By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is speaking to media after a visit to Auckland Airport, ahead of the border reopening.
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The border reopening plan‘s first stage – allowing vaccinated New Zealanders and certain other eligible travellers to arrive from Australia without entering managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) – begins at 11.59pm this Sunday, 27 February.
The second step – opening with the same criteria for travel from the rest of the world as well as working-holiday visas and skilled workers earning 1.5x the median wage – is set for two weeks later, on 13 March.
Ardern has this afternoon been touring Auckland Airport, and been briefed on readiness for the change.
She yesterday gave further assurances that restrictions within New Zealand would begin easing “well beyond” the Omicron outbreak’s peak, some three to six weeks away.
The government laid out the rules for self-isolating travellers last week, and criteria for allowing people to leave MIQ early were loosened.
Under the government’s plan, unvaccinated travellers would still be required to go into MIQ and some facilities will continue to house those unable to isolate at home, but the Defence Force would no longer secure the facilities.
Ardern has also signalled the government may no longer require self-isolation for vaccinated travellers in the “not too distant” future.
