The country, which has taken a staged approach to reopening its borders, initially intended to lift the testing mandate on 31 July but brought the date forward as cases continued to decline despite having more than 387,000 travellers arrive at the destination since its borders reopened.

Around 90% of international arrivals undertake their required testing once they are in the country, with only a 2-3% positivity rate.

Unite against Covid-19, a platform launched to help New Zealanders navigate their way through the pandemic, said the challenges pre-departure tests pose to visitors are now no longer outweighed by the public health benefits.

While the pre-departure test requirements are being removed, a set of border surveillance measures to detect possible new variants will remain.

Travellers will also still be required to self-test on day one and again on day five or six. If the result of either test is positive, they must then take a PCR test.

Also from Monday evening (20 June), passengers transiting through New Zealand will no longer need to be vaccinated, nor be required to complete a New Zealand Traveller Declaration. Another change will see the maximum penalty for breaching the Air Border Order’s vaccination requirement reduced from $4,000 to $1,000.