Hipkins ChrisMINISTERIAL STATEMENTSCOVID-19—Greater Wellington Region Change to Alert Level 2 and Australian Travel Bubble PauseHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): I wish to make a ministerial statement following Cabinet decisions on the alert level in the Wellington region and the travel pause with Australia.We've been at alert level 2 in Wellington for the past week out of an abundance of caution given the large number of highly populated places a recent case visited while potentially infectious with the Delta variant of COVID-19. Given there have been no cases of COVID-19 detected nearly 2500 negative results from potential contacts of the case—including repeat negative results from that person's close contacts—Cabinet has decided to shift Wellington to alert level 1 from 11.59 p.m. tonight. We are confident that the risk of community transmission from that case is low but I ask all New Zealanders to remain vigilant and stay on high alert until a full 14 days have passed since that Sydney case left New Zealand. Testing centres will remain open in Wellington central Porirua Kāpiti coast Hutt Valley and the Wairarapa. People who haven't checked locations of interest should do so and get a test if they have been to any of those locations within the specified time period; or if they have cold and flu symptoms any aches or pains they should stay home they should call Healthline or their GP and they should arrange to get a test.Cabinet's also agreed to extend the travel pause on trans-Tasman travel for most Australian states. From 11.59 p.m. on Sunday 4 July New Zealand will lift the travel pause to allow travel to and from South Australia ACT Tasmania and Victoria. That will be under review until that time. The health advice is that the spread of COVID-19 cases in those parts of Australia has been contained at this point. There's robust surveillance testing and contact tracing to detect and manage cases and adequate border controls are in place to prevent the spread of new cases. Officials will keep a close eye on the situation in these states. However Cabinet has decided to extend requirements for people coming to New Zealand to include a pre-departure test. This means that all travellers eligible to fly to New Zealand will now be required to have a pre-departure test within 72 hours of when they are leaving Australia. To be eligible to fly travellers must not have been in Queensland the Northern Territory or Western Australia on or after 10.30 p.m. New Zealand time on 26 June and they must not have been in New South Wales on or after 11.59 p.m. New Zealand time on 22 June.We want to ensure that New Zealanders aren't unnecessarily barred from travelling to New Zealand when there is no risk of COVID-19 but we do need to keep monitoring the situation closely. Cabinet carefully weighed up the evidence this morning and we consider a partial lifting of the pause to be a proportionate action when that's also bolstered by the introduction of mandatory pre-departure testing. Today's decision gives airlines passengers Government officials and others time to prepare for flights back from those states that we consider to be low risk when that travel pause lifts. We know how important the travel bubble is—in particular for families and for businesses—but we also want to avoid the situation where we have to respond to cases here in New Zealand. Our system from here of only opening up to states as and when they bring COVID-19 under control will help New Zealand to stay at COVID-19 alert level 1.