AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Summary
- New Mutant of COVID-19 forcing NZ Government to impose travel restrictions.
- Even Airlines worried; the national carrier of New Zealand thinking of imposing a ban on animal cargo etc.
- The new strain 1.1.7 compelled Air New Zealand to put its expansion plans on the back burner.
The exponential growth potential of the new strain of COVID-19 virus is making the public health experts worried. The new mutant is estimated to be 50% more infectious than others. It is a more serious strain and grows much faster—something that poses a big challenge as to how to control the disease. The government and airlines are imposing several restrictions on travel.
New Zealand already has 72 cases, of which 8 have been detected with the new variant of virus called B.1.1.7. Five of these cases arrived from the United Kingdom and others from South Africa.
Government Imposed Restrictions on Travel
With effect from January 15, the Government has mandated that travelers from the US and the UK coming to New Zealand must have a negative pre-departure COVID-19 test result.
This is in addition to the measures announced on January 1, according to which, the travelers coming from high-risk countries are required to have test done on the day of arrival, and one-day stay at MIQ room is also necessary, until a negative test result. Government has also mandated that all travelers will need to go into managed isolation for 14 days after their arrival in New Zealand.
Also Read: Australia, New Zealand travel bubble arrangement comes under doubt
Air New Zealand could be Imposing some restrictions
Due to the new strain of COVID-19 virus, the airlines all over the world are reviewing their arrangements to make the travel safe for their passengers.
According to a media report, the flag carrier of New Zealand, Air New Zealand (NZX:AIR), is halting animal and pet cargo from the United States (US), for the time being.
It appears to be a two-way ban, which means that while animals will not fly to New Zealand from the US, they will also not go out from New Zealand to the US. The ban seems to be stemming primarily from concern for animal welfare and re-routing of flights.
Image Source: Shutterstock
In fact, as early as December after the news of a vaccine, the national carrier was preparing to increase its capacity to cater to the festival season. It had announced that it would upscale existing A320 services to A321 aircraft.
As per its plans, Air New Zealand was planning to add 350 flights to larger aircraft during the holiday season due to large projected pre-Christmas & business travel requests.
However, due to the new variant of COVID-19, all its plans had to be shelved, and now once again, it’s trying to align its operations to the safety of passengers and the crew from the risk of new strain of the Virus.
Shares of AIR were trading 0.56%, up at NZ$1.78 early in the day, but closed flat at NZ$1.77.
Also Read: Kiwi Air Travellers would not require quarantine while travelling to few Australian cities
