Originally Posted by SeaProf

One possible consideration is because pandemics are not equal opportunity killers. For example, the Influenza pandemic in 1918 witnessed mortality rates four times greater for the indigenous populations of New Zealand, Australia and the USA compared to the rest of their national populations. In (Western) Samoa 22% of the population died in a few weeks after it arrived there.*

In the USA Covid-19 is hitting African-Americans much harder than European-Americans and it likely would have the same effect in New Zealand with Maori and other Polynesian populations.

I think New Zealand is, in part, trying to protect its Maori and Pacific Islands populations.

*This information on the 1918 influenze pandemic is from Pandemics: A Very Short Introduction from Oxford University Press.