Kiwi’s in Australia are banned from trying to enter New Zealand for at least FOUR MONTHS

Kiwis in Australia remain locked out of their own country and won’t be allowed to apply for a place in the next release of hotel quarantine rooms.

On Friday, there will be 1,250 rooms up for grabs as part of New Zealand‘s Managed Isolation and Quarantine program for March and April. However, those rooms won’t be open to those travelling from Australia.

With quarantine free travel from Australia to New Zealand currently paused courtesy of the explosion in Omicron cases, having a voucher for a place in the MIQ program is required to enter the country. 

A limited number of rooms are available with the places allocated under a lottery-style first-in-first-served system. 

A message on the MIQ website claims that: ‘Due to the delay to the opening of the self-isolation pathway from Australia, airlines do not currently have any red flights scheduled from Australia for March or April’. 

Airlines flying from Australia to New Zealand are running ‘green’ flights which are for quarantine-free travellers and ‘red’ flights for those required to quarantine on arrival. 

Under directions from the NZ government airports are required to have zones fenced off for the different types of flights and crews on either red or green flights must remain completely separate. 

Airlines had already been selling quarantine-free green flight tickets expecting the border ban to be lifted in late January but have been scrambling after the re-opening was postponed until at least late February.

A review of the NZ border is expected on February 28 which, if pushed back again, could see New Zealander’s unable to return to their country for months.

The government has said there are further MIQ rooms yet to be released for March and April though it is unclear if these will be open to those in Australia. 

The frustration over the changing rules was clear from those commenting on the announcement online.

‘This is not about opening up, it’s about allowing people the chance to get an MIQ spot which has been taken away from them for over a month,’ one person said. 

‘Have the Opposition have given up scrutinising government decisions and support an isolationist future for NZ?’ another said. 

While a lot of the frustration was directed at Jacinda Ardern’s government, some also placed blame on the Australian Government.

‘I’d blame the Aussie government’s failure to control Covid for this mess. An utter shambles over there,’ a third added.

Airlines had been selling green quarantine-free tickets to NZ but are now scrambling after the travel bubble was paused in December. Kiwis can still travel to Australia (pictured: passengers arrive from NZ at Sydney airport in 2020)  

NSW and Victoria are currently seeing thousands of new daily cases of the Omicron variant. 

In New Zealand case numbers remain low, but they are decentralising beyond the previous hotspot of Auckland.

On Wednesday, health authorities reported 17 community cases of the virus, of which only five were in the nation’s largest city.

The low case number comes amid reduced testing figures, with many Kiwis on holiday.

Other infections were found in the Bay of Plenty (nine) and the Waikato (three), as well as two in Taranaki which will be added to Thursday’s case count.

Until this week, Auckland had provided the lion’s share of daily community cases in New Zealand’s Delta outbreak, which began in August.

For the last three days, and for the first time since Delta emerged, cases outside Auckland have outnumbered those in NZ’s biggest city.

Aucklanders were freed from a 107-day lockdown in December, and can now move around the country again: a change which public health experts predicted would lead to a spread of COVID-19 in regional areas.

While that may be happening, there has been no surge of cases: the rolling seven-day average is 37.

Infections discovered at the border outnumbered those in the community in Wednesday’s figures.

Health officials reported 23 cases within quarantine – including 11 from Australia – with many believed to be the Omicron variant.

‘This variant of COVID-19 continues to be having a significant impact globally, so it is not unexpected to see an increase of Omicron cases at the border,’ a Ministry of Health statement read.

Airlines flying to New Zealand are required to operate separate green and red flights for those travelling quarantine-free and those going into MIQ (stock image) 

Just three cases of Omicron have been found in the community, and public health officials do not believe the variant is spreading undetected.

There are 44 people with COVID-19 in New Zealand’s hospitals, including five in intensive care.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appealed to Kiwis to get their booster shot to aid in the country’s vaccination push.

From Wednesday, 1.2 million adults become eligible for a third dose of vaccine.

‘We know we have another challenge in front of us and that is the Omicron variant,’ Ms Ardern wrote on her Instagram.

‘If we want to prepare for this much more transmissible variant, a booster shot is incredibly important to help stop people becoming severely unwell.’