New Zealand Govt announces border reopening dates

New Zealand's Minister for COVID-19 Response, Education and Public Service Chris Hipkins announced (23-Nov-2021) fully vaccinated New Zealanders and other eligible travellers can travel to New Zealand from Australia without staying in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) from 23:59 on 16-Jan-2022. Fully vaccinated New Zealanders and other eligible travellers can travel to New Zealand from all other countries from 23:59 on 13-Feb-2022. All fully vaccinated individuals will be able to travel to New Zealand from 30-Apr-2022 onwards, with the reopening staged over time. The Very High-Risk classification for Indonesia, Fiji, India, Pakistan and Brazil will be removed in early Dec-2021. Mr Hipkins said: "Our dates for opening of borders logically follows the bedding in of the traffic light system, the lifting of the Auckland border, time for regions to get their vaccination rates higher still and for booster shots to be rolled out". Mr Hipkins added: "This does not mean the end of MIQ as a system, which was always intended to be temporary at this scale and has served us incredibly well… There will continue to be role for it in the foreseeable future". [more - original PR