New Zealand will be allowing fully vaccinated tourists into the country without MIQ sooner than anticipated.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would be making an announcement on Wednesday about an expedited reopening schedule.
Under the original timeline, fully vaccinated travellers from Australia and visa-waiver countries could come in without having to stay in MIQ from July. Then, the border would fully re-open to visitors from anywhere in the world from October.
"We're looking to bring those forward because we believe we can safely do so," Ardern said.
"The point we've come off the peak of Omicron is when the experts have said it will be possible to reopen the borders more broadly."
A file image of a woman with her luggage at an airport. (Source: istock.com)
Ardern said the Government was considering a range of options, including timing the reopening to take into account peaks in demand.
"[We're] moving as quickly as we can to give that certainty to the tourism industry."
She added that the more contagious BA.2 subvariant of Omicron wouldn't impact these plans as it was already circulating in the community.
Professor Michael Plank of Te Pūnaha Matatini told Breakfast on Monday morning once the Omicron peak was over: "I think at that point what's happening at the border starts to become much less important".
"Potentially we can look at bringing that October date forward much, much sooner and start to welcome back tourists much sooner than that.
"Once we're over the peak, there'll probably still be several thousand cases in the community per day for some time to come and so adding in a few hundred cases even from the border is not going to make a huge difference to that," Plank said.
ACT and National were among those who said MIQ should end immediately and that the Government should relax the borders faster. They said the growing Omicron outbreak meant people were more likely to catch Covid-19 in the community than from travellers.
Borders had already been eased to vaccinated New Zealanders returning from Australia. They can now skip MIQ and self-isolate on arrival instead.
Most of New Zealand's MIQ facilities will be closed by the end of June.
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