Australia and New Zealand are working towards easing travel restrictions between the two countries, but warned it would take time.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined an Australian cabinet meeting on Tuesday, becoming the first world leader to do so in more than 60 years.
Speaking to reporters, she highlighted that travel will resume between the neighbours "as soon as it is safe to do so".
"When we feel comfortable and confident that we both won't receive cases from Australia, but equally that we won't export them, then that will be the time to move," she said, adding, "Neither of us want cases of COVID coming between our countries."
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said New Zealand would be the first country they would open its borders to.
So far, Australia has recorded around 6,800 infections and 96 deaths, while New Zealand has 1,137 cases and 20 fatalities.
Israel's military is poised to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and assault Hamas hold-outs in the southern Gaza Strip city, a senior Israeli defence official said, despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Marine wildlife experts were frantically trying to rescue some 140 pilot whales stranded on Thursday in the shallow waters of an estuary in the southwest of the state of Western Australia.
A grand jury has charged 18 people with allegedly participating in an Arizona fake elector scheme to re-elect then-US President Donald Trump in 2020, the state's attorney general said on Wednesday.
India is inspecting facilities of spice makers MDH and Everest for compliance with quality standards after sales of some of their products were halted in Hong Kong and Singapore for allegedly containing high levels of a cancer-causing pesticide.
Israel is poised to send troops into Rafah, the Gazan city it sees as the last bastion of Hamas, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, saying preparations were under way to evacuate war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there.