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New Zealand Announces 'Travel Bubble' with Cook Islands

VOA News

   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.

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