Jacinda Ardern calls record low approval ratings a price worth paying for keeping country safe from Covid

New Zealand had undergone some of world’s toughest Covid-19 restrictions

New Zealan prime minister Jacinda Ardern is not too concerned about her low approval ratings right now even though they are the worst since she was elected.

The low approval rating was “perhaps a price” she had to pay to keep New Zealand safe during the pandemic, she has said. New Zealand witnessed some of the strictest restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19.

New Zealand had been one of the very few countries initially to prevent a large-scale outbreak of the virus through its zero-tolerance approach. However, the policy was changed after the Delta variant of coronavirus wreaked havoc on the Pacific nation.

Ms Ardern’s approval ratings plummeted to a record low in January this year over criticism of her government’s strict Covid-19 response.

A 1News Kantar poll showed Ms Ardern has a personal approval score of just 15 points, plummeting from 55 points since the last election.

Her rival, leader of the Conservative National party Christopher Luxon, is more popular with a net approval rating of 22 points.

The record low ratings were probably the price to pay “to ultimately make sure that we’ve made the right decisions along the way, and that we can sleep at night”, the prime minister told BBC News.

Defending her government’s strategy to control infections, she said it was the “best possible health response” at the time, given the country has had some of the lowest death rates amongst developed Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Earlier this month, New Zealand opened its international borders to travellers from Australia for the first time since mid-2021. The country has mostly kept its borders closed since March 2020, except for a short-lived travel bubble with Australia last year.

However, with the economy facing the heat of the pandemic, the government has started to ease the unpopular strict measures in a bid to boost tourism.

“I can’t actually imagine or remember a time when we would have been just so excited to be welcoming our Australian family back to our shores. It’s very genuine,” Ms Ardern told Channel 7.

Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins announced that the curbs in the country would be further eased as the number of new cases fall.

New Zealand on Thursday recorded 10,294 new cases of coronavirus infections, with Auckland recording 2,274 cases alone. According to the health ministry, 66 new Covid-19 cases were detected at the border.

The country has reported more than 860,000 cases of Covid-19 and 633 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.