New Zealand will adopt a new system of living with Covid-19 from December 3, ending tough restrictions and allowing businesses to operate in its biggest city, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
In her post-Cabinet news conference this afternoon, Ardern said the new Covid-19 protection framework, also known as the traffic-light system, would come into force at 11.59pm on December 2.
New Zealand remained largely Covid-19 free until August, but has been unable to beat an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, forcing Ardern to abandon an elimination strategy and switch to treating the virus as endemic.
Its biggest city, Auckland, has been in lockdown for more than 90 days, although some measures were eased recently.
"The hard truth is that Delta is here and not going away, but New Zealand is well set to tackle it because of our high vaccination rates and our latest safety measures including the traffic light system and Vaccine Pass," Ardern said.
The new system will rate regions as red, orange or green depending on their level of exposure to Covid-19 and vaccination rates. Auckland, the epicentre of the Delta outbreak, will start at red, making face masks mandatory and putting limits on gatherings at public places.
Ardern said about 83% of eligible Kiwis are fully vaccinated, while 88% have had their first shot.
The Government previously said the country would drop lockdown measures and move to the traffic-light system to manage outbreaks after 90% of the eligible population was fully vaccinated.
Ardern today urged people to download the vaccination certificate, which will become critical under the traffic light framework for people to get out and about.
Once in the traffic light system, lockdowns - if they happen at all - are expected to be rare and more localised.
"Setting the date now gives people, communities and businesses time to prepare to move safely and smoothly into the new traffic light system, she said.
"Decisions on what colour each region will move into will be confirmed on 29 November, giving regions time to drive up vaccination rates further.
"As previously said, Auckland will enter at Red. The settings for other regions will be based on factors like vaccination levels, but Cabinet has already confirmed that no region will start at Green while we are transitioning and managing a current outbreak."
New Zealand's population of 5 million has so far reported about 7000 cases of Covid-19 in all and just 39 deaths. The international border remains shut and it is unclear when it will reopen.
National carrier Air New Zealand said today it has cancelled more than 1000 flights to neighbouring Australia through to the end of the year due to border uncertainty.
New Zealand ended quarantine free travel with Australia in August after a new Delta outbreak there, and has kept its borders tightly sealed.
"This will be particularly tough news for families and friends who were hoping to catch up over Christmas," said Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty.
"Our hands are tied until border restrictions ease, and we receive further clarity from the New Zealand Government."
Details on traffic light system later this week
Later this week, the Government would release detailed sector guidance so business and other organisations can see how they will operate at each setting of the traffic light.
Ahead of the system kicking in, which involves the use of the Covid-19 pass, there would be a trial period for vaccine passes at hairdressers and barbers in Auckland from November 25.
"Hairdressers have been chosen because by default the scale they operate at, with a limited number of customers at any given time, poses the least risk for the next stage of re-opening, Ardern said.
“Those businesses that participate in the trial must operate with vaccine passes, take bookings only, and all staff must be fully vaccinated.
“The hard truth is that Delta is here and not going away, but New Zealand is well set to tackle it because of our high vaccination rates and our latest safety measures including the traffic light system and Vaccine Pass."
The Prime Minister said she would set out key information on the traffic light system later this week. More details and a law change would be released, as well as an app to allow businesses to operate under the vaccination certificate framework.
Ardern said more details on how positive Covid cases would be handled in the community from a health perspective would also come later this week.
She believed New Zealand was better positioned than others to tackle Delta because of its high vaccination rates.
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said this afternoon that decisions on traffic light entry points would also look at whether regions had unvaccinated pockets, and the readiness of each region's health systems to deal with more cases.
Asked if she had any regrets about the earlier decision to break alert level 3 into different steps, Ardern said the call had been to ease safely if it could be done.
"We signalled to people that if we were able to move that is what it would look like, but also not to set an expectation that if we were to move that it would be to [level 2]."
Ardern effectively ruled out a move to level 3.3 for Auckland, saying it was now so close to the traffic light system there was no point. Re-opening would have been uneconomic at level 3.3 for some businesses because of the caps, but those constraints were not as high under the red light classification.
Across the whole traffic light system, if you were vaccinated you could lead an ordinary life. What varied from step to step was the rules for large gatherings, she said.
Schools would get sector guidance this week, as would those in charge of large events, on how they would be able to operate at different light colours.
Asked about tangihanga, Ardern said if people did not want to use vaccination certificates then numbers would be more limited, as they are under the current alert level system. It would be up to marae to decide how they would operate under the framework.
"If people chose not to use vaccination certificates, then they don't have to, but there will be limits on numbers."
Ardern would re-visit Auckland on Thursday. Her schedule was still being finalised, but she would meet with business groups and social service providers.
Today's announcement comes after 205 new community cases were reported - the fourth-highest daily total - and a person in their 40s had died with Covid-19.
Of the 205 new cases, 175 are in Auckland, one in Palmerston North, 20 in the Waikato, five in the Bay of Plenty, one in Taupō and four in Northland.
There are 85 people in hospital today, up two from yesterday, with cases at North Shore (20); Middlemore (22); Auckland (38); Whangārei (1); and Waikato (4).
Six people are in ICU or a high-dependency unit. The average number of people in hospital is 48.
Forty-five patients (56%) in hospital have not been vaccinated, the ministry said.
Fifteen (19%) of those hospitalised had one vaccine dose and 18 (22%) were fully vaccinated). The vaccination status of the remaining two cases was unknown.
- Reuters and NZ Herald
