It comes after two fresh community COVID-19 cases in Sydney
The Trans-Tasman bubble has burst after New Zealand paused flights from New South Wales.
It follows the fresh COVID-19 community cases which emerged in Sydney yesterday. The 48-hour travel ban comes into force from 11.59pm this evening NZDT and will be reviewed over the next two days, the NZ government said. It puts an end to quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and NSW after it began just two weeks ago.
All 6,000 travellers from NSW who are already in New Zealand will be contacted by the government and those who have been in an identified hotspot may be asked to self-isolate. Those in New Zealand will be able to return to NSW.
Meanwhile authorities in NSW are scrambling to trace the source of the infection after the man and his wife tested positive for COVID-19. They had visited a number of locations in the eastern suburbs while infectious, sparking concern the virus may have spread.
NZ's COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the measure had been taken because authorities in NSW had so far been unable to identify the missing link. The couple's genome sequencing appears to match a positive case brought in from the USA, but it is not clear how the infection spread. Contact tracing is underway but there are concerns there is a missing person who is unaware they had been and may still be infectious.
Restrictions have been imposed in the Greater Sydney area for the next three days, including wearing a mask in shops and on public transport.
