Travel Bubble to Cooks

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mattwnz

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#2540373 13-Aug-2020 17:47

MikeAqua:

The long term solution is IMO either: -

Vaccine
Virus attenuates and becomes less virulent

Quarantines can work longer term. NZs economy depends on quarantines for livestock etc, and they do work. But obviously something has gone wrong with our one, if that is how it got through into the community.

I hope the investigation will find out what has failed in this case, if it has come through this route. But I guess they need to find patient zero first. I hope we learn from how Australia are doing their quarantines, and also their investigation into their leak in Victoria .

pvjones

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#2540388 13-Aug-2020 18:29

Countries in Europe will have international tourism because they are in the same leaky boat but I can’t see the Pacific Islands, Australia, and NZ following suit. Until vaccines arrive on the scene I think we can put our passports in a safe location. Trans Tasman could be 2 years away.

tdgeek

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#2540518 13-Aug-2020 20:16

mattwnz:

Quarantines can work longer term. NZs economy depends on quarantines for livestock etc, and they do work. But obviously something has gone wrong with our one, if that is how it got through into the community.

I hope the investigation will find out what has failed in this case, if it has come through this route. But I guess they need to find patient zero first. I hope we learn from how Australia are doing their quarantines, and also their investigation into their leak in Victoria .

For the 43rd time, we are not quarantining based on imprisonment. CT is expected. If we banned all Kiwis, imported products and imprisoned infections, we would be fine... Its not like that. We need to manage some form of existence, and mitigate the risk.

Scott3

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#2541374 14-Aug-2020 22:21

Scott3:

It is likely off the table now yes, but I disagree that the Cook Islands dodged a bullet, even with what is currently unfolding.

It appears that NZ's Covid-19 surveillance is sufficient to pick up large clusters in the community.

The cook islands could (and likely would) close it's border within hours of community transmission of Covid-19 in NZ.

The odds of one of the few (under 100) infected people out of 5,000,000 people in NZ traveling to the cook islands in the days between community infection occurring & getting picked up and announced is very, very low.

Sounds like the miss was a lot closer than I thought. Despite the relatively small number of infected, one happened to be an influential doctor in the cook island community.

Likely many of cook island community would be exempt from current travel restrictions, but sounds like the small number of flights currently on offer and luck of timing has meant the next flight will be properly managed.

[edit] decision has been made to block the flight rather than manage it:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122459152/coronavirus-concern-over-rarotonga-flight-after-aucklandbased-cook-islands-doctor-tests-positive-for-covid19-reports

xlinknz

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#2541458 15-Aug-2020 10:02

Scott3:

Scott3:

It is likely off the table now yes, but I disagree that the Cook Islands dodged a bullet, even with what is currently unfolding.

It appears that NZ's Covid-19 surveillance is sufficient to pick up large clusters in the community.

The cook islands could (and likely would) close it's border within hours of community transmission of Covid-19 in NZ.

The odds of one of the few (under 100) infected people out of 5,000,000 people in NZ traveling to the cook islands in the days between community infection occurring & getting picked up and announced is very, very low.

Sounds like the miss was a lot closer than I thought. Despite the relatively small number of infected, one happened to be an influential doctor in the cook island community.

Likely many of cook island community would be exempt from current travel restrictions, but sounds like the small number of flights currently on offer and luck of timing has meant the next flight will be properly managed.

[edit] decision has been made to block the flight rather than manage it:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122459152/coronavirus-concern-over-rarotonga-flight-after-aucklandbased-cook-islands-doctor-tests-positive-for-covid19-reports

The sequence of events is not yet clear. The 30 odd people scheduled for that flight were expected to have a negative test by the Cooks Govt as required by them Wed. It appears what may have occurred is a well known Cooks doctor in AKL tested positive and presumably the NZ govt would want to contact trace all his contacts (likely Cooks Community?) and test and that was not going to occur by the time of the flight. It is also unclear whether the NZ govt had visibility of the test results of those boarding the flight as that was requested by the Cooks govt? Add as the Cooks requirement for a negative test only occurred Wed so at best a day 2 only test could have been done for those boarding which is not a certain way to determine no infection.

All these combined has it seems lead the NZ Govt to tell advise Cooks Govt to not allow the flight to depart with passengers and they agreed very late late night

All in all the right decision.

xlinknz

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#2562056 11-Sep-2020 10:01

A private proposal from the Cooks as an alternative or precursor to the full travel bubble

http://www.cookislandsnews.com/national/economy/item/78447-private-sector-lobbies-govt-to-allow-long-term-tourism

The challenge the Cooks has is that the proposed full travel bubble with NZ which has all but been finalized is in its current form predicted on no or zero community transmission in NZ which may never occur...

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wellygary

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#2562064 11-Sep-2020 10:10

xlinknz:

A private proposal from the Cooks as an alternative or precursor to the full travel bubble

http://www.cookislandsnews.com/national/economy/item/78447-private-sector-lobbies-govt-to-allow-long-term-tourism

The challenge the Cooks has is that the proposed full travel bubble with NZ which has all but been finalized is in its current form predicted on no or zero community transmission in NZ which may never occur...

"Upon return to New Zealand, the taskforce suggests allowing tourists to bypass the mandatory quarantine requirements currently in place as they’d be travelling, presumably, from a Covid-19-free country.

Any mandatory paid quarantine requirement in New Zealand, if applicable, would be replaced with Covid-19 testing and a requirement for self-quarantine at the tourist’s place of residence."

I can tell you now, that ain't gonna happen, They would slugged for 14 days of hotel based MIQ...

But in the grand scheme of things that should not be a problem stopping the Cooks looking at do things at their end.

They are marketing this is a scheme for wealthy NZ "digital nomads" who can work remotely, so after up to 6 months working from the Cooks, doing it from a NZ hotel room wouldn't really be a chore...

Senecio

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#2562075 11-Sep-2020 10:29

wellygary:

They are marketing this is a scheme for wealthy NZ "digital nomads" who can work remotely, so after up to 6 months working from the Cooks, doing it from a NZ hotel room wouldn't really be a chore...

So they're targeting less than 0.1% of the population?

xlinknz

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#2562080 11-Sep-2020 10:36

@wellygary

I agree the Cooks could open their border to NZ citizens now for those happy to pay the MIQ or stay until the full travel bubble that has no quarantine in NZ occurs. My understanding is the current bubble agreement is predicted on no community transmission in NZ, the challenge for the Cooks with that approach is that NZ may never achieve no community transmission?

If the Cooks wait for NZ too long on NZ, NZ tourists etc will simply go to places that are either open (e.g. Singapore where no quarantine required is required for NZers) or those looking to open Fiji, New Caledonia etc

wellygary

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#2562088 11-Sep-2020 10:49

xlinknz:

If the Cooks wait for NZ too long on NZ, NZ tourists etc will simply go to places that are either open (e.g. Singapore where no quarantine required is required for NZers) or those looking to open Fiji, New Caledonia etc

I think the requirement for 14 days paid MIQ on return will keep most NZ holiday makers at home.

xlinknz

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#2591936 25-Oct-2020 22:04

A quick update here

Looks like the Cooks have finally worked out a travel bubble predicted on NZ being 28 days free of Community cases may not be achievable, since so far every 28 days NZ has got another community case albeit the last one was the port worker

So looks like they're now considering their options to open to NZ safely

Unknown is why they still have closed their border to NZ passport holders prepared to go on the same basis as Cooks passport holders i.e. MIQ if they return to NZ and 14 days managed isolation in the Cooks, a rumor is the NZ govt requested or perhaps advised the Cooks not to act unilaterally, something the NZ couldn't do with Australia...

Hopefully soon we'll hear what the new plan is

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