Travellers to New Zealand will no longer need to isolate

world
Travellers To New Zealand Will No Longer Need To Isolate
Two people embrace at an airport
Share this article

By Nick Perry, AP

New Zealand is ending a requirement for incoming travellers to isolate themselves as it continues to remove coronavirus border protections in the face of a growing domestic outbreak.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the requirement that vaccinated travellers should isolate for a week after arriving would end on Wednesday.

Advertisement

Initially the changes will apply only to returning New Zealanders, as tourists are still not allowed to visit.

Travellers will still need to test negative for the virus before leaving and after arriving.

“I know this will be welcome news to the members of our team overseas, eager to travel home to see loved ones as soon as possible,” Ms Ardern said. “We can’t wait to see you.”


A traveller returns to his family
John Davis, who hasn’t been back to New Zealand since 2019, is embraced by his daughter Amber Davis, left, and grand-daughter Maddison, right, at Auckland International Airport (New Zealand Herald via AP)

Advertisement

The changes were welcomed by the tourism industry, although leaders wanted more certainty over when tourists could return.

International tourism used to account for about 20% of New Zealand’s foreign income but has evaporated since the pandemic began.

Ms Ardern said her cabinet was considering fully reopening the borders to tourists sooner than the current scheduled date of July for Australians and October for those from elsewhere in the world.

Advertisement

Earlier this month, the government announced it was ending the requirement that most incoming travellers spend time in quarantine hotel rooms run by the military.

For now, that requirement remains for unvaccinated travellers.


Two people hug at an airport
New Zealand is ending a requirement that incoming travellers isolate themselves as it continues to dismantle its coronavirus border protections (New Zealand Herald photograph via AP)

Advertisement

New Zealand enacted some of the world’s strictest border controls when the pandemic began. The measures were initially credited with saving thousands of lives and allowed New Zealand to eliminate or contain several outbreaks.

But the controls have increasingly been viewed as out-of-step in a world where the virus is becoming endemic, and in a country where it is now spreading rapidly.

New Zealand has been recording about 15,000 cases of Covid-19 per day, up from 2,000 just 10 days ago as an outbreak of the Omicron variant spreads.

Some political opponents of Ms Ardern have long called for a loosening of border restrictions and welcomed the move, although they said it should also apply immediately to tourists.

Advertisement

Read More

Message submitting... Thank you for waiting.

Want us to email you top stories each lunch time?

Download our Apps
© BreakingNews.ie 2024, developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com