Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government has no reason to cancel the easing of restrictions ahead of Christmas as the new Omicron COVID-19 variant continues to spread across the world.
"No," Ardern said when asked if New Zealand could cancel Christmas. "Nor do we have any reason to," she said in an interview with The AM Show on Monday.
The new Omicron strain, first identified in South Africa, has a spike protein that is dramatically different from the one in the original SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that COVID-19 vaccines are based on. It was detected in Australia's New South Wales on Sunday, as well as the UK and multiple European countries at the weekend.
Omicron, or B.1.1.529, has more mutations than the highly transmissible Delta variant - the strain that's been circulating in New Zealand since August and prompted months of lockdown in Auckland. It's prompted countries around the world to slap travel restrictions on southern African nations.
Ardern's Government on Saturday announced South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique would be listed as "very high risk" - meaning only New Zealand citizens can travel from those countries and must spend a full two weeks in managed isolation.
It comes after the Government last week said it would reopen the border to fully vaccinated international travellers in April - though people will still need to self-isolate for a week.
New Zealanders in Australia will be able to enter the country from next month.
When asked on Monday if that reopening could still go ahead with Omicron, Ardern said New Zealand has "always made decisions based on the evidence we have".
"Let's get the evidence in before we make calls on that either way."
Ardern also noted the South African doctor who was one of the first to suspect the new coronavirus strain among patients has said symptoms of the Omicron variant were so far mild and could be treated at home.
"We need to be prepared for it either to be possibly more severe, possibly milder - we just don't know yet and so I'm confident we will get that information well in advance of any wider adjustments at our border," Ardern said.
"As always, we will be cautious because that has served us well and it's serving us well now."
