New Zealand on Thursday temporarily suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, for about two weeks following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from the South Asian country.
The move comes after New Zealand recorded 23 new positive coronavirus cases at its border on Thursday, of which 17 were from India.
"We are temporarily suspending entry into New Zealand for travellers from India," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a news conference in Auckland.
India is battling a deadly second wave of COVID-19 with daily infections this week passing the peak of the first wave seen last September.
The suspension will start from 1600 local time on April 11and will be in place until April 28. During this time thegovernment will look at risk management measures to resumetravel.
"I want to emphasize that while arrivals of COVID fromIndia has prompted this measure, we are looking at how we managehigh risk points of departure generally. This is not a countryspecific risk assessment...," Ardern said.
New Zealand has virtually eliminated the virus within itsborders, and has not reported any community transmission locallyfor about 40 days.
But it's been reviewing its border settings as more peoplewith infections arrive in New Zealand recently, majority beingfrom India.
Ardern said the rolling average of positive cases has beensteadily rising and hit 7 cases on Wednesday, the highest sincelast October.
New Zealand on Thursday also reported one new locallyinfected case in a worker who was employed at a coronavirusmanaged isolation facility. The 24-year-old was yet to be vaccinated.
