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Bloomberg
New Zealand will finally begin reopening to the world at the end of this month as frustration mounts over a border that’s been closed for almost two years to keep out Covid-19.
The border will reopen to vaccinated New Zealanders from Australia at midnight on February 27 and from the rest of the world at midnight on March 13, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a speech in Auckland. Some groups of critical and skilled workers will also be permitted to enter from those dates. Arrivals will no longer need to spend time in a government managed isolation facility, but will be required to self-isolate and return negative tests.
Ardern is under intense pressure to open the border as limited capacity in managed isolation, or MIQ, has frustrated thousands of New Zealanders wanting to return from abroad. The recent case of pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who sought assistance from the Taliban in Afghanistan because she couldn’t get a spot in MIQ, made headlines around the world.
The closed border has also cut the supply of migrant labor and created a worker shortage that’s impeding the economic recovery, driving up wages and fueling inflation. The tourism and international education industries have been decimated by the absence of foreigners.
At the same time, the strategy has helped New Zealand prevent major coronavirus outbreaks and limited the death toll to just 53, giving it one of the lowest pandemic mortality rates in the world.
With the highly contagious Omicron variant now taking hold, the only remaining purpose of border restrictions was to give the government time to administer booster vaccinations to as many people as possible.