Jacinda Ardern decries ’dangerous’ calls to reopen New Zealand borders | World news | The Guardian
►https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/jacinda-ardern-decries-dangerous-calls-to-reopen-new-zealand-borders-co
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Jacinda Ardern has decried as “dangerous” her detractors’ calls to open New Zealand’s borders – or present a plan for how she will do so – as the country remains largely free of Covid-19 while the virus spreads abroad.
Teling reporters on Tuesday that she had heard “calls for our borders to be opened to the world”, the New Zealand prime minister referred to “a world where the virus is escalating not slowing and not even peaking in some countries yet, where cases exceed 10 million globally and deaths half a million, where countries are extending and returning to lockdown”. (...)
She appeared to be responding to Todd Muller – the leader of the opposition and the centre-right National party – who, along with business leaders, branded as “untenable” the prospect of keeping the country’s borders sealed for months or years until a Covid-19 vaccine is found.
A swift, strict lockdown of the country in March and April appeared to have eliminated community transmission of the virus shortly after it appeared in New Zealand – with New Zealanders returning to the country accounting for all the 22 current cases diagnosed. The nation has become an international success story for addressing Covid-19 but it now faces a world where preserving that status means tightly sealed borders.
“A strategy that says we stay completely closed to everybody for the next 12 to 18 months is simply untenable,” Muller told the Wellington Chamber of Commerce in a speech on Monday. “We won’t recognise this country in terms of economic impact.”He added in a statement on Tuesday that he was not advocating an immediate reopening of borders, but wanted to know how and when they would be “progressively reopened”.
Only New Zealanders and their families are allowed to enter the country, along with some government-approved essential workers. Returnees must spend two weeks in government-managed quarantine at designated hotels; they are tested for Covid-19 twice during their stay and are not permitted to leave isolation for a further two weeks if they refuse a test.
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