New Zealand Removes Mask Wear Rule and COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate, PM Ardern: We're Taking Back Control

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern. (Wikimedia Commons/US Embassy)

JAKARTA - New Zealand scrapped its mask-wearing and vaccine mandates on Monday, ending some of the world's toughest COVID-19 pandemic rules about two years after they came into effect.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference it was time to safely turn the page on the country's COVID-19 management and live without the extraordinary measures previously used.

"Finally, instead of feeling that COVID determines what happens to us, our lives, and our future. We are taking back control," PM Ardern said.

"For the first time in two years we can approach summer with much-needed certainty New Zealanders and businesses need, helping to drive the greater economic activity that is critical to our economic recovery," she added.

All requirements for wearing masks have been removed, except in health care and elderly care facilities.

In addition, only COVID-19 positive individuals will be required to isolate for seven days, while household contact is no longer necessary, the government said in a statement.

Then, all government vaccine mandates will also be removed by September 26, Ardern said, adding that employers will now decide whether or not they need their workforce to be vaccinated.

Not only that, but the government will also remove all vaccination requirements for incoming travelers and flight crew.

New Zealand's rapid response to the pandemic, strict pandemic rules, and its geographic isolation kept it largely virus-free until the end of last year.

The government lifted its zero-COVID policy this year, after most of the population was vaccinated. Since then the virus has been allowed to spread. There have been 1.950 deaths and about 1.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.