The Indian Weekender, 30 April 2021

2 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, April 30, 2021
The Indian Weekender
Govt creates new ‘very high risk’ category
for countries with high Covid-19 numbers
RADIO NEW ZEALAND
The govt has created a new ‘very high
risk’ category for countries with high
Covid-19 numbers.
These changes has come into force at
11.59pm on 28 April.
Countries will be initially designated ‘very
high risk’ when there have been more than 50
cases of Covid-19 per 1000 arrivals to New
Zealand from those countries in 2021, and
where there are more than 15 travellers on
average per month.
Only New Zealand citizens and their
immediate family will be able to travel to New
Zealand from these countries.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins
said that any case at the border creates
addition pressure on our border and managed
isolation facilities.
“We have to provide a pathway for New
Zealanders to come back...we would not restrict
the right of New Zealanders to return home.”
The accumulative risk to New Zealand
from travellers from India has been looked at,
said Hipkins.
“From India alone, this is expected to reduce
the number of potential positive cases coming
to New Zealand by an estimated 75 percent.
“We are talking about hundreds of people
who could be affected by this.”
He said the new category was “not an easy
decision” and will be continuously reviewed.
Most managed isolation facilities will be
moved to a group intake system, Hipkins said.
This will see a MIQ facility starting empty, and
then over 96 hours plane loads of people are
transported to the hotel and once it’s full - or
after the 96 hours - the facility is locked down
for two weeks.
The Pullman hotel will be the first hotel to
receive cohorted arrivals, starting tomorrow.
“
From India alone, this is
expected to reduce the
number of potential positive
cases coming to New Zealand
by an estimated 75 percent.We
are talking about hundreds of
people who could be affected
by this.”
Hipkins said more rooms in MIQ will remain
empty because of the new cohort system.
“This is done purely based on a risk
assessment.”
“We’ve applied a formula,” Hipkins
said, adding that this was not a
discriminatory measure.
The first assessment of high risk countries
will take place within the next two weeks,
Hipkins said.
The number of cases that have made it out
of the border was very small, Hipkins said. But
when there was more positive cases in MIQ this
increased the risk, he said.
Flights from India have been suspended for
almost two weeks and Hipkins had previously
expressed a reluctance to extend the temporary
ban beyond its expiry next week.
A two week ban on all travellers arriving
from India began on 11 April after a surge
in Covid-19 cases being reported at the
New Zealand border, from people who had
been in India. This was despite pre-flight testing
showing the travellers did not have the virus 72
hours before leaving.
India has now recorded the highest one-day
tally of new Covid-19 cases anywhere in the
world - and the country’s highest number of
deaths over 24 hours.
India travel
ban lifts as
New Zealanders
stuck there plead
for help to get
them home
RADIO NEW ZEALAND
New Zealanders who are stuck in India
are pleading with the government to
help them get home.
The travel ban on India has been lifted but
those eligible to return home are finding it
impossible to get flights. Up to Sunday, 131
people - 106 of which are from India - have
booked themselves into MIQ facilities from
countries deemed “very high risk”.
However, a managed isolation and quarantine
spokesperson said not all of them would arrive
here.
“It is highly likely that many of these returnees
will not arrive in New Zealand because of the
widespread disruption to flight schedules,
particularly from India to destinations where
many returnees from there currently transit en
route to New Zealand,” the spokesperson said.
Ninety-one of those 131 people are
permanent residents or temporary visa holders,
which means unless they have a partner, are a
dependent child or parent of a dependent child
who is a New Zealand citizen, they will not be
able to enter the country.
New Zealand citizen Uppkar Kashyap
travelled to India for his father’s funeral and to
support his mother and grandmother.
His return ticket was booked for the 24 April,
but then the travel ban kicked in.
“I booked my flight for 30th [April] but now
Emirates, they have stopped their flights and
they have banned all travellers coming from
India, they are not even allowing us to do the
transit, so I feel like I’m stuck here,” Kashyap
said.
His wife and two young daughters are still in
New Zealand and his wife Teagan’s maternity
leave ends soon.
He had been staying inside and regularly
getting Covid-19 tests in case he has a chance
to return home.
“If the flights people or government say ‘we
can make the flight for you guys to come back
home’ I can do whatever they want.
“If they want me to get a Covid test, I’m
doing it already. Everything we can do we are
doing but we want to come back home to our
families.”
Other people spoke to RNZ on the agreement
of anonymity, due to fear of repercussions.
One man had a wife who went over to look
after her sick father, but her return flight was
cancelled.
Despite being a travel agent he had not been
able to secure a flight for his wife and was now
worried about how they would pay the bills
because her holiday pay had run out.
A pregnant permanent New Zealand resident
said her doctor told her to fly back to New
Zealand where it was safe, but she is no longer
eligible.
“I understand their concerns but at least spare
us who are pregnant and need to come back for
the sake of my health and my unborn child’s
health,” she said.
All those interviewed said they understood
the need to keep New Zealanders safe, but
they wanted the government to give them flight
options to get home.
A long haul to get back
House of Travel chief operating officer Brent
Thomas said getting back from India was very
difficult, even if someone was eligible under
the new criteria.
“There’s certainly no direct flights and the
traditional routes through places like Australia
are certainly no longer able to happen,” Thomas
said.
“Typically one of the options for people
coming out of India will be on Qatar through
Doha, however, there’s a limited number of
availability there and it’s certainly a bit of a
long haul to get back to New Zealand.”
Global travel rules were changing with just
24 hours notice and over time, requirements
through transit countries were going to become
even more complex, he said.
“As we go through this further down the
track are they going to require vaccination
proof? Are they going to need saliva testing
before departures? All those sorts of things are
going to come into play over the coming weeks
and months.”
With Covid-19 deaths now surpassing
200,000 in India, the New Zealand government
has committed to giving the Red Cross $1
million to assist with the crisis.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade said they were not currently offering
repatriation flights for New Zealanders stuck
there.
Instead, it urged New Zealanders in India to
register on SafeTravel so they had up-to-date
advice and information.
Government cannot ‘guarantee’
NZers’ return from India - PM
Jacinda Ardern said images coming from
India were “absolutely devastating”.
But there were no plans for repatriation
flights at this stage, she told Morning Report.
“Early on in the pandemic, we as a
government did arrange charter flights in order
to get as many citizens and permanent residents
out of India, in order of about 3000.”
However, commercial flights began operating
thereafter. But flights from India have been
suspended now.
She said the government was waiting to see
if commercial flights resumed; Cabinet had not
yet “had a chance” to discuss it.
“We will keep watching what the situation
is on the ground, what happens with those
commercial flights, but at this stage, we don’t
have plans to put in charter flights to bring
people out.”
Ardern said it was about assessing the risk
and urged people wanting to return to look at
the vaccination and eligibility criteria.
“We cannot always guarantee that we can
bring people back.
“We may not be able to go in and rescue
people. They need to make sure they take
every precaution they can even when they are
travelling in desperate circumstances.”
“We don’t have plans to put in charter flights”
- PM Jacinda Ardern
Reiterating the PM’s words, Deputy Prime
Minister Grant Robertson told First Up it was
a very difficult situation with travel from India.
“We’re fulfilling our responsibilities under
the Bill of Rights to make sure that citizens and
their families can return here but obviously this
is a very difficult and challenging situation for
people who aren’t citizens but want to come
back here and we just encourage them to look
at their options and find a way through.
“There are no plans in place at the moment for
a repatriation flight. There are still commercial
flights leaving India.”
Citizens can return directly, but permanent
residents or visa holders must spend at least 14
days outside of very high-risk countries before
flying to New Zealand.
“We continue to have the humanitarian
categories ... that people can apply to if there
are very particular reasons for them needing to
get home.”