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New Zealand’s Prime Minister warned she has no plans to copy her British counterpart Boris Johnson with his plans to ease England’s remaining lockdown restricts on July 19.
She added her country would not follow Britain’s new “live with” policy on the deadly virus.
Ms Ardern said: “Different countries are taking different choices.
“The priority for me is how do we continue to preserve what New Zealand has managed to gain and give ourselves options, because this virus is not done with the world yet.”
However, her comments sparked anger among Express.co.uk readers.
One person warned Mr Johnson not to interact with Ms Ardern following her comments – even with trade.
They wrote: “No trade deal with New Zealand for you then Boris.”
Another added: “I’m afraid she needs to get real on Covid.”
And a third said: “She is deluded if she thinks New Zealand will not have to follow suit at some point.
“The borders can’t be kept closed forever. We all need to live with Covid variants as we move forward.”
It comes after Mr Johnson said earlier this week that Britons must “learn to live with” Covid.
He said during the Downing Street conference: “We’re seeing rising hospital admissions and we must reconcile ourselves sadly to more deaths from Covid.
“In these circumstances we must take a careful and a balanced decision.
“And there’s only one reason why we can contemplate going ahead to step four in circumstances where we’d normally be locking down further.
“That’s because of the continuing effectiveness of the vaccine rollout.”
However, New Zealand officials said they would not want to do this.
Chris Hipkins, the country’s COVID-19 response minister, said: “That’s not something that we have been willing to accept in New Zealand.”
Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health, said New Zealand would be “watching closely”.
This would be to see the effect of England’s lockdown easing.
He added the UK could be placed on a no-fly list if cases rise again.
He said: “If they do get an increase in cases, we will be keeping a close eye on what that means for the risk of people traveling from the UK.
“That will inform our decisions here.”
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