Covid: New Zealand to start phased reopening of borders from late February, Jacinda Ardern says

‘We must turn to the importance of reconnection,’ PM says, as tourism set to fully restart by October

Jacinda Ardern outlines the New Zealand government’s plans to reopen the country’s borders (Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via AP)

After nearly two years of strict curbs on international travel in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Jacinda Ardern has announced a phased reopening of New Zealand’s borders will begin at the end of February.

New Zealand has sought a “zero-Covid” policy for much of the pandemic, meaning that – save for a brief travel bubble with Australia – foreigners have been banned from entering the country.

Meanwhile, citizens looking to return home have been forced to either make emergency requests to the government or attempt to secure a spot in state quarantine facilities, known as Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) – a process critics have branded an unfair, lottery-style system.

As a result of these travel curbs, first introduced in March 2020, and the swift use of lockdowns, the 5 million-strong country has experienced just 17,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 53 deaths.

But Ms Ardern acknowledged on Thursday that MIQ had “been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic” for New Zealanders, as she announced her five-stage plan to gradually reopen the country’s borders – after similar attempts were derailed by the emergence of the Delta and Omicron variants.

From 27 February, fully vaccinated New Zealanders in Australia will be allowed to return and self-isolate at home for 10 days, rather than stay in a quarantine facility. They will also be required to take multiple Covid tests.

A fortnight later, New Zealanders will be allowed to return from all parts of the world under the same conditions, as will their families and some skilled workers. The working holiday scheme will also resume.

As of 12 April, non-citizens with visas and up to 5,000 international students will also be allowed to enter the country and forego quarantine.

Tourists from the UK, US, Australia and other visa-free countries, however, will not be allowed to enter until July – and tourists from the rest of the world will be kept out until October under the current plans.

But Ms Ardern said there was a “high-likelihood” that the July date could be brought forward and is “the latest we expect this to begin”.

“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,” the prime minister said during a speech in Auckland.

“Our strategy with Omicron is to slow the spread, and our borders are part of that.”

Ms Ardern also defended her government’s quarantine system, which came under renewed scrutiny this week as international outcry saw officials forced to backtrack and offer a quarantine place to pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who had been stranded in Afghanistan after her emergency application to return home was rejected.

“There is no question that for New Zealand, it has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic,” Ms Ardern said. “But the reason that it is right up there as one of the toughest things we have experienced is, in part, because large-scale loss of life is not.”

The controls “meant not everyone could come home when they wanted to, but it also meant that Covid could not come in when it wanted to, either”, she said.

The prime minister added that the delay to the previous border reopening plans in the face of the Omicron variant gave New Zealand “the chance to roll out boosters – a chance most other countries never had”.

Ms Ardern added: “With our community better protected we must turn to the importance of reconnection. Families and friends need to reunite. Our businesses need skills to grow. Exporters need to travel to make new connections. It’s time to move again.”

Additional reporting by Reuters