New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that that the country’s borders will remain closed until at least the end of the year. Ms Ardern on Thursday outlined her government’s plans “to reconnect New Zealanders to the world”, with the country currently shut off to international visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
New Zealand will start to accept overseas tourists from the first quarter of next year, contingent on high vaccination rates in the country. She said an elimination strategy was the best way to keep Covid-19 out and the economy open. The prime minister also said New Zealand would move to a new individual risk-based model for quarantine-free travel from the start of next year. She stressed the priority was vaccinating the population by end 2021. Tourists who are both fully vaccinated and from countries deemed low-risk will not have to quarantine on arrival. Travellers from medium-risk countries will either have to self-isolate or undertake a reduced period of managed quarantine, while those who are deemed high-risk will still have to undertake two-weeks of managed quarantine. “Once enough people are vaccinated, we will be able to start the next step in the plan: a phased introduction of an individual risk-based approach to border settings in 2022,” Ms Ardern said.
New Zealand is seen as one of the most successful countries in the world in controlling the coronavirus pandemic. The country has contained Covid-19 outbreaks and Ms Ardern has won praise for her handling of the pandemic. The country has recorded just 26 deaths in a population of just under five million people.
