蜜芽传媒

New Zealand鈥檚 prime minister Jacinda Ardern says the country's borders will remain closed until at least the end of the year. She said an elimination strategy was the best way to keep Covid-19 out and the economy open.

Derek Cheng is from the New Zealand Herald in Wellington. He told Newsday:

鈥淚t's trying to maintain the relative freedoms we have enjoyed here, compared to the rest of the world.鈥�

鈥淲e can鈥檛 open up our borders because our vaccination level is very low. We haven't been at the front of the queue. We were probably a bit late in ordering our vaccines from Pfizer. If we don't get better levels of vaccination, then opening up might be pushed back. But herd immunity is not attainable in a Delta variant world.鈥�

He said tourism was badly affected but there had been some government support.

Photo: People in Wellington, New Zealand, at a street festival (Getty Images)