Jacinda Ardern on January 26th. Ardern said mass immunization would not begin until the middle of the year and that he was taking a “conservative” approach to allow foreigners to re-enter the country.
Photographer: Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images
Photographer: Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images
New Zealand will keep its border closed to the world for most of 2021 amid uncertainty over the launch of Covid-19 vaccines, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
“We can expect our borders to be affected for much of this year,” Ardern told a news conference in Wellington on Tuesday. “We will continue to pursue travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific, but the rest of the world simply poses too great a risk to our health and our economy to take a risk at this stage.”
New Zealand’s success in fighting the virus has allowed it to lift restrictions and get its economy moving again much sooner than initially expected, but the closed border is decimating its tourism industry. While the government announced today that it expects to give regulatory approval for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine next week, Ardern said that mass immunization will not begin until mid-year and that it is taking a “conservative” approach to allow foreigners to re-enter the country.
“To resume the journey we need one of two things,” she said. “Either we need the confidence that vaccination means not passing Covid-19 to others – and we still don’t know that – or we need enough people to be vaccinated and protected for people to enter New Zealand. Both possibilities will take some time. ”
Ardern sounded pessimistic about the possibility of a safe travel area with Australia soon. As talks continue, “it seems increasingly difficult at the country level,” she said, adding that “we have not ruled out the situation from state to state.”
Australia began last year to allow quarantine travel for New Zealanders last year, but suspended it this week, when New Zealand reported a case of Covid-19 in the community. Ardern expressed disappointment with Australia’s decision. The case, which involved a woman who tested positive after leaving the isolation facility, is “well under control,” she said.
“If we want to get into a trans-Tasmanian balloon, we need to be able to give people confidence that we will not see border closures that will happen too soon for incidents that we believe can be well managed domestically,” she said. said.
New Zealand plans to start immunizing workers at its isolation facilities managed this quarter, but Ardern could not say when the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine will arrive in the country. The vaccine is expected to arrive in New Zealand around the same time as it arrives in Australia, which is scheduled for mid to late February, she said.
“New Zealand will have the house in order, so we will be ready to receive it, but in the end we will be in the hands of the delivery deadlines of the pharmaceutical companies,” Ardern said.