Wellington: New Zealand officials said Thursday they would gradually loosen their border quarantine requirements, which have become the most difficult in the world throughout the pandemic.
But while changes will make it easier for New Zealand people stranded abroad to return home, officials do not provide a date when tourists can be welcomed again.
The change is likely to be another month.
Response Minister Covid-19 Chris Hipkins said that from next month, most people who arrived in New Zealand need to spend seven days at a quarantine hotel managed by the military, half of the previous requirements.
He said some newcomers from low-risk Pacific Island countries can pass the quarantine at all and isolate at home.
He said the new rules were a temporary step before the broader reopening steps that would gradually be introduced once more than 90 percent of New Zealand people aged 12 years and above were fully vaccinated.
So far, 72 percent of eligible people have had both shots.
The change followed a growing rape from New Zealand who had tried to return home but could not secure places in the quarantine system.
Some have used legal action.
“I admit that there is a lot of pressure there.
My message to people who want to go back to New Zealand is: not too long waiting now,” said Hipkins.
“And encourage their fellow New Zealand to get fully vaccinated will help us reach that point faster.” Hipkins said he hoped that most of the new arrivals would be able to isolate at home in the first quarter of next year.
He said the first priority was New Zealand and those who had a valid visa.
“More tourists are a challenge, because they don’t need to have a place to isolate on arrival,” said Hipkins.
“But we will work through all that.” Political opponents said the change was not far enough and that travelers who were fully vaccinated back home peaked at risk.
Before the pandemic began, more than 3 million tourists visit New Zealand every year, and this industry is one of the largest recipients of foreign income in this country.
For more than a year after the pandemic began, a strict quarantine system helped New Zealand remain free of viruses and allowed life to return to normal.
But the outbreak of the more transmitted Delta variant in Auckland more than two months ago has proven impossible to extinguish, forcing officials to leave the previous zero-tolerance approach for the oppression strategy.
With a virus that continues to spread in Auckland, which remains in locking, border requirements have begun to be outdated.
Thursday’s announcement came after officials said two people in the city of Christchurch had caught the virus after one returned from Auckland.
There is no direct evidence of a virus that spread further in the city.