WELLINGTON: New Zealand will open a travel bubble with the tiny Cook Islands this month, adopting quarantine-free arrangements similar to those already established with Australia, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated on May 3.
Ardern stated the bubble with the South Pacific island state of about 20,000 individuals would open on May 17 and initially involve about three flights a week.
“Two-way quarantine-free travel is a significant step in each nations’ COVID-19 recovery, and a direct result of both New Zealand and the Cook Islands’ successful response to the pandemic,” she stated.
The remote Cook Islands is one of the few places in the world to remain coronavirus-free, whereas New Zealand has eliminated community transmission and recorded only 25 deaths in a population of 5 million.
The Cook Islands is self-governing in “free association” with New Zealand, meaning that while it administers its own affairs, Cook Islanders are both New Zealand citizens and Cook Islands nationals.
As a result, there are more expatriate Cook Islanders living in New Zealand than on the islands.
“The bubble will mean families can reconnect, commercial arrangements can resume and Kiwis can take a much-welcomed winter break and assist the Cook Islands’ tourism sector and recovery,” Ardern stated.
A long-awaited travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia opened last month and has been hailed as a major milestone in restarting a global travel industry gutted by the pandemic.
New Zealand opposition leader Judith Collins said that Wellington should now prioritize opening travel bubbles with Tonga and Samoa, two Pacific island nations that have detected no community cases of COVID-19.
