Following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from the South Asian nation, New Zealand briefly suspended entry for all visitors from India, including its own residents, for around two weeks on Thursday.
On Thursday, New Zealand reported 23 new positive coronavirus cases at its border, 17 of which were from India.
“We are temporarily halting entry into New Zealand for Indian visitors,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a news conference in Auckland.
India is fighting a lethal second wave of COVID-19, with frequent infections this week exceeding the first wave’s high last September.
The suspension will take effect at 1600 local time on April 11 and will last until April 28. During this time, the government would consider risk control steps in order to allow for the resumption of travel.
“I’d like to stress that, while COVID arrivals from India prompted this measure, we’re still looking at how we handle high-risk points of departure in general. This is not a risk estimate for a single nation…, “Ardern said.
New Zealand has effectively eradicated the virus within its boundaries, with no reports of population spread in the last 40 days.
However, it has been updating its border settings as more people with infections have recently arrived in New Zealand, the bulk of whom are from India.
Ardern reported that the rolling average of positive cases has been slowly increasing and reached 7 on Wednesday, the highest since last October.
On Thursday, New Zealand confirmed one new locally infected case in a worker at a coronavirus-run isolation center. The 24-year-old had not been immunized.
India in the last 24 hours reported 1,26,789 fresh Covid cases were reported, setting another grim one-day record as the county battles the second wave of infections. 685 deaths in the last 24 hours pushed the total death count to 1,66,862.
