Yesterday the New Zealand Government made a highly anticipated announcement that would effectively end the country’s Covid-19 Protection Framework, also known as the traffic light system, which came to an end at 11.59pm on Monday September 12. In a major easing of restrictions for the country which has been relatively conservative in its approach to phasing out Covid rules now removes the mask mandate for almost all settings except for mainly in health care settings. This includes on all flights to New Zealand and within, and also on public transport, public galleries and in retail settings a requirement that visitors from Australia, Europe and North America may have not been as used to in their own countries for quite some time now.
In another positive flow effect on for the New Zealand tourism industry and a win for visitors travelling to Aotearoa has now got easier with the requirement to be vaccinated for Covid-19 and to produce evidence no longer a requirement. Also visitors and returning citizens alike will no longer have to undertake post arrival RAT tests which were previously disrupted on arrival and required the reporting of results on both day 0/1 and day 5/6. Under New Zealand rules if you do test positive for Covid-19 still expect a 7 day isolation requirement however.
Surprisingly however despite dropping vaccine and testing requirements, New Zealand is still requiring all incoming passengers to complete the New Zealand Traveler’s Deceleration and still be in possession of the accompanying travel pass. With the removal of its two major vaccine and testing requirements it will now be quicker to complete and open up travel to Aotearoa to more people, travelers will still be required to provide the following information:
Passport Details
Travel history of all countries and states visited in last 14 days prior to travel
Flight details
Contact details
Emergency Contact Details
Everything else about how to attain and use the pass remains the same. Once you have completed the New Zealand Traveler Declaration, and provided you meet the requirements, a Traveler Pass will be emailed for most whom will be almost instantly. Your Traveler Pass will contain a QR code, unique to the passenger and valid for the journey you completed the declaration for. The Traveller Pass can be printed out or saved to your mobile device.
For more information please visit the official New Zealand Government website https://www.travellerdeclaration.govt.nz/
