Border restrictions may stay for a year

The Government is working out how many people would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 before the borders could be opened, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.

Ardern was speaking to media yesterday morning after news of a third effective major Covid-19 vaccine emerged.

But Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins said it could still be between a year and 18 months before borders open and life returns to normal.

‘‘The impacts of vaccination will take some time to impact on the way we operate our borders and the resumption of normal life,’’ Ardern said.

‘‘The vaccinations that we are seeing, some of the early ones, are not being delivered at a scale that will have significant impact straight off.

‘‘Ultimately, 2021 will be the year of the vaccine.’’

Hipkins said the country wouldn’t need to see ‘‘100 per cent’’ vaccination rates to have enough herd immunity to open the borders.

‘‘One of the things we are working through right now is what percentage of the population will need to be vaccinated before we remove all travel restrictions. It doesn’t necessarily have to be 100 per cent. We may never get to 100 per cent,’’ Hipkins said. ‘‘At this point there is still some uncertainty around when the vaccines will actually arrive.’’

He said the Government was assuming some levels of restrictions would remain for the next ‘‘year to 18 months’’.

‘‘But the sooner we can remove restrictions the better.’’

Hipkins said governments around the world would be working on ‘‘vaccine certification’’ so other governments could trust that people had been vaccinated.

Medsafe will still need to approve any vaccine.