“You will only need a test if you’ve only been in Australia for more than 72 hours??!” one person asked on the Unite Against Covid-19 Facebook page. To the reply, “yes”, she asked “Can you explain the thinking behind that? Surely you can catch Covid from someone at any time?”.
A Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesperson said that if a person without Covid-19 flew to Australia, was exposed to the virus there, and returned to New Zealand within 72 hours they would be very unlikely to return a positive pre-departure PCR test.
“This is because if they became infected, they would be in the incubation stage of the infection and would not be shedding enough viral fragments to be detected by a PCR test. That is why no such pre-departure test is required in these circumstances.