Share this
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that New Zealand is well prepared for the discovery of new coronavirus variants that may be resistant to vaccinations, including the strain now circulating in South Africa.
“All of our planning around COVID, we have built into it the possibility of variants in the future,” Ardern said in an interview for the upcoming Reuters Next conference.
“That is why we are maintaining levels of public health protections. It’s why we’ve maintained requirements at our border.”
Britain drew attention to the new variant of Covid in South Africa, which is very different from the other variants
The discovery of the B.1.1.529 strain, which has more mutations than the highly transmissible Delta variant, prompted Britain to rush in travel restrictions on South Africa and five neighboring countries.
After mounting pressure from the tourism industry and other business industries, the Arderns government has decided to reopen its borders to fully vaccinated international travellers from April 30.