ON TWITTER

#NEWZEALAND

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand's travel borders would stay closed until citizens are "vaccinated and protected," which could mean all through 2021.

@inthezoneuk wrote: “New Zealand has done a great job. It's helped by its remoteness from elsewhere, but as it saw recently, how will they deal with international travellers as well as citizens travelling abroad & returning? I'm sure they'll have a good solution led by a fantastic PM.”

@Radair wrote: “Spot on. Same in Malaysia. Today for lunch I had to drive around KL City Centre for 30 mins to find a parking spot as it was rammed with people. All distancing and masked, but crucially, buying lunch and going into shops. Life is back to normal here albeit adapted slightly.”

@alisonnonum tweeted: “Inevitably this was followed by the comments about New Zealand population and size. Yes those aspects make it easier, but capital base and assets available are a darn sight smaller than UK. NZ has looked after local health structures, the UK under Tory rule decimated local health.”

@scottw560 wrote: “What’s the population density of

New Zealand again?” @tonyosh said: “NZ has 4.8 million people which is less than half of London across two islands the total size of UK! Of course they can control it better.”

#MARCH8

Pime Minister Boris Johnson said he hoped that schools in England could reopen on March 8.

@Boris_johnsonmp, a parody account, joked: “I regret being pressured into announcing that schools might open on 8th of March. I would much prefer to have stuck to my original plan of announcing it at 5pm on 7th of March.”

@Furrydogjoshua warned: “Don't reopen schools again until the infection rate is low and a fully functioning test and trace system is introduced. We all knew what happened in September when schools, colleges and universities went back. We don't want history to repeat itself.”

@withorpe said: “Tories' motive to reopen schools asap despite the obvious danger is to free up parents to work to satisfy their backers. A govt that slashes the education budget leaving headteachers having to ask parents for donations doesn't care about children's education.”