The Government rejected advice to close New Zealand’s border to anyone coming to the country amid the Covid-19 crisis, it has been revealed. “The Ministry of Health recommended a total shutdown of the border, including to returning New Zealanders,” Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters revealed in a speech this afternoon. Peters said that if the border was shut down to returning Kiwis “they would have had a right to think their country has forsaken them”. He said Cabinet considered the tens of thousands of New Zealanders overseas when the Ministry of Health pitched the idea. Peters thanked New Zealand’s diplomats and the country’s foreign affairs agency (Mfat) for its response to the challenges faced during the pandemic.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 29, 2020 01:18 UTC