Starting April 30, 2022, New Zealand will reopen its borders to vaccinated travelers.
Though fully-vaccinated visitors will be able to enter the nation, they’ll still have to self-quarantine for a week upon entrance. This policy change will also allow many native New Zealanders to reenter the country.
Many unlucky New Zealanders caught outside the nation when its borders closed have not been permitted to return home. They were subject to similar restrictions to the ones that prevented foreigners from entering the country.
A majority of countries closed their borders in early 2020. Nonetheless, most provided relatively simple methods for their citizens to return home.
Though New Zealanders were technically allowed to reenter, the country’s rules made return functionally impossible for many. To enter, citizens had to spend seven days in official quarantine hotels.
There were too few hotels to accommodate all citizens stuck outside New Zealand.
Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s COVID-19 Response Minister, stated that all reopening plans must be handled with care.
However, the April changes won’t be the first step. Numerous New Zealand citizens have been stranded in Australia for months, and they will be the first to reenter the country in January.
Citizens outside Australia will be able to reenter starting in February. Only foreign visitors will have to wait until April 30.
No matter which group someone falls into, they will be required to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival.
Though some countries had dangerously late responses to the coronavirus, New Zealand took early and extreme action to prevent the virus’s spread within its borders. The country’s pandemic response kept cases down, but the more recent Delta strain has presented challenges.
New Zealand’s case rates exploded starting in September. However, its COVID-19 death rates are still impressively low.