PM Ardern Signals New Zealand To Lift COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements And Social Distance After Peak Omicron Variant

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. (Wikimedia Commons/Foundations World Economic Forum)

JAKARTA - New Zealand will lift its COVID-19 vaccine mandate and social distancing measures once the peak of the Omicron variant passes, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, as protesters occupying parliament's courtyard again clashed with police.

Inspired by the truck driver demonstrations in Canada, thousands of protesters have blocked roads near parliament in the capital Wellington for two weeks in trucks, cars and motorbikes, piling pressure on the government to scrap the vaccine mandate.

PM Ardern declined to set an exact date, but said there would be a reduction in vaccine requirements once the Omicron variant reaches its peak, which is expected in mid-to-late March.

"We all want to get back to life. And we will, I think sooner than you think," Prime Minister Ardern said at a weekly news conference.

"But when it does, it's because easing restrictions won't endanger the lives of thousands of people, not because you demand it," he said, addressing the protesters.

The demonstrations began as opposition to the vaccine mandate, but have since spread into a wider movement against PM Ardern and her government. On Monday, eight people were arrested for disorderly behavior, pelting police officers with human waste.

The parliamentary impasse is testing PM Ardern, who has won praise for keeping the country virtually virus-free for the past two years but has faced criticism for continuing strict restrictions and delaying plans to reopen borders.

"What we are seeing outside parliament, and the reaction to it, is the culmination of a fundamental problem that has been roiling in our community for some time," said the leader of the main opposition National Party Christopher Luxon on Monday, calling for vaccine mandates to be removed and borders reopened. .

"Driven by the COViD-19 and vaccine mandates, yes, but the frustration many Kiwis are experiencing is also driven by the seemingly stagnant Government," he said.

To note, New Zealand has reported around 16,000 cases of COVID-19 and 53 deaths since the pandemic began, relatively low by global standards, but the Omikron-triggered outbreak has pushed its current seven-day average of new infections to more than 1,600 daily cases.

Meanwhile, around 94 percent of the population has met the requirements for COVID-19 vaccination, with injections mandatory for some staff in frontline work.