New Zealand implements tighter border restrictions

On Oct 3, 2021

New Zealand has announced tighter border restrictions as new cases of COVID-19 emerged in areas previously free of the coronavirus.“We are introducing the requirement for air travellers aged 17 and over, who are not New Zealand citizens, to be fully vaccinated to enter New Zealand,” Christ Hipkins, the minister for COVID-19 response, said on Sunday.

The national flag carrier Air New Zealand also announced it was introducing a “no jab, no fly” policy for passengers on all international flights from February 1.

The country has been hugely successful at containing the virus – reporting just 27 deaths in a population of five million – largely due to tight border controls and lockdowns, allowing pre-pandemic life to mostly resume.

But the upped border restrictions come as the city of Hamilton and neighbouring Raglan town were put into a five-day lockdown, with only essential movement permitted, after two people tested positive.

The cases are not believed to be connected to the latest outbreak in Auckland, 160 kilometres (99 miles) away.The city of two million has been in lockdown for nearly seven weeks as officials grapple with an outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant that has so far infected 1,320 people.

(Al Jazeera)