New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country’s borders would remain closed until at least the end of the year.
She explained that this strategy is the best way to protect the population from the coronavirus and keep the economy open.
Ardern stressed that the priority is to vaccinate the entire population by the end of 2021, according to BGNES.
New Zealand is considered one of the most successful countries in the world in the fight against the pandemic. Only 26 deaths were reported among just under five million people.
“We just can’t reveal ourselves completely yet,” the prime minister said in a speech at a forum on New Zealanders’ relations with the world.
Ardern said New Zealand would move to a new individual model based on quarantine risk assessment early next year.