“Given the risks in the world around us and the uncertainty of the global launch of the vaccine, we can expect our borders to be affected for much of this year,” Ardern told a news conference.
For the trip to begin again, the authorities needed to be confident that the vaccinees would not pass Covid-19 to others, which is not yet known, or a sufficient number of the population needed to be vaccinated so that people could re-enter Nova Zealand safely.
But both possibilities will take some time, she said.
“In the meantime, we will continue to seek travel bubbles with Australia and the Pacific, but the rest of the world simply poses too great a risk to our health and our economy to take the risk at this stage.”
The community’s recent case, in a woman who returned to New Zealand on December 30 and had tested positive for the South African strain of the virus after leaving a mandatory two-week quarantine, prompted Australia to immediately suspend a travel bubble. with New Zealand for 72 hours.
Ardern said the country’s drug regulator, Medsafe, is working to grant a provisional approval for the vaccine Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE.
The first vaccines are expected to arrive in New Zealand at the end of the first quarter, but the government wanted everything to be ready in case of an early arrival.
A strong blockade and geographical isolation helped the country of 5 million inhabitants to virtually eliminate the new coronavirus within its borders.
New Zealand reported 2 new cases of Covid-19 in its managed isolation facilities on Tuesday and no new cases in the community. The country has 65 active cases, 1,934 confirmed cases in all and 25 deaths.