New Zealand opening travel bubble with Australia

New Zealand will be opening a travel bubble so visitors from neighboring Australia will not have to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival to New Zealand.

“The bubble will give our economic recovery a boost and represents a world-leading arrangement of safely opening up international travel while continuing to pursue a strategy of elimination and keeping the virus out,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

The travel bubble with Australia will begin on April 19, as both countries have succeeded in getting the coronavirus pandemic under control.

The news reportedly comes before New Zealand’s highly anticipated ski season and after families living split between the two countries have been separated for over a year.

Although Australia hasn’t had an extensive quarantine period from those coming from New Zealand, New Zealand has kept its two-week quarantine in place throughout the pandemic.

“The fact that we can now combine again will mean jobs, it will mean people reunited, it will mean many opportunities as those normal relations are restored between Australia and New Zealand,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday, according to the AP.

Airlines have already opened more flights between the countries and dropped prices, the news service noted.

The travel bubble announced on Tuesday is not anticipated to extend to any other countries.

New Zealand has only had over 2,500 reported cases of the coronavirus with over 20 deaths. Australia has had over 29,000 reported cases with over 900 deaths.