New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday the country will form a “travel bubble” with the Cook Islands, allowing quarantine-free travel between the two nations beginning on May 17.
At a news press briefing in Wellington, Ardern said the two nations were able to make the arrangement since they both showed a strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New Zealand’s national rate of infection is below two percent.
One-way quarantine-free travel from the Cook Islands to New Zealand has been permitted since January.
Last month New Zealand and Australia began a similar arrangement for quarantine-free travel. Travelers to each country cannot be awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test, cannot have had a positive result in the previous 14 days and cannot be experiencing symptoms.
Ardern also said New Zealand would help the Cook Islands with their COVID-19 vaccine rollout, supplying enough Pfizer-BioNTech doses to immunize their entire population.
The Cook Islands, about 3,200 kilometers northeast of New Zealand, depend heavily on New Zealand tourists for their economy.
New Zealand Announces ‘Travel Bubble’ with Cook Islands
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the two nations were able to make the arrangement since they both showed a strong response to the COVID-19 pandemic.