The New Zealand government said it will resume quarantine-free travel with parts of Australia next week as it lifted Covid-19 curbs in Wellington.

New Zealand halted its “travel bubble” with Australia on Saturday as an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant took root in Sydney and several other Australian cities.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said quarantine-free travel will resume with South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria states and the Australian Capital Territory from Monday, although authorities would continue to review the situation until then.

“The cabinet agreed that partially lifting the pause was the appropriate course of action,” Hipkins told a news conferene. Travellers will be required to provide a negative Covid-19 test pre-departure and must not have visited the blocked states and territories in recent days, Hipkins said.