NSW to include all of Australia. “I acknowledge the frustration and inconvenience that comes with this pause, but given the high level of transmissibility of what appears to be the Delta variant, and the fact that there are now multiple community clusters, it is the right thing to do to keep COVID-19 out of New Zealand,” he said on Saturday night. The introduction of pre-flight testing would be a significant change to the arrangement, and mirror similar arrangements introduced in countries such as the UK. On a dramatic Saturday afternoon in Sydney, Premier Berejiklian said there was “no point” in locking down the city for a few days, and her health advice was to sanction a two-week lockdown.<br/>