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Coronavirus crisis: Kiwis pause Perth travel as states react to WA lockdown with restrictions

Hayley SorensenThe West Australian
VideoWA to enter three-day snap lockdown

Travel between New Zealand and Perth will be put on hold while other Australian states have reacted to the snap, three-day lockdown.

New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Sipkins said all travel from Perth would be put on hold and anyone who has arrived in the country from Perth in the past week is asked to adhere to the stay-home direction.

A flight due to leave Perth for Auckland tonight will be cancelled, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Meanwhile NSW moved first to slap restrictions on West Australians.

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People travelling from Perth to NSW will be made to self-isolate until the lockdown is lifted at midnight on Monday.

In a statement, NSW Health said travellers from WA arriving from midnight tonight would need to abide by the same stay at home restrictions they would have been subject to in Perth.

NSW contact tracing teams have started screening Perth flights to find any already arrived passengers who have been to the exposure sites.

Queensland and the Northern Territory have ordered recent arrivals from WA into isolation.

Tasmanian authorities are still determining their response but changes to border restrictions are “likely” according to a statement from its public health director Dr Mark Veitch.

Anyone who visited those venues must immediately get tested and self-isolate.

Those arriving in Sydney from WA from midnight tonight must complete a declaration that they have not visited any exposure sites.

It comes after it was announced metropolitan Perth and the Peel region will go into a three-day lockdown from midnight on Friday after a hotel quarantine outbreak led to community transmission.

Premier Mark McGowan says the lockdown is a necessary measure after two people spent several days in the community while infectious.

They include a 54-year-old man who stayed in the Mercure Hotel, the source of the outbreak, and completed quarantine on April 17 after arriving from China.

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