New Zealand Scraps Nearly All COVID-19 Restrictions, Including Mask and Vaccination Mandates

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media at a press conference ahead of a nationwide lockdown at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 25, 2020. Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

New Zealand will be retiring its COVID-19 traffic light system and significantly scaling down COVID restrictions from Sept. 13 so Kiwis could “move forward with certainty,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.

“It’s time to safely turn the page on our COVID-19 management and live without the extraordinary measures we have previously used,” Ardern said, calling it a “milestone.”