New Zealand is to begin allowing small numbers of vaccinated travellers to isolate at home instead of in state-run quarantine facilities as part of a phased approach to re-opening its borders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
The pilot project starting next month will be open to 150 people, who must be New Zealand citizens or residents and are fully vaccinated, Ardern said at a news conference.
"We're working on building a greater evidence base for a shorter periods of isolation in the future as well," she said. In an opinion piece over the weekend, former Prime Minister John Key criticised the government's COVID-19 response strategy saying it was based on fear, questioned the slow vaccination rates, and said New Zealand should no longer exist as "a smug hermit kingdom".
New Zealand eliminated COVID-19 last year and remained largely virus-free until an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant in August led to a nationwide lockdown.