New Zealand is to remove many of its COVID-19 pandemic mandates over the next two weeks, as an outbreak of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 begins to wane.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday said that people would no longer need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to visit places such as retail stores, restaurants and bars from April 4. Gone, too, would be a requirement to scan QR codes at those venues.
A vaccine mandate would be scrapped for some workers — including teachers, police officers and waiters — although it would continue for healthcare and elderly care workers, border workers and corrections officers.
Photo: AFP
Also gone from tomorrow would be a limit on outdoor crowds of 100, which would allow some concerts and big sporting events such as marathons to resume. An indoor limit of 100 people would be raised to 200 people, and could later be removed altogether.
Remaining in place would be a requirement that people wear masks in many enclosed spaces, including in stores, on public transport and, for children aged eight or older, in school classrooms.
Ardern said the New Zealand government’s actions over the past two years to limit the spread of COVID-19 had saved thousands of lives and helped the economy.
“But while we’ve been successful, it’s also been bloody hard,” Ardern said. “Everyone has had to give up something to make this work, and some more than others.”
The changes mean that many restrictions would be removed before tourists start arriving back in New Zealand.
Earlier this month, the government announced that Australian tourists would be welcomed back from April 12 and tourists from many other states, including the US, Canada and the UK, from May 1.
International tourism accounted for about 20 percent of New Zealand’s foreign income and more than 5 percent of GDP before the COVID-19 pandemic, but evaporated after the South Pacific nation imposed some of the world’s strictest border controls.
New Zealand continues to see some of its highest rates of daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since the pandemic began, with an average 17,000 new infections being reported each day.
However, Ardern said modeling shows that the biggest city of Auckland is already significantly past the peak of its Omicron outbreak and the rest of the country would soon follow.
Health experts warned that some countries that had dropped restrictions as Omicron faded were now experiencing another surge of cases.
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