Pursuant to clause 26 of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order (No 2) 2020 (“Order”), I, Hon Chris Hipkins, Minister for COVID-19 Response, having taken into account the advice of the Director-General of Health, hereby declare that the following persons:

• all medical attendants and specified aircrew working in accredited aeromedical services;
• who have travelled to, or from, one of the following places while assisting, as a medical attendant or air crew member, with a medical air transfer to, or from, New Zealand:
  • Australia
  • Nauru
  • Cook Islands
  • Samoa
  • Niue
  • Tonga
  • Vanuatu
  • New Caledonia
  • American Samoa
  • Tahiti
  • Tokelau
  • Tuvalu
  • Kiribati

are exempt from clause 8(3) of the Order.

This exemption does not apply if a medical officer of health determines (on the basis of information brought to that officer’s attention) that there are reasonable grounds to believe that, within the seven days immediately before arriving in New Zealand by air and while anywhere outside New Zealand except for a QFT place, the aircrew member or medical attendant has failed to meet one or more of the key safety standards or that there is a high risk that, during that absence from New Zealand, the aircrew member or medical attendant has been exposed to COVID-19.

The exemption will begin at 11.59pm on 30 June 2021.

Dated at Wellington this 29th day of June 2021.

Hon CHRIS HIPKINS, Minister for COVID-19 Response.