New Zealand's Ardern signals mandates will ease after Omicron peaks
WELLINGTON: New Zealand will lift COVID-19 vaccine mandates
and social distancing measures after the Omicron peak has passed, Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday (Feb 21), as protesters occupying the
parliament grounds again clashed with police.
Inspired by truckers' demonstrations in Canada, thousands of
protesters have blocked streets near the parliament in the capital Wellington
for two weeks with trucks, cars and motorcycles, piling pressure on the
government to scrap vaccine mandates.
Ardern refused to set a hard date, but said there would be a narrowing of vaccine requirements after Omicron reaches a peak, which is expected in mid to late March.
"We all want to go back to the way life was. And we
will, I suspect sooner than you think," Ardern said at a weekly news
conference.
"But when that happens, it will be because easing restrictions
won't compromise the lives of thousands of people – not because you demanded
it," she said, addressing protestors.
The demonstrations began as a stand against the vaccine
mandates but have since spread to become a wider movement against Ardern and
her government.
On Monday, eight people were arrested for disorderly
behaviour and obstruction, with human waste thrown over some police officers
New Zealand has reported about 16,000 cases of COVID-19 and
53 deaths since the pandemic began, relatively low by global standards, but an
Omicron-fuelled outbreak has pushed the current seven-day average of new
infections to more than 1,600 cases daily.
About 94 percent of eligible people are vaccinated, with
shots mandatory for some staff in front-line jobs.
The parliament standoff is testing Ardern, who garnered
plaudits for keeping the country virtually virus-free over the last two years
but is facing criticism for continuing strict restrictions and delaying border
reopening plans.
"What we are seeing outside parliament, and the
reaction to it, is the culmination of underlying issues that have been rumbling
along in our communities for some time," main opposition National Party
leader Christopher Luxon said on Monday, calling for vaccine mandates to be
phased out and borders reopened.
"It's driven by Covid and vaccine mandates, yes, but
the frustrations shared by many Kiwis are also driven by a Government that
seems to be stalling," he said.
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