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After 108 Days Of Lockdown, New Zealand’s Largest City Reopens As Nation Shifts Away From ‘Zero Covid’ Approach

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Updated Apr 21, 2022, 08:19am EDT

Topline

Restaurants, cafes, cinemas and other public venues reopened in Auckland on Friday as New Zealand’s largest city exited 108 days of Covid-19 lockdown, a move that comes as the highly vaccinated south Pacific nation moves forward with its plans to ease pandemic restrictions despite the emerging threat from the Omicron variant.

Key Facts

The Auckland reopening is part of a broader shift in approach for New Zealand that includes ditching lockdowns in favor of vaccine requirements.

Public places like bars, nightclubs, cinemas and restaurants will only be open to people with vaccine certificates, and they will still have to operate with some social distancing rules in place.

Nationwide, New Zealand has adopted a new “traffic light” system where regions will be rated red, orange and green based on their current Covid exposure levels.

Places designated green can operate with nearly no restrictions, orange designation will require the use of the country’s vaccine pass system and some mask wearing, while the areas with red designations will have limits placed on size of public gatherings.

New Zealand’s decision to push forward with its reopening comes as officials in the country remain confident they will be able to catch incoming omicron infections as part of their border quarantine system.

Big Number

87%. That’s the percentage of New Zealand’s eligible population—people over the age of 12—who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to official government data. Additionally 93% of eligible people have received at least one vaccine dose. After facing criticism for a sluggish start, the country’s government managed to dramatically speed up its vaccine rollout in the past three months. Despite having one of the lowest inoculation rates among developed nations in August, New Zealand is now among the most vaccinated nations in the world.

Tangent

Despite the broader success of New Zealand’s vaccine rollout, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her government have faced some criticism over the lower vaccination rates among the indigenous Maori community. Only around 70% of the eligible Maori population has been vaccinated, and Maori leaders have expressed concern that Ardern’s reopening plan leaves them vulnerable to the virus. According to Reuters, the Maori, who are around 15% of New Zealand’s population, now account for the highest proportion of new Covid-19 cases in the country. Some have blamed the low vaccine uptake on the demographics of the indigenous group—70% of Maori are younger than 40—and the government's decision to prioritize shots for the elderly. But other community leaders have pointed to institutional racism, mistrust of government and poor healthcare access for Maori living in remote and smaller towns.

Key Background

Prior to its current delta variant outbreak, New Zealand had enjoyed a six-month streak of no Covid cases, making it the poster child of the ‘zero-Covid’ or elimination approach. At the start of the pandemic last year, the south Pacific island nation moved to impose some of the world’s strictest border restrictions along with strong contact tracing efforts to stomp out the local spread of the virus without resorting to protracted lockdowns. However, in October, in the midst of a persistent delta variant outbreak, Ardern announced that New Zealand’s zero-Covid approach was no longer feasible. Since then Ardern’s government has ramped up vaccinations across the country, while slowly easing restrictions. Unlike other nations like Singapore and the U.K. which have also chosen a ‘living with the virus’ approach, New Zealand has been much more circumspect in rolling back restrictions. It is still unclear what impact the omicron variant will have on New Zealand’s strategy as it prepares to reopen its border to international visitors sometime next year.

Further Reading

With One Of The World’s Highest Vaccination Rates, Singapore Bucks Trend To ‘Live With Covid’ Despite Omicron (Forbes)

Reopening Borders Vs. Travel Bans: How Different Countries Are Reacting As Omicron Spreads (Forbes)

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