New Zealand has placed a temporary suspension on the entry of all travellers from India. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ahern made this announcement on Thursday, after many of the new cases of COVID-19 detected at the country’s borders were those coming from India. “We are temporarily suspending entry into New Zealand for travellers from India. This will take effect from 4 pm on April 11. That allows us to draft the legal orders that will be required. This temporary suspension will remain in place till April 28,” the Prime Minister told the media on Thursday.
The New Zealand Prime Minister said that while arrivals with COVID-19 from India have prompted this measure, the country is looking at how it can manage high risk points of departure in general. “This is not a country-specific risk assessment, but a risk assessment generally to ensure that we better manage the number of cases that are coming from those countries that are experiencing a surge,” she said.
This measure comes after it was reported that of the 23 new cases that New Zealand saw at the border, 17 of them have been reported as having arrived from India.
India has witnessed a large spike in COVID-19 cases, and has been reporting a daily spike of around one lakh new cases in the past couple of days. On Thursday morning, India reported 1,26,789 new COVID-19 cases and 685 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per the Union Health Ministry. A day before, 1,15,736 new cases were registered in a span of 24 hours. Eight states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases accounting for 80.70 per cent of the new cases reported in a day.