New Zealand drops COVID mask, vaccine mandates

New Zealand is dropping most pandemic restrictions, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday.

Why it matters: NZ stamped out COVID-19 community cases with some of the world’s toughest measures. After Omicron arrived, the government switched its response to mask and vaccine mandates, which Ardern pledged to lift once the threat of the variant had passed.

Driving the news: Ardern at a news conference cited “the lowest cases and hospitalizations since February,” a highly vaccinated population and access to antiviral medicines as she announced a phasing out of the government’s pandemic response.

• These include the removal of government vaccine mandates on Sept. 26, while international travelers will no longer be required to be vaccinated against COVID or submit results upon arrival from 11:59pm Monday local time.

What they’re saying: “It’s time to safely turn the page on our COVID-19 management,” Ardern said.

• “We now move on to a simple two-requirements system of masks in healthcare settings and seven days isolation for positive cases only,” Ardern added.
• “We move forward with confidence knowing that we’re not going to use those measures in the future.”

By the numbers: The seven-day rolling average of COVID cases is 1,480 as of Monday, down from 1,778 compared to the previous week, according to the NZ Health Ministry.

Go deeper: New Zealand borders fully reopen as COVID travel restrictions end