New Zealand to Open Borders Again

New Zealand is one of the countries with the strictest border measures as it combats the spread of COVID-19.

On 12 August, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced plans to open them in line with a ramped-up vaccination drive. The government will use the second half of 2021 to vaccinate as many people as possible and then take a phased approach to quarantine-free travel in 2022.

The island nation of 5 million residents has fully vaccinated just 17% of its population. That’s partly because it has no transmission. But as the country eyes a return to travel, it's taking a cautious approach to loosening border restrictions to prevent future outbreaks. Vaccination will be the first line of defence, followed by robust testing and vaccine checking systems at the border.

Getting vaccinated is the number one thing everyone can do to be protected against COVID-19, help accelerate our economic recovery, reduce the risk of lockdowns, and safely allow New Zealand’s borders to begin re-opening next year.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Zero-COVID approach

The country closed its borders in March last year and put returning citizens into mandatory quarantine. In addition to strict lockdowns, New Zealand implemented a widespread testing and contact tracing program and took advantage of its remote geography to pursue a zero-COVID approach.

Travel returned cautiously in the form of a travel bubble with Australia which eventually closed last month due to outbreaks there.

Prime Minister Ardern said the government intends to follow the advice of public health experts to maintain this elimination strategy. That means borders will open only when enough people are vaccinated.

If we give up our elimination approach too soon there is no going back and we could see significant breakouts here like some countries overseas are experiencing who have opened up early in their vaccination rollout.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

The country will reduce the time period between the first and second vaccine doses for New Zealanders, ensuring that everyone is at least partially vaccinated in the coming months. People who work at the border and those with underlying health issues will be given priority.

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.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Pathway to Reopening Travel

The government will establish a system that will categorise countries based on their COVID-19 risk, dividing them into low, medium, and high-risk pathway groups. Each pathway will have its own testing and isolation requirements.

Vaccinated travellers who are coming from low-risk countries can enjoy quarantine-free travel. Those who have been in medium-risk countries will be subject to a combination of self-isolation and/or a reduced period of mandatory hotel quarantine.

Finally, the high-risk pathway will see travellers coming from high-risk countries subject to full mandatory hotel quarantine and testing, regardless of their vaccination status.

To prepare for borders reopening, the government is doing a few things: developing a traveller health declaration system, investigating new technology for rapid arrival and pre-departure testing, piloting self-isolation arrangements, and expanding its contact tracing program.

New Zealand remains in a strong position. We don’t have COVID in the community and our economy is more open than most.
Our plan to reopen our borders both protects the gains we have won, while setting us up to safely reconnect New Zealanders and business with the world and seize the opportunities created by our COVID success.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

What are your thoughts on New Zealand’s measure to reopen borders? Talk to us in the comment section below.

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