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Quarantine-free travel between Victoria and New Zealand has been suspended, initially for 72 hours from 6pm AEST last night, after a Covid-19 cluster erupted in Melbourne – while in Japan, prominent business leaders are renewing calls for the Olympics to be cancelled to prevent the pandemic spreading like wildfire.

Whether the Melbourne/New Zealand suspension is extended will become clear over the next couple of days. The prime trans-Tasman city pair, Sydney-Auckland, is not affected.

Victoria recorded another four Covid-19 infections yesterday afternoon, bringing the Covid cluster in Melbourne’s north to nine. Restrictions have been tightened throughout the city, including the mandatory wearing of masks indoors and limits on both private and public gatherings.

Victorians planning to fly to New Zealand received an abrupt reminder of the fragility of the trans-Tasman travel bubble. The bubble has been put on ice (to mix a metaphor) – placed on hold while an investigation into the community outbreak proceeds.

Air New Zealand last night cancelled 20 flights over the next 72 hours. Radio New Zealand reported that flights from Auckland to Melbourne were operating as normal, but direct flights from Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown were cancelled. Passengers on those flights were being transferred to Auckland.

Health authorities are increasingly comparing the situation in Australia to that in Taiwan. The ABC reported yesterday: Taiwan and Singapore’s current coronavirus surge should serve as a warning to Australia, experts say

Taiwan was hailed as a textbook example of how to exclude the pandemic, achieving 253 days straight last year without a single reported Covid infection, a considerably better performance than either Australia or New Zealand. Australia spoke of creating a travel bubble with Taiwan. Not any more. A couple of weeks ago, the pandemic re-entered Taiwan, reportedly borne there by crew on an aircraft.

Cases multiplied in Taiwan, as follows:

12 May: 16 cases
13 May: 13 cases
14 May: 29 cases
15 May: 180 cases
16 May: 206 cases
17 May: 333 cases (Level 3 lockdown applied here)
18 May: 240 cases
19 May: 267 cases
22 May: 323 cases
25 May (yesterday): 542 cases

MEANWHILE, the US State Department has advised Americans to avoid travelling to Japan, with much of the country under a state of emergency over a Covid-19 outbreak. Japan is due to host the Olympics in less than two months and an Australian contingent is preparing to compete.

A recent survey by the Asahi newspaper found that 83% of Japanese want the Games cancelled or postponed, up from 69% in April. In neighbouring South Korea, 78% of people want the Games cancelled.

While Japan has kept its numbers of Covid cases low, it is now seeing a renewed wave of infections pushing the healthcare system in some cities to the limit. Hospitals in the city of Osaka are overrun and a state of emergency has been extended in Tokyo and other areas.

Top Japanese business chiefs are adding their voices, urging Japan to cancel the Games at the 11th hour. Hiroshi Mikitani, chief executive of the e-commerce Rakuten Group, has called the Olympics a “suicide mission”.

The Wall Street Journal yesterday quoted Masayoshi Son, chief executive of technology investment company SoftBank Group, warning the Games could trigger a new wave of infections with virus variants, killing many people and shrinking Japan’s economy.

Cancelling the Games might cause financial loss, but by holding them, Son said on Twitter, “I think we’re going to lose something much bigger.”

The International Olympic Committee refuses to consider either postponing or cancelling the Games.

Written by Peter Needham