NZ travel bubble reopens with mandatory $150 COVID test

Of course there would be incidences. Vaccination doesn’t stop you getting it nor does it stop you passing it on. Thought it does minimise you passing it on depending how well and fast you body responds to an infection. If it does it fast enough you won’t become infectious and if you did the viral load will be smaller  

There was an interesting graphic on the news this morning that demonstrates why we should get vaccinated. And that is in the UK infection rates in the past month have sky rocketed despite very high vaccination rates. But at the same time hospitalisations have fallen. And that’s the key vaccinated you can still get get it but great chance you won’t get sick and if you do less chance of needing to go to hospital and passing away from it. 

So for a place like NZ that is behind our woeful vaccination effort then testing makes perfect sense. Especially as our vaccination rates go up. 

While I hope testing isn't here to stay, I can certainly see it remaining as part of this bubble and being a part of any Singapore or other travel bubbles, at least as long as we're in this pandemic mode.

I can fully see it remaining in the case of travel to New Zealand even if there haven't been any cases in weeks or months. On the other hand it could be that after a few weeks of no cases, New Zealand might ease off on testing requirements, at least on a state by state basis.

I don't see why Australia would "replicate this requirement" because NZ is largely COVID free, it hasn't suffered the outbreaks we have and especially not with the Delta strain. Of course if things tuned around, Australia had a long spell of being COVID free and then NZ suddenly had a massive outbreak with lockdowns in its largest cities, I think Australia would first of all close the bubble, and then when it opened up again there might be similar testing form incoming NZ travellers, but this is all very hypthetical.

Of course Australia should replicate it, at any rate the NZ travellers travelling leaving Oz are hit with the cost as well.  If a travel bubble is formed then formalities likes this shouldn't be needed - it just sounds like they haven't got proper systems in place to manage such small outbreaks.  

Its any wonder why both government's vaccine rollout is where it is - there is no benefit to be vaccinated ....only the dangling carrot that IF we get to a % (which isn't defined) will things like this be waived for vaccinated travellers. 

I am living overseas so am used to getting a PCR test (we don't have to pay $150 dollars though) to travel.  I have been to 6 countries since the pandemic started, including USA, (New York which was considered an epicenter not long after I left).  I haven't caught covid, been ill, hospitalized, why because I took the necessary precautions.  I am now fully vaccinated and are free to go many countries without quarantine (except our home country due to the price to get there) 

Honestly Australians need to wake up and put up some fight, seems you all like being stuck in your homes.  Even when the PM and entourage returns without incident.....no one goes hang on a minute, why are they all ok after being outside of the island fortress.  The reality is, they don't want you to know what its really like outside.  Even the QLD premier is now going to jet off overseas after voting to reduce arrival caps.....

Come on guys 16 months on and they are still doing the same thing!   Have a look at what US, UK, EU, Canada and Singapore are doing...Australia is going to be 12 months behind the rest of the world and their plans are now to start building quarantine camps....that will open in 2022, ....lol 

Well just in time for the election !!!  See how quick things will change after the election. 

While I don't think it should be replicated by Australia - it most certainly could be and that could happen overnight without warning. If you don't think such knee jerk reactions are possible, look to South Australia, which mandated masks even without community cases as a "precaution" as capitals of surrounding states and territories went into lockdown.

Me (fully vaccinated) too.  Already enough price gouging on the flight costs; I think this tips it into the too difficult basket.  

Beware - you can't take it too early because you must take the test less than 72 hours before your departure and you can't take it too late because not all clinics can return these results within 24/48 hours, many of them can't even return results on weekends.

I've had friends left high and dry on the day of departure because these private clinics can be unreliable and airlines provide no wiggle room which results in a wasted $150 on the test and no refund on the flight.

I'd say it would be more difficult to verify the results are legitimate as they are provided by text message. Where as the one you have to pay for you get a proper report. 

Plus the free community is for people who are required to get tested because be at sites of interest or people showing symptoms. Travel doesn't meet those requirements, why should the public pay for people who want to travel? Isn't it better to save those resources for those who need testing?

Yeah but bar during an outbreak or lockdown (in which case NZ travel is suspended) the government testing sites are almost empty, so why not use them, especially as they already have the staff there and a lot of the time they are just sitting there doing nothing so I wouldn't imagine it would cost the govt. that much also it could be seen as an investment in tourism to more easily promote movement between NZ and Aus.

They staff are getting paid anyhow to staff the testing centres, so why not use them?

Phuket has just reopened but they're following the same scam - you're vaccinated but have to submit to up to 4 tests. Now keep in mind this is likely to be relaxed in due course and for now Aussies aren't allowed to leave Australia (except to go to New Zealand).

The group pushing the testing is a consortium out to make money, not the NZ govt.  That is why vaccines and government testing aren't recognized.  Nice sell by the consortium to the NZ govt.  And who owns this consortium, high end wealthy people who are once again pillaging the community.

Yes I agree, back to Zoom.  My company is about to ban travel for good; it's Zoom or nothing going forward.  Aus & NZ governments have destroyed any possibility of travel going forward so they will now suffer the consequences.  I am pro vaccination btw & have had my first jab & am awaiting my second jab.  Farewell Qantas Platinum, hello QF gold for life!!!!!

Craigh, what, really? Seems a bit of a pre-emptive move! None of us can predict the future of travel, and while some forms of business travel may never return, I personally believe many forms of business travel, including essential travel that requires face-to-face contact most certainly will. If I may ask, what industry are you in?

I doubt there are many activities that can't be done by Zoom.  It is just whether people want to accept it.  I was hard-core no, my work is too important to be done remotely, but I've learned, transitioned and now probably won't ever go back to extensive travel, time changes and meetings around the world.  However, I do miss the social aspect of it.  

OZJames, I agree that a lot of meetings can be done through Zoom, but that's easy to say if one is employed in a white collar role such as banking, finance, insurance or other jobs that are mostly performed in front of a computer screen.

If one is involved in manufacturing, food processing etc. then trying to use zoom or email to order or build a machine specific for one's operations is not as easy. Quite often meetings need to be held in person, or require factory inspections/visits in such industries for obvious reasons. The same can be said for agricultural operations and a lot of other industries that produce some sort of tangible product.

Then you have cultural aspects. In Asia, it is almost mandatory to meet your business partners in person and wine and dine together or it becomes difficult to close a deal. Speaking from experience, a mere email exchange with a company in many Asian countries leads almost nowhere. Most of the time your emails are ignored altogether. That changes once you've been physically introduced to the other side and emails are thus exchanged on a timely basis thereafter. While there will be necessary adjustments being made to this cultural aspect during the current times, it's difficult to change entire ways of doing business over the course of just a year or so. I think at some point, once normal international travel is allowed to resume, the old ways of doing business will resume, to a large extent.

Zoom will retain it's place, but I can't see business meetings with the Chinese ever being replaced by technology.

But transit is excluded?

My understanding is that transit is not excluded as there is no way to separate passengers coming from low or medium risk states (VIC, NSW) from transit passengers from NZ.  If you're coming to Perth via SYD or MEL you need to quarantine on arrival for 14 days.  Deal breaker for me I'm afraid.

Mel will be allowed to WA from friday

That's good news getting back from MEL is then sorted... but to get to Wellington from PER has become a real challenge at least on QF.  The only possible non-quarantine route in July now involves a forced overnight in MEL and 18hrs travel.  And now flight loads are being cut by 50% so presume more flights will be cancelled from NZ.  I can't see how any carriers can afford to be flying passengers into Australia.  But that's another post...

Wish Qantas would put on a direct flight between Perth and NZ, even one flight per week. Would love to go to NZ but not keen to transit Melbourne or Sydney.

The only way testing can work going forward, especially if we're ever to get back to mass travel, is with a non-invasive spit or swab test that delivers instantaneous results. The invasive nasal swab has it's risks and is most uncomfortable. Moreover, having to wait 24-72 hours for a result is forever going to kill all but essential travel moving forward, even if it were free.

Of course my hope is that one day all of this will be history. In Europe, depending on the country and where you're arriving from, you may or may not need to be tested. It's not standard, like it is in America for all arrivals by air. I understand land based arrivals across the Canadian or Mexican borders (which is only for essential travel as most ordinary travellers aren't allowed to enter by land) do not have to submit a test result.

I agree, I have no issue getting tested before travelling.  My issue is why can't we use the free government testing sites to do this.

The government testing cost is covered by the government as part of public health measure. The purpose is to identify as many infectious people in the community as possible, not to serve as certification of being virus-free of individuals to travel overseas.

As part of the testing protocol you either must have symptoms or a possible contact in a hot spot. When you are tested, as part of the conditions you also agree to self isolate until the results come through, or (depending on the reason for testing, for example being in an exposure site) the entire 14 days even if the test result is negative. 

Of interest, during a surge for testing, some countries (China and Singapore for example) combine up to 10 people’s test sample into one test tube to increase capacity. It’s a bit like putting 4 women’s urine sample into the well of a home pregnancy test. If it is negative then none of the women are pregnant enough to be tested positive. If the test is positive at least one or more people is pregnant/has the infection. Then they either test the samples individually or if they don’t have the samples kept separate then they recall all the people who contributed to the sample mix. As only 1 in every 1000-4000 people are actually positive for COVID, if 100,000 people gave their sample, and 10 people to one test tube, then the number of test tube needed is initially 10,000 of which only maximum of 10 tubes will be positive, then they test 10 x10 samples, so total test tube needed is 10,100 for 100,000 people.

Most states does not provide certification for the tests; most get notified of the results by phone, often SMS.

I meant to say that the increase cost per pax of $150 per COVID test is in addition to the increased arrival levy of $59 (from $18) from Dec 2021

Yep, clearly. It will drive away most leisure travellers. Also, what is the minimum age of travellers for which testing is required? Do babies have to be tested, or is there a cut-off age?

I hope the testing requirement won't stay in force indefinitely, though I fear for the time being, it is likely to remain. That said, just like mask mandates in Australian states and territories generally come and go, being held in place for only a few weeks at a time (rather than an entire year as was the case in the USA and Europe, or since late March 2020 to the present in much of Asia) it is possible the New Zealand government might scrap the testing requirement once say 2 weeks of no new community cases have been recorded in a particular state.

That is, presuming Australia keeps up the same trend of a few weeks of community transmission, then basically nothing for several months, as has been the case since March 2020.

They can ask for within 24 hours but that would incur a surcharge (which effectively doubles the cost of testing for some labs) in order for the results to be available.

Furthermore it is not practical or quite difficult to get testing during the weekend if your flight is on a Monday.

So I suspect 72hrs is a compromise out of being practical.

For a start: too many politicians at three different levels of gov't all running around with their own agendas and motives.

totally agree and all shoveling money to their mates.

Testing in Australia is free and clinics are open  early and close late. Had a test at at midday today. Had results by 6:00pm. Don’t understand your point sorry. 

The point is those tests are not accepted by airline or NZ

I agree, we need people to see more reasons to get vaccinated and being able to travel to NZ without a $150 COVID test would be a good incentive. But maybe the AU and NZ governments haven't gotten around to recognising each other's vaccination status.

The tricky part is AZ is not approved for use in NZ currently.

Pzifer in NZ is approved when have 3 weeks between doses, 10ish weeks between doses isn't approved in NZ as the testing which NZ signed off on was 3 weeks.

cqtiger, that's not the agenda. I don't see how vaccines that are only for emergency use can be mandated as a condition of travel. There has to be alternatives. Not everyone can, or wishes to be vaccinated. Vaccination does not even prevent you from contracting Covid.

I am against the idea of testing too, but like in most of the rest of the world, it's what governments use to allow entry into their jurisdictions and many airlines require it just to board a flight. These rules are constantly evolving. For instance, Turkey at one time seemed to require all arrivals, both Turkish nationals and foreigners to be tested, but now arrivals from a lot of countries don't have to show proof of testing. Mexico doesn't require anyone to be tested in order to enter the country.

What I can see happening is like is the case in a lot of countries and jurisdictions now, such as Hawaii and parts of Europe, they may allow vaccination OR testing going forward. This means the vaxxed can travel without testing, while the unvaccinated will need to return a negative test result.

Well said.

The point of getting vaccinated in the context of travel is not for personal gain and benefit but for the benefit of the community as a whole.

Simple fact being vaccinated minimises substantially your risk of getting sick and carking it but you can still get it and pass it onto others. 

Hence why despite being vaccinated there is a substantial risk to countries like NZ and indeed Australia which have low vaccination rates of you bring the virus into the country. In actual fact in someways a vaccinate person is a greater risk as their is a far higher chance you will be asymptotic.

Now if Australia were like the UK where there is a significant portion of the population vaccinated then of course the risk of us colonials travelling would be substantially lower. But travel to countries with low vaccination rates being vaccinated yourself doesn’t help one little bit. 

In NSW they are:

4Cyte Pathology

Australian Clinical Labs

Capital Pathology

Douglas Hanly Moir Pathology

Healius Pathology

Medlab Pathology

Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology

Safework Laboratories

Many of these are the same companies doing the govt testing and making heaps.