New Zealand abandons zero-Covid policy – The HuffPost

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COVID – New Zealand to end early December in confinement for three and a half months in the country’s largest city, Auckland, adopting a new strategy to fight the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.

Jacinda Ardern said that starting at 11:59 p.m. on December 2, New Zealand will adopt a new response to Covid-19 aimed at containing the Delta variant rather than trying to eliminate it completely.

“The hard truth is that (the variant) Delta is here and is not going to go away,” she told reporters. As you can see in the graph below, the number of cases is on the rise in New Zealand.

New Zealand “better placed” to tackle Covid

“Although no country has succeeded in eliminating the Delta variant completely, New Zealand is better placed than most to tackle it,” said Jacinda Ardern.

Until now, his government aimed complete elimination of the virus, a so-called “zero-Covid” policy, with strict containment measures, rigorous traceability of contacts and strict border controls.

Disease only killed 40 out of a population of five million inhabitants but pressure has increased to end the lockdown imposed on Auckland since the Delta variant was detected there in August.

Jacinda Ardern had initially planned to change policy once a 90% immunization rate was reached in the country, but eventually brought forward the reopening when the immunization level is currently around 83%.

New Zealand is not the only country to have had to abandon its “zero Covid” policy after a surge in cases. This was the case in June for Singapore which decided to changing your tune to live with the coronavirus.

A traffic light system

The new system is presented as traffic lights, the green signifying virtually no control of the virus, the orange requiring the wearing of the mask in certain places while the red allows the businesses to remain open to only vaccinated customers and observing a distancing social.

Auckland will initially be placed in red, the prime minister said, adding that authorities are still in the process of classifying the other areas. Auckland is currently isolated from the rest of New Zealand, with roadblocks to be lifted on December 15.

Strict quarantine rules for international arrivals will remain in place, but Jacinda Ardern has pledged to ease them early next year.

Australia reopens its borders to some travelers

For his part, twenty months after closing its borders, Australia announced on Monday that it will welcome international students, skilled workers and working holiday visa holders again starting next month, easing some of the world’s toughest Covid restrictions.

Thus, Australian citizens, visa holders and citizens of Japan, South Korea and Singapore, will be able to enter the territory from December 1. They will be able to travel to the country with only a negative Covid-19 test before departure if they are vaccinated. However, some Australian states still require a quarantine on entry.

“Australia is reopening to the world,” Home Secretary Karen Andrews said in announcing the news, adding that it was “another step forward” for the country.
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