NZ

Western Australia plans to keep treating New Zealand arrivals like international travellers and enforcing mandatory quarantine - bursting some potential travellers' hopes of travel bubble bliss.

Among them is Moira Green, who launched straight into plans to see her two sons and granddaughter in Fremantle after the announcement of quarantine-free trans-Tasman trips on Tuesday.

Her travel agent broke the news she'd still have to spend two weeks and at least $2500 staying in government-run quarantine if she wanted to get to the state.

FIFA has cofirmed New Zealand's host cities are: Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin.

Australia and New Zealand will jointly host the 32-team tournament with 12 cities from both countries having bid to host games.

The 64 games will be split between the two countries with the tournament opener at Auckland's Eden Park while Sydney will host the final.

Nine cities will host games, Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Dunedin, Hamilton, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Wellington.

The airport has made plans to segregate at-risk and no-risk travellers - dividing the international terminal into two self-contained processing zones.

Zone A, a safe travel area, will be used exclusively for quarantine-free arrivals and all departures.

Zone B, the health management area, will be used for processing arrivals who are going on to managed isolation facilities.

Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood told Morning Report that planning started in August 2020 and its price tag is in the millions.

Nanaia Mahuta told the New Zealand Parliament, discussions were being held around the implementation of a so-called TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation aimed at speeding up the production and delivery of vaccines.

The TRIPS [Trade and Intellectual Property Rules] mechanism looked to protect intellectual property and trade interests but in doing so critics said it slowed collaboration between companies.

NGOs had called for a waiver to be approved immediately.

Mahuta said the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines needed to be addressed urgently.

Ministers are actively working on the proposal and the next step would be for it to go to the full Cabinet, potentially this coming Monday.

That will be on the condition there are no community outbreaks of Covid-19 or lockdowns in the meantime.

There could also be an arrangement for safe travel zones with realm countries, the Cook Islands and Niue, which the government have long said would be a priority.

The door has already been partially opened, with New Zealand allowing passengers from the Cook Islands and more recently Niue to come here quarantine-free.

During this afternoon's 1pm press conference, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the new community case was a student at Papatoetoe High School.

The school now remains closed until further notice.

The person is considered a casual-plus contact who had been advised to self-isolate and get tested, the ministry said in a statement earlier today.

Hipkins said the student had not returned to school on Monday. The case was picked up by testing of all students and staff before they were able to return to school.

The one-way travel bubble was suspended last Sunday night after three community cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Auckland and the city went into level 3 lockdown for three days while the rest of New Zealand was put in level 2 Covid restrictions for the same period.

New Zealanders wanting to enter Australia without quarantining will need a negative coronavirus test result less than 72 hours prior to departure, if they have been in Auckland any time in a two-week period before travelling.

In December, Cabinet agreed in principle to establish a travel bubble with Australia in the first three months of this year.

While the news was welcomed, those in the tourism industry said they needed to ensure there was enough time to get ready for an influx of overseas visitors.

The managing director of the Scenic Hotel Group, Brendan Taylor, said it would take two to three months for the airlines to ramp up, if the borders reopened.

He said operators needed time to prepare and ensure they have enough staff to cater for incoming guests.

As of 2pm, $166 million had been put through the tills.

The busiest time of the day has likely passed, with a peak of 204 transactions per second at 12.30pm, a new record.

The previous record was 188 per second and the daily average about 60.

Paymark chief executive Maxine Elliott said they had to work hard to ensure the retail network was fully operational throughout today.

Paymark had seen about 3 million transactions processed since midnight.

Sky chief customer officer Chaz Savage said feedback from the trial, which began on 4 December, proved it was on the right track.

"It's exciting to see our project take shape as we roll out customer trials with the support of a great partner like Vocus. We've been working together to develop and provide a solution which means New Zealanders can access all the entertainment they want at speeds and service levels they need, and we're looking forward to creating more value for our customers through Sky Broadband."