New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern has said that strict border controls will remain in place this year, but that she hoped to cautiously reopen the country to the rest of the world in 2022 while maintaining the country's virus-free status.

The prime minister said the changes would be "careful and deliberate" to avoid allowing variants such as the highly contagious delta strain into New Zealand, where there is no local transmission and domestic life is close to normal.

"Rushing could see us in the situation many other countries are finding themselves in," she said, citing an outbreak of the Delta variant in neighbouring Australia that has forced its two largest cities into renewed lockdown.

Read more here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/08/12/new-zealand-borders-stay-shut-rest-year-pursues-zero-covid-strategy/
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