Vaccinations against Covid-19 won’t guarantee travellers won’t bring Covid-19 to New Zealand, the World Health Organization says.
As the year progresses more returnees will be arriving into the country inoculated against the virus as countries such as the UK and US continue to roll out Covid-19 vaccinations.
However, this does not mean returnees won’t be able to transmit the virus on to others.
“We don’t know if any of the vaccines actually prevent transmission,” World Health Organization’s Dr Margaret Harris told 1 NEWS.
“What we do know is the ones that are actually coming through that have passed the Emergency Use Listing Procedure do protect against disease.”
With no evidence of protection against transmission, forming a travel bubble with countries that currently have low transmission of the virus is important, Harris says.
“You’ll need to look at what the transmission is like in the countries that are coming to you.
“The focus should be on what’s happening in the countries sending people into your country.
“Have they brought transmission down? Are the people coming in likely to have the virus in their systems? How can we monitor them?How can we ensure that they’re are not unknowingly [bringing it in], because we now know many, many people are asymptomatic carriers of the virus.”
New Zealand to move slowly on travel bubble
Last year, Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins spoke about the difficultly of forming a trans-Tasman travel bubble while trying to keep the virus out of the community.
“We’ve got to work through what would happen in the event of a resurgence, that’s one of the things we have to work through - we’ve got to work through a lot of logistical issues, which includes working with the airports and the airlines.
“One of the issues that we are working through with the airlines now is making sure that any air crews who are working in safe travel zones are segregated from air crews who are working in the hot zones, if you like.
“That’s a logistical challenge for an airline like Air New Zealand who are the main airline flying in and out of New Zealand,” Hipkins said.
“So, there are two things really to finally resolve: logistics and scenario-planning in the event of an outbreak.”
Cook Islands becomes first one-way travel bubble
A travel bubble with some Pacific Island nations could be on the cards with today's announcement of a one-way travel bubble with the Cook Islands.
From January 21 Cook Islanders can travel into New Zealand without undergoing quarantine.
This will allow Cook Islanders to access essential services in New Zealand.
The new travel arrangements don’t apply to New Zealanders travelling to the Cook Islands.
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