From the BBC:
“New Zealand to reopen to
vaccinated visitors”
New Zealand has unveiled its
plans to reopen borders and will allow foreigners to enter next year. Fully vaccinated
visitors can enter from 30 April, and will have to self-isolate for seven days
upon arrival. More New Zealanders will be allowed to travel home from early
next year as well, under similar rules. The move eases strict curbs that have
locked out many citizens and tourists since borders were slammed shut at the
start of the Covid pandemic. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins outlined
the staged re-opening plans on Monday, calling it "the safest approach to
ensure risk is carefully managed".
What do the new rules say? In
the first phase of the re-opening, fully vaccinated New Zealand citizens and
residents who are currently in Australia will be allowed to return from 16
January onwards. New Zealanders who are in all other countries will be allowed
to enter from 13 February. Foreign travellers will be the last group to
be granted entry into the country, from 30 April. All travellers must be
fully vaccinated, will have to self-isolate for seven days, and will be tested
for Covid upon arrival. "This (phased approach) reduces any
potential impacts on vulnerable communities and the New Zealand health
system," Mr Hipkins said. Currently, only citizens and permanent
residents of New Zealand are allowed to enter the country, and they must stay
for seven days in government-managed quarantine hotels. As these have limited
spaces, the rules have effectively kept out many New Zealanders wishing to
return. New Zealand was one of the first countries in the world to shut its
borders early in the pandemic, as part of a highly-praised tough approach to
Covid that managed to keep deaths to a minimum. Besides the travel curbs, it
quashed earlier outbreaks with rapid, strict lockdowns. However, the country
has struggled to beat back the highly-infectious Delta strain of the virus,
forcing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to switch from a total Covid elimination
strategy to pushing for higher vaccination rates and treating the virus as
endemic. It had established a travel bubble with Australia earlier this year,
but had to suspend it months later following outbreaks in both countries.
^ New Zealand continues to hold
their own citizens hostage in not allowing them to return to their own country.
This new set of rules only highlights how the Government of New Zealand
completely misunderstands Covid and how a Democracy is supposed to work. Australia
did the same, but at least they have since fixed their mistakes. New Zealand
needs to do the same - now and not next
year. ^
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