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Why strict border control remains crucial if we want to keep the travel bubble safe

In the latest article in The Conversation, UC’s Professor Michael Plank and UoA’s Nicholas Steyn write that we need to constantly evalaute and improve our border systems to minimise the risk of Covid-19 to Aotearoa New Zealand.

People returning from countries other than Australia have to spend 14 days in isolation. Getty Images/Phil Walter

Within a day of the travel bubble opening, a fully vaccinated border worker who cleans planes coming from countries with high rates of COVID-19, tested positive and was transferred to a quarantine facility.

Such cases show why it remains absolutely essential to maintain strict border measures to keep the virus out of the trans-Tasman bubble.

Since January 1 2021, 397 international arrivals in New Zealand have tested positive for the virus. Most have been contained in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities.

But we have seen some cases leak out from the border. These fall into two main categories: returnees leaving managed isolation while still infectious and frontline border workers becoming infected with the virus.

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