New Zealand advances its reopening to tourists from other countries

New Zealand, which applied a strict closure for almost two years to contain the covid-19 pandemic, announced this Wednesday the advancement of the reopening of its borders to tourists from countries without the need for a visa. As of May 2, the country will allow the entry without quarantine of tourists from nations with visa-free agreements, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea and Singapore, provided that travelers have the complete guideline of the covid-19 vaccine.

This advance, which in the original calendar estimated the reopening for this group as of July, comes after the local government considered the safety of the measure, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The president also announced the early entry date for all Australian touristswhich represented 40% of arrivals before the pandemic, as of April 13 – since July – as long as they are fully immunized and tested for the virus before and after arrival.

New Zealand shielded its borders since March 2020 and even delayed the return of its own nationals by imposing a daily entry quota in order to prevent the virus from entering and spreading throughout the country. “Closing our border was one of the first steps we took to stop Covid-19 two years ago. It did the job we needed. But now that we are highly vaccinated … it is now safe to open,” Ardern said in a statement. .

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At the beginning of February, the authorities announced a five-stage reopening plan that began on February 28 by lifting the daily limit for the return of New Zealanders and residents in the country and that concludes in October, a date that has not yet been modified, to all tourists from countries that require a visa. The reopening coincides with the worst record of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, but that has not translated into a large increase in the death rate.

New Zealand, which in January registered less than a hundred cases of covid-19 and has vaccinated 96% of the target population with two doses, reported 21,633 new infections this Wednesday and accumulates 399,342 cases, including 102 deaths, since the start of the pandemic. Despite the high rate of vaccination, in February and until the beginning of March, when they were evicted by the Police, thousands of demonstrators camped in front of Parliament as a sign of protest against compulsory inoculation in some labor sectors and other measures against the pandemic.