New Zealand closes its borders “for most of the year”

Hanover. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a press conference in Wellington on Tuesday, that New Zealand will likely keep its borders closed “for a large part of 2021” because the introduction of Corona vaccines is uncertain. According to Vern, travel agreements will be concluded with neighboring Australia and other Pacific countries, “but the rest of the world simply poses a great risk to our health and our economy that we cannot take the risk at this point.”

The government expects to approve a corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer next week, and the first vaccine is expected to be delivered by the end of March. According to the prime minister, the first mass vaccinations should not start until the middle of the year, as the state relies on delivery times from pharmaceutical companies and cannot yet plan more precisely.

In order to resume travel, one must be able to ensure that the vaccinated people cannot transmit the Coronavirus. Or, in New Zealand, enough people will need to be vaccinated to allow travelers to re-enter the country safely. “Both options will take time,” says Adern.

The first case since November

New Zealand recorded its first case of corona since November on Monday. Health authorities in the island country in the South Pacific have announced that a 56-year-old woman had stayed in a quarantine hotel in Auckland for two weeks after returning from Europe. There she was tested negative for the virus twice.

It was only after she returned to her native Northland area on the North Island that she developed symptoms and tested positive, she said. Covid-19 Combat Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed that the virus is the most contagious new virus mutation from South Africa.

Meanwhile, 16 close contacts have been identified, and one of them is still waiting for the test result, and is reportingThe New Zealand HeraldAnother 154 people were identified as “accidental contact.” They were tested and isolated until they had a result.

Cook Islands cancels flight

The newspaper reported that neighboring Cook Islands canceled a flight from Auckland to Rarotonga on Tuesday due to autumn. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown has said he wants to devote more time to testing the close ties of the issue in Northland.

Additionally, according to the ministry, 1,500 people had been tested in Northland by Tuesday. There were long queues at the Corona test centers and outside help had to be sought. New Zealand has set up a number of these test centers across the country and they are in great use. Some of the controversial checkpoints in front of Northland have also been rebuilt.

Transparent communication and obedience of New Zealanders

Due to these very strict measures and close contact tracing, the country has so far weathered the crisis very lightly. Almost all cases have been detected among returning travelers. In total, only about 2,000 cases have been recorded, and 25 people have died in connection with Covid-19. The country of five million people is largely back to normal, with geographic location perhaps playing a role as well.

Prime Minister Ardern has long been praised for her transparent communications. For seven weeks, new infection numbers were announced daily at 1 p.m. at the press conference. The term Ardern “team of five million” fighting the Coronavirus has also become a code term. The stay-at-home rule was simply followed from now on.

Half of people use a tracking app

New Zealanders are also using the official Corona tracking app extensively. The Ministry of Combating Corona announced, on Tuesday, that the Covid Tracer app has 2,496,000 registered users. It also says more than 20,000 people registered within 24 hours.

“It is understood that the number of registered users, Bluetooth users and scans has increased since Sunday, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank New Zealanders for helping break the chain of transmission,” the ministry said. This means that nearly half of all New Zealanders are registered.

The number of times the Corona warning app has been downloaded in Germany is high Number from the Robert Koch Institute 25.2 million (as of January 21) – and has a population of over 83 million.