New Zealand lifts majority of domestic anti-covid restrictions

New Zealand will relax much of its strict sanitary rules imposed in the face of the pandemic once its population has acquired high levels of immunity from infections and vaccination, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Wednesday.

The ruler said that on Friday the limitations on outdoor meetings will be removed, allowing concerts or sporting events to be held without capacity restrictions.

In addition, vaccination passports will not be needed from April 4 and most vaccination mandates that forced workers to be immunized or risk dismissal will be withdrawn.

“This is not the end, but in many ways it is also a new beginning,” Ardern told the press, noting that “covid is here to stay.”

“So far, we have had more than 500,000 registered cases of covid-19 and experts say there have probably been 1.7 million real infections” in a population of 5 million, he said.

“This figure, along with 95% of fully vaccinated New Zealanders, means that we now have a high level of herd immunity,” he explained.

For much of the pandemic, New Zealand pursued a strict containment policy, with border closures and strong restrictions on any outbreak, which allowed it to keep the virus away.

It is currently experiencing a wave of infections of the omicron variant, with 21,000 new cases this Tuesday, but it has not caused a notable increase in deaths, with a balance of only 177 since the start of the pandemic.

This led the authorities to change their health strategy and also advance the opening of borders with the outside world.

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