In a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19, New Zealand and Australian governments have issued travel bans on all foreign nationals travelling into the countries.
Australia has placed a travel ban on all non-residents coming to Australia (excluding direct family members), effective tomorrow, March 20, 21h00 AEDT, said Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, in a statement.
New Zealand’s travel ban, impacting any tourist or temporary visa holder, will come into effect from midnight today (March 19) but will exclude returning New Zealanders and humanitarian health workers, said New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, in a statement.
“All of the cases of COVID-19 identified in New Zealand relate to people travelling to New Zealand and bringing the virus with them – therefore we need to further restrict the risk of people bringing the virus into New Zealand,” Jacinda said in a statement.
In response to Australia’s new travel restrictions, Carla da Silva, Air Mauritius regional manager of Southern Africa and Latin America, told eTNW the airline would cut all flights to Perth for the next 14 days.
eTNW had not received a response from Qantas regarding flights at the time of going to press.
