As New Zealand gets ready to fully reopen its borders after more than two years of closure, Jacinda Ardern has pleaded with British tourists to come.
On ITV’s Lorraine this morning, the Prime Minister of New Zealand did her utmost to promote her nation as a winter sun vacation destination.
Despite being cut off from the rest of the world from March 2020, Ms. Ardern said during her appearance on the program that visitors from the UK can already get there.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pacific island country had entered one of the toughest lockdowns in the world, barring nearly all international travel.
In an effort to eradicate the virus, strict lockdowns were also enacted around the nation as the New Zealand Labour Party leader implemented a “Zero Covid” target.
Ms. Ardern has frequently defended the limitations, claiming they saved lives despite vehement criticism from some citizens of the nation over the restrictions.
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine this morning, she urged British tourists to fly there after the government relaxed regulations so that visitors from other countries coming after May 1 may do so without being quarantined.
Before that, UK citizens were only permitted to enter the nation under specific circumstances, such as to see terminally sick family members or on a student or critical worker visa.
We are already already open; anyone in the UK may immediately travel, the woman declared.
Your winter is our summer, so make those plans, I’ll plug it.
She said, “Having been to Scotland though I can say summer is a little more summery in New Zealand, as much as I love locations like Scotland,” in response to her Scottish host.
“I’d like to think I’m capable of objectivity, but New Zealand is simply the most stunning location,” the speaker said.
“What I enjoy also is that you can get that combination of being in cities but then being close to nature, beaches, incredible walks, natural tourism, and now food and wine – it’s rare to have a bad dinner,” says the author.
Ms. Ardern defended her stringent Covid regulations as having helped her nation save lives.
There was no reaction to the pandemic that was free, she added, adding that they were open.
It either resulted in a terrible and dreadful cost to human life, or as we primarily experienced, a cost related to how difficult it was for people to move around.
“You could come and go, but we quarantined, and there wasn’t much room because of quarantine.”
Everyone found it difficult, but we managed to get through it with significantly fewer hospitalizations and fatalities than usual.
If she could go back in time, she would have done things differently, she responded, “Of course. If you reflect on something and can’t think of anything you would have done differently, you probably didn’t look long enough.
‘So, definitely. But as a whole, no, because I am certain that it did save lives.
The World Health Organization reports that since the start of the pandemic, New Zealand has had 1.3 million cases of Covid, leading to 1,466 fatalities.
The majority of these cases have occurred since February of this year, following an Omicron variant outbreak in the nation.
After enforcing stringent Covid limitations since the onset of the outbreak, Ms. Ardern received a barrage of criticism from activists and members of the public.
On March 19, international crossings were swiftly shut, and a statewide lockdown was implemented on March 25 after 102 instances but no deaths were reported in the nation.
The Prime Minister stated on June 8 that there has been no recent community transmissions and that she is “sure New Zealand has stopped community transmission of Covid.”
But after just four fresh instances were reported in the city’s vicinity, Auckland was placed under stringent lockdown restrictions two months later.
The country then adopted the harsh “Zero Covid” target, with New Zealand attempting to totally wipe out the virus from its shores.
This policy, however, was derided when the Delta version struck in the summer of 2021, forcing Auckland’s 1.7 million inhabitants to go back to numerous weeks of lockdown.
Critics criticized the reinstatement of harsh restrictions on daily life, pointing out that other nations have begun to operate again despite reporting thousands of new instances.
The ‘fear and panic’ that has engulfed New Zealand since enacting its severe zero-Covid policy while the rest of the globe learns to live alongside the virus, according to MailOnline columnist Dan Wootton, has been criticized.
Numerous British and New Zealand readers, including former All Black player Zinzan Brooke, expressed support for his incredibly personal post by tweeting, “Completely agree with Dan here.”