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 Thursday.
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 by the pandemic.
Ardern said New Zealanders in Australia could return home and self-isolate, rather than going into quarantine, from February 27, followed two weeks later by Kiwis elsewhere in the world. Only 800 rooms per month are available under the current system, with demand regularly exceeding supply tenfold. Bellis prompted a rare about-face from officials this week when she said her initial failure to secure a quarantine spot left her no choice but to deliver her baby in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.Ardern said the quarantine system -- known locally as MIQ -- had been a key part of New Zealand's success containing the coronavirus, with only 53 deaths recorded in a population of five million.
Ardern said New Zealand's high vaccination rate -- almost 95 percent of the population is double-jabbed, with a third also receiving a booster -- meant change was now possible.
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