New Zealand has announced plans to reopen its borders to foreign tourists from next year.
The country has had some of the strictest border controls in the world since early last year, as part of efforts to fully eliminate the virus.
Even fully vaccinated New Zealanders have faced stays in mandatory hotel quarantine when returning to the country.
Those rules are going to be relaxed on a phased basis in early 2022.
Fully vaccinated New Zealanders returning home will no longer face mandatory quarantine in a hotel - initially for those coming from Australia from January onwards, before extending to all other countries from mid-February.
The borders will start reopening for fully vaccinated international tourists from April 30th, with the New Zealand government saying that will happen on a phased basis.
However, people will still be required to self-isolate for seven days, and show three negative COVID test results - before travelling, on arrival, and at the end of the self-isolation period.
Unvaccinated New Zealanders will still face mandatory quarantine, while current border rules will continue to apply for any other unvaccinated people.
The New Zealand government's COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the plan's being announced now "to give families, businesses, visitors and airline and airport companies certainty and time to prepare".
He said: “Some people and businesses want us to start to open up before Christmas, and that’s understandable, but others want us to be more cautious. We acknowledge it’s been tough but the end of heavily restricted travel is now in sight.
“There continues to be a global pandemic with cases surging in Europe and other parts of the world, so we do need to be very careful when reopening the border."
He said the situation will continue to be reviewed, noting the border will "be the last thing we open up".
New Zealand had largely managed to eliminate COVID-19 from the community as a result of very strict border controls.
However, they have faced fresh lockdowns this year due to the Delta varraint, with tough restrictions in place in Auckland since August.
Currently, the country is reporting around 200 new cases per day, with PM Jacinda Ardern last month admitting that a full elimination strategy is no longer feasible due to the transmissibility of Delta.
More than 80% of eligible New Zealanders have now received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.
