New Zealand

New Zealand sees success in curbing Delta outbreak as new cases plunge

New Zealand reported 28 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, a big drop compared to the last few days, as authorities said the country was breaking the chain of transmission…

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UPDATED: Police in New Zealand kill “extremist” who stabbed six in supermarket

New Zealand police on Friday shot and killed a knife-wielding "extremist" who was known to authorities, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, after he stabbed and wounded at least six people…

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New Zealand says fall in COVID-19 cases shows Delta lockdown working

New Zealand reported a drop in new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, which authorities said was a sign that a nationwide lockdown was helping to limit spread of the infectious Delta…

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New Zealanders venture out as COVID-19 curbs eased in most regions

New Zealanders on Wednesday visited beaches and queued for takeaway food as tough lockdown measures enforced to beat an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus were…

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UPDATED: New Zealand’s Auckland to stay in lockdown for two more weeks

New Zealand's largest city Auckland will stay under an alert level 4 lockdown for another two weeks, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Addressing a news conference, Ardern said…

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UPDATED: New Zealand reports first death linked to Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

New Zealand reported its first recorded death linked to U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said on Monday, after a woman suffered a rare side effect leading to…

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New Zealand eases nationwide lockdown but Auckland shut off

New Zealand on Friday extended pandemic restrictions by four days after which they will be eased slightly, although businesses and schools will remain shut and the biggest city Auckland will…

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New Zealand’s Ardern says lockdown working to limit Delta spread

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the strict nationwide lockdown enforced to stamp out COVID-19 was helping limit the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, even as the…

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New Zealand COVID-19 Delta outbreak spreading rapidly as cases jump

New Zealand on Tuesday recorded its highest increase in COVID-19 cases since April 2020, as authorities warned this current outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus was like dealing with a…

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New Zealand’s COVID-19 strategy criticised as lockdown extended

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown on Monday, saying the current outbreak has not peaked, as criticism mounts of her strategy to eliminate COVID-19 amid the slow…

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New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown extended as outbreak tops 100 cases

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday extended New Zealand's strict nationwide COVID-19 lockdown saying the current outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus had not yet peaked. The level…

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New Zealand’s Ardern extends lockdown as virus outbreak widens

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended a nationwide lockdown on Friday as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country jumped and the outbreak widened beyond its largest city,…

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Delta outbreak exposes New Zealand’s low vaccination rates

New Zealand's coronavirus cases jumped on Thursday, as questions grew about the government's response to the pandemic given the slowest vaccination rate among developed countries and the economic pressures of…

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New Zealand identifies Delta outbreak origin as cases jump

New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak jumped to 21 cases on Thursday, but the authorities said the virus may not have been in the community for long as they linked its origin…

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New Zealanders begin life in lockdown, Delta cases edge up

New Zealand's city streets were largely deserted on Wednesday as the country returned to life in lockdown for the first time in six months in a bid to halt any…

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Fortress New Zealand eyes opening to vaccinated travellers early 2022

New Zealand plans to allow quarantine-free entry to vaccinated travellers from low-risk countries from early 2022, as it looks to open its borders again after nearly 18 months of pandemic-induced…

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New Zealand mourns death of Olympic cyclist Podmore at 24

New Zealand cycling was plunged into mourning on Tuesday after Olympian Olivia Podmore's sudden death at the age of 24. Podmore represented her country at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2018 Commonwealth…

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Virus-free New Zealand plans border reopening amid labour shortage

Under pressure from businesses and public sectors facing a worker shortage that policymakers fear will fuel inflation, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is due to unveil plans this week…

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New Zealand’s PM Ardern apologises for 1970s immigration raids on Pacific community

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern issued a sombre state apology on Sunday to the Pacific community for racially targeted immigration raids in the 1970s that resulted in deportations and…

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New Zealand gives provisional nod to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine

New Zealand's health regulator Medsafe has granted provisional approval for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 18 years of age and older, acting minister for COVID-19 response, Dr Ayesha Verrall,…

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Bubble burst: New Zealand suspends quarantine-free travel with Australia

New Zealand will pause its quarantine-free travel arrangement with Australia for at least eight weeks starting Friday night, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, as Australia fights an outbreak of the…

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New Zealand’s Ardern to chair special leaders’ meeting on pandemic

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will chair an informal meeting of leaders from countries in the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC this week to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and…

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New Zealand industry ire grows as closed borders worsen labour shortages

New Zealand's closed borders have helped keep COVID-19 out of the Pacific nation, but a critical shortage of migrant labour is now fuelling protests among businesses and workers struggling with…

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New Zealand considers mandatory masks, scanning amid COVID Delta variant concerns

New Zealand is considering making masks compulsory at high alert levels as well as compulsory scanning of QR codes to boost contact tracing in efforts to reduce the risk of…

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New Zealand extends COVID-19 alert level in capital

New Zealand will extend the COVID-19 alert level in the capital Wellington for two days, as authorities said on Sunday there is still a risk from an Australian tourist who…

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Sydney isolated as COVID-19 clusters build; NZ tightens curbs in capital

Australia's largest city of Sydney re-introduced "soft touch" COVID-19 curbs on Wednesday to contain a widening outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, mandating masks in offices while neighbouring states…

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Pandemic propels Auckland to top of EIU’s most liveable cities ranking

COVID-19 has shaken up the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual ranking of most liveable cities, propelling Auckland to first place, replacing Vienna, which crashed out of the top 10 as the…

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New Zealand tackles ‘vaccine apartheid’ with ambitious APEC free-trade plan

New Zealand is pushing Asia-Pacific trade group APEC to remove all tariffs on COVID-19 vaccines and related medical products, but is facing opposition from some members who believe the plan…

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Australia and New Zealand unite over China human rights issues

Australia and New Zealand on Monday expressed grave concerns over developments in Hong Kong and the human rights situation in the Xinjiang region of China, as the two nations sought…

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UPDATED: China, deportation policy set to challenge Australia-New Zealand talks

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in New Zealand on Sunday for high-level talks hours after the country's government chose to support Canberra in its dispute with China on barley…

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New Zealand health systems hackers release patient details to the media

Hackers who targeted hospitals in New Zealand’s Waikato district have released what appears to be private patient information to media outlets, as health systems struggled to come back online more…

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Britain embroiled in bitter international legal battle over who can produce manuka honey

Britain has become embroiled in a bitter international legal battle over who is entitled to produce manuka honey. The British honey manufacturer Rowse has instructed lawyers to fight an application…

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New Zealand exploring quarantine-free travel with other countries

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday her government will explore more travel "bubbles" and lead trade delegations later this year to re-connect with a post-pandemic world after…

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Four stabbed in New Zealand supermarket

our people were stabbed on Monday in a supermarket in Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island, police said after detaining the man believed to have been responsible. Prime Minister Jacinda…

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New Zealand to resume Australia “travel bubble” as Sydney COVID threat eases

New Zealand will lift its partial suspension of a "travel bubble" with Australia from midnight on Sunday as fears of a COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney eased. New Zealand had blocked…

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New Zealand PM Ardern plans summer wedding

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern plans to get married during summer but did not disclose the date, local media reported on Wednesday. Ardern told Coast Radio that she and…

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New Zealand’s Ardern says differences with China becoming harder to reconcile

Differences between New Zealand and its top trading partner China are becoming harder to reconcile as Beijing's role in the world grows and changes, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on…

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New Zealanders face mental health, economic challenges in pandemic recovery

New Zealanders are still reporting negative impacts on mental health and income from the coronavirus pandemic, despite living in one of the world's few countries to have largely returned to…

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New Zealand expects Australia ‘travel bubble’ to stay open despite new virus case

New Zealand authorities reported on Tuesday that a worker in Auckland airport has tested positive for COVID-19, but doubted whether the new case would warrant ordering a pause in quarantine-free…

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Families reunite as Australia-New Zealand ‘travel bubble’ begins

Hundreds of passengers from Australia began arriving in New Zealand airports on Monday after authorities reopened borders, a pandemic milestone that allows quarantine-free travel between the countries for the first…

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New Zealand to end livestock exports due to animal welfare concerns

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will stop the export of livestock by sea following a transition period of up to two years, citing animal welfare concerns for a decision…

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New Zealand introduces climate change law for financial firms in world first

New Zealand has become the first country to introduce a law that will require banks, insurers and investment managers to report the impacts of climate change on their business, minister for climate change James Shaw said on Tuesday.…

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New Zealand suspends entry for travellers from India due to high COVID-19 cases

New Zealand on Thursday temporarily suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, for about two weeks following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from…

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Australia-NZ ‘travel bubble’ to begin April 19 in pandemic milestone

New Zealand and Australia will create a quarantine and COVID-testing free "travel bubble" from April 19, after effectively eradicating the virus by closing borders last year to stop more infections…

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New Zealand imprisons persons convicted of breaching coronavirus restrictions

More than 400 New Zealanders have been convicted of breaching coronavirus restrictions, with more than 80 among them even sentenced to prison terms. New Zealand has implemented stringent legislation to…

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New Zealand’s Catholic Church apologises to survivors of abuse

New Zealand’s Catholic Church formally apologised on Friday to the survivors of abuse within the church and said its systems and culture must change. Cardinal John Dew, who is the…

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New Zealand passes miscarriages bereavement leave law

New Zealand’s parliament has passed legislation giving mothers and their partners the right to paid leave following a miscarriage or still birth, becoming only the second country in the world…

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Israel, New Zealand approve sale of virus killing nasal spray

Israel and New Zealand have given interim approval for the sale of biotech firm SaNOtize Research and Development's Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) which could help prevent transmission of the…

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New Zealand PM Ardern says to announce date for quarantine-free travel with Australia in two weeks

New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will announce within two weeks a date for quarantine-free travel with Australia, she said on Monday, despite mounting pressure from business to open borders…

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New Zealand says close to a travel arrangement with Australia

New Zealand is close to allowing Australians to visit without quarantining on arrival, New Zealand’s deputy prime minister said on Thursday, a reciprocal right that would create a long-touted “Trans-tasman…

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Team New Zealand win America’s Cup 7-3

(Reuters) - Team New Zealand won the 36th America's Cup on Wednesday, beating Luna Rossa 7-3 in the best-of-13 series with victory in race 10 off the coast of Auckland.…

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New Zealand’s Ardern says world needs to talk about racism, two years after Christchurch attack

The world still needs to have conversations about racism and white supremacy, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, as the country marked two years since a white…

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New Zealand honours Christchurch shooting victims at anniversary service

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined hundreds of people in Christchurch on Saturday to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the country’s worst mass murder. Armed with high-capacity semi-automatic weapons,…

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Australia records first local COVID-19 case in two weeks

Australia on Saturday recorded first local COVID-19 case in more than two weeks after a doctor tested positive for the coronavirus, triggering restrictions in area hospitals. Queensland state Premier Annastacia…

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New Zealand to buy enough Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for entire population

New Zealand will buy additional COVID-19 vaccines, developed by Pfizer Inc and Germany's BioNTech, which will be enough to vaccinate the whole country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.…

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Following 3 major quakes off New Zealand, questions remain about how they might be linked

A sequence of three major offshore earthquakes, including a magnitude 8.1 quake near the Kermadec Islands, triggered tsunami warnings and evacuations along the east coast of New Zealand this morning. By early afternoon,…

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New Zealanders take to the hills as powerful quakes trigger tsunami waves

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Small tsunami waves triggered by a series of powerful earthquakes hit the east coast of New Zealand's North Island on Friday and authorities said thousands of residents…

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