The highly contagious Delta variant has crossed the ditch, with a confirmed case traveling to Wellington over the weekend.
The passenger flew out of Sydney on Friday night on QF163, bound for Wellington, and returned Monday morning on flight NZ247.
All passengers on both flights are being forced to get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
It’s unknown where the case or cases travelled while on New Zealand.
https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1407297025377406985
NSW revealed the information hours after New Zealand shut the border from New South Wales for 72 hours.
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The pause came into force from 11:59pm on Tuesday and will be in place for 72 hours initially. This decision will be reviewed on Thursday.
The decision came after NSW announced a community COVID-19 cluster in the Australian state ballooned by another 10 cases on Tuesday.
There are now 21 cases linked to the growing Bondi cluster - but Premier Gladys Berejiklian dampened fears a lockdown was imminent, saying most infections have been linked back to a source.
Further information on quarantine-free travel between NSW and New Zealand is available here.
More information is expected from the Ministry of Health on Wednesday morning.
