COVID-19: travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand to stay paused until 12 November

New Zealand Deputy prime minister Grant Robertson confirmed that the no-quarantine travel bubble would continue to remain closed for another 8 weeks, taking us through to 12 November.

Gosh, my planned trip to the north island timed for the end of November might still happen. Yep, I know, I don’t believe it either.

New Zealand case numbers

Auckland seems to be the habitat for the virus in New Zealand, with 11 cases reported yesterday, all in the north island’s major city. Despite having over 1,000 cases in this latest outbreak, NZ is confident that it can eliminate the virus, on the evidence that infection rate is already trending down.

Australian case numbers

With case numbers possibly stabilising in Sydney, but still rising in Victoria, New Zealand is not willing to open its borders any time soon.

Vaccination

From a slow start, NZ is going gangbusters with its vaccination rollout reaching just shy of 70% of the over 12s this week for one shot, and 35% fully vaxed. That has allowed the government to look at further dropping of restrictions next week

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

Good news for NZ. My holiday plans are not completely off the table, although hope is dim for travelling to the land of the long white cloud in late November, early December. Still, there is a glimmer of hope.

New Zealand, assisted by their remoteness and island nature has dealt with the virus admirably. Still, that Delta variant highlights every gap of inequality and social justice in every country it reaches. It should be a lesson to all of us.