NEW ZEALAND has announced a progressive reopening of its borders as it begins to relax some of the world’s most stringent Covid-19 restrictions.
Vaccinated New Zealanders in Australia will be able to return home on February 27th, and jabbed citizens throughout the rest of the world will be able to return on March 13th, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
They will have to self-isolate for ten days, but state quarantine facilities will no longer be required.
The strategy are in five steps.
New Zealand’s borders have been mostly closed for almost two years because of the pandemic.
“Opening back up in this managed way balances inflows of travellers so people can reunite and fill our workforce shortages, while also ensuring our healthcare system can manage an increase in cases,” Ms Ardern said in a speech in Auckland on Thursday morning.
“After all, our strategy with Omicron is to slow the spread [of the Covid variant], and our borders are part of that.”
The prime minister said there was “life before” the virus but “there will be life after Covid too”.
“We are well on our way to reaching that destination. But we are not quite there yet,” she stressed.
The key elements of the plan are as follows:
- Step 1: Fully vaccinated New Zealanders from Australia can return home from 27 February
- Step 2: Fully jabbed citizens from all other countries are able to arrive from 13 March. This also applies to a number of critical and skilled foreign workers
- Step 3: Up to 5,000 international students are allowed into the country from 12 April
- Step 4: Australians and all other visitors who can normally travel visa-free to NZ are expected to be able to travel to the country no later than July
- Step 5: Begins in October and includes all other visitors and students who normally require a visa.
New Zealand has had approximately 17,000 Covid cases and 53 deaths since the pandemic began.
This is because it has followed stringent Covid-19 guidelines, which had allowed it to minimize mortality to a bare minimum. It was one of the first countries in the world to close its borders, and it used lockdowns to put an end to previous outbreaks.
Ms Ardern has switched from a Covid eradication plan to advocating for increased vaccination rates and treating the virus as endemic after the emergence of the Delta variant.
It is estimated that 94 percent of the country’s population over the age of 12 has been completely vaccinated, with 56 percent of those who are eligible having had their booster shots.
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