Kiwis take first cautious steps to reopen

Auckland – New Zealand will start easing some of the world’s toughest pandemic border restrictions this month but will not fully reopen until October, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.

Ardern announced a five-step plan to reconnect New Zealand to the rest of the world, beginning with waiving hotel quarantine requirements for its nationals stranded overseas.

“It’s time to move again,” said Ardern, who has been under pressure recently to relax border policies that have been largely unchanged since the beginning of the Covid crisis almost two years ago.

“Families and friends need to reunite, our businesses need skills to grow, exporters need to travel to make new connections.”

Ardern said New Zealanders in Australia could return home and self-isolate, rather than going into quarantine, from 27 February, followed two weeks later by Kiwis elsewhere in the world.

The option will then be progressively made available to other groups, such as skilled migrants, international students, Australians, and eventually all vaccinated foreign nationals.

It will involve international arrivals self-isolating for 10 days instead of undergoing a 10-day hotel quarantine monitored by New Zealand military personnel.

Only 800 rooms per month are available under the current system, with demand regularly exceeding supply tenfold.

Many New Zealanders have criticised it as too harsh on international arrivals, with business groups saying it was contributing to a labour shortage and crippling the tourism industry. –