Jacinda Ardern unveils plan to reopen New Zealand borders to the world

Every New Zealander will be eligible for Pfizer from the beginning of next month and global border closure will be eased from early next year.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: Getty

Every New Zealander will eligible for a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from the beginning of next month and global border closures will be eased from early next year, as Jacinda Ardern unveils her post-pandemic reopening plan.

Elimination of coronavirus will remain the Ardern government’s strategy for the rest of the year and the interval between Pfizer doses will increase due to the limited supply of jabs.

Only 21.5 per cent of the eligible population, aged 16 and above, is fully vaccinated in New Zealand, but Ms Ardern has not faced the same criticism as Scott Morrison for a sluggish rollout from a historically weak opposition and very few Covid-19 cases this year.

On Thursday, Ms Ardern told the ‘Reconnecting New Zealanders to the World’ forum that the country would make the Pfizer vaccine – the only one approved for use in her country – available to all adults by September 1.

“Getting vaccinated is the number one thing everyone can do to be protected against COVID-19, help accelerate our economic recovery, reduce the risk of lockdowns, and safely allow New Zealand’s borders to begin reopening next year,” Ms Ardern said.

“If we give up our elimination approach too soon there is no going back, and we could see significant breakouts here like some countries overseas are experiencing who have opened up early in their vaccination rollout.

“Therefore the first step in our plan is speeding up the vaccination process to ensure everyone is at least partially vaccinated as soon as possible to reduce the risk and impact of Delta entering the country.”

Ms Ardern’s plan came as her expert advisory panel on Covid-19 said on Wednesday there should be no change from the strategy of eliminating the coronavirus.

New Zealanders aged between 50 and 59 will be eligible for a vaccine for the first time from Friday – months later than in Australia for the same age group – and then 40 year-olds and 30-years old will only gain access to the jab on August 18 and August 25 respectively.

The interval between Pfizer doses will also increase from three to six weeks to ensure more New Zealanders are partially protected from the Delta strain.

Ms Ardern also unveiled a three-catagory travel plan to open up global travel for New Zealanders, similar to Great Britain’s “traffic light” travel system.

People coming in from low-risk countries will be allowed to travel quarantine-free, people from medium-risk countries will be able to isolate at home, and high-risk country entries will have to go into 14 day isolation at a hotel facility.

Ms Ardern said on Thursday that the border reopening would take place in the first quarter of 2022, and the New Zealand government would run a pilot of home isolation between October and December this year.

“This individual risk based approach requires new systems to be set up. We will use the remainder of 2021 to continue to prepare for the operation of borders under this system.

“This work includes ongoing work on the development of a traveller health declaration system, investigating new testing technology for rapid testing on arrival at airports and reliable pre-departure testing as well as piloting self-isolation arrangements for some New Zealanders and strengthening other public health measures such as contact tracing.”