New Zealand on Thursday unveiled plans to tentatively reopen its borders for citizens in 2022 but made no mention of foreigners being allowed in.
Jacinda Arden's government have unveiled plans to slash hotel quarantine in half from 14 to seven days in November and eventually replace it with home isolation amid growing pressure from Kiwis stranded overseas.
'We are also very aware of the pressure that's been building at the border as the world begins to reconnect, and the increasing numbers of New Zealanders here and abroad who want to connect with their loved ones,' Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Local media regularly carry reports of Kiwis unable to visit dying relatives or facing family crises because of the quarantine requirements and several people have attempted to sail back to New Zealand from Australia across the notoriously perilous Tasman sea.
The plan has sparked fury among the opposition who blasted the move the 'bare minimum' and warned 'we can't remain shut behind the walls of Fortress New Zealand'.
Opposition Covid spokesman Chris Bishop said 'it's time we reopened to the world' and that fully vaccinated arrivals from low-risk countries should not have to isolate.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said arrivals from a handful of tiny Pacific island states would be granted quarantine-free travel from next month and other low-risk countries would be considered early next year
Former NZ Prime Minister Sir John Key in September said New Zealand had become 'a smug hermit kingdom' and travel restrictions should be lifted as priority.
New Zealand has recorded just 28 Covid-19 deaths in a population of five million and its residents have enjoyed near-normal domestic life for most of the pandemic.
But border facilities have become increasingly stretched, with tens of thousands of overseas-based New Zealanders clamouring online to book the 4,000 available quarantine rooms.
Some New Zealanders stranded in Australia have attempted to cross the Tasman Sea - a notoriously dangerous journey - in small boats in a desperate bid to return home.
Boats full of people willing to risk severe seasickness and the perilous journey have set sail from
