Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised a phased end to Covid restrictions in Auckland, beginning Tuesday night.
Ardern has this afternoon promised a three-step plan. The rest of the country will stay at level 2, but the 100 limit cap on hospitality venues is removed. The requirement for customers to be seated and separated with physical distancing remains in place.
Ardern and director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield are fronting after Cabinet today to announce whether to hold Auckland at level 3.
Ardern said from midnight Tuesday, bubbles will be able to mix, but only outdoors and with some restrictions still in place.
"From 11:59pm Tuesday, Auckland will remain in Alert Level 3 but several key changes will occur.
"People will be able to connect with loved ones outdoors with no more than two households at a time, up to a maximum of 10 people; early childhood education will return for all; and people can move around Auckland for recreation such as beach visits and hunting," Ardern said.
The second step will allow more retail to open, under a hybrid level 2.
"At step two retail will open their doors, with the usual measures of wearing facemasks and keeping up physical distancing; public facilities such as pools and zoos will open; and the number of people who can meet outdoors will increase to 25," Ardern said.
Ardern did not give a date for when this "step" would begin.
The final step would be similar to what is currently known as "delta level 2".
"Step three will bring back those higher risk settings. Hospitality will open – seated, separated and with a limit of 50; close contact businesses like hairdressers will also open with mask use and physical distancing; and gatherings will also then extend to 50," Ardern said.
"Cabinet will review each step weekly to ensure it's safe to move before confirming the next step. The wage subsidy will continue to be available.
"Public health advice also sets out that schools at this stage will be able to return after school holidays on the 18th of October with the final decision to be made on that closer to the time," she said.
Ardern said Delta had been more infectious. "What we have called a long tail has been more like a tentacle that has been difficult to shake."
She said the restrictions so far had given the "gift of time to get vaccinated". The lockdowns at the start were "the only choice" given the low rates of vaccination in August.
The decision to loosen restrictions was made despte persistently high and increasing case numbers.
Those rates had now rocketed, and modelling was showing that the number of cases we were seeing was 50 per cent less than we would have seen without vaccinations.
"While we are transitioning from our current strategy to a new way of doiing things we are not there yet." She said that would need more people to be fully vaccinated across more suburbs.
Ardern said the challenge was keeping people safe while making everyday life a bit easier.
She said the health advice to date had been able to control the outbreak "but the return to zero has been extremely difficult".
She said that was "ok" because the vaccines were now offering some protection. Cases still had to be found and controlled.
"This was a change in approach we were always going to make over time. The Delta outbreak has meant we have had to accelerate that."
Director of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there were three further cases on top of the 29 announced today - the three were household members of the Raglan case.
He said he was expecting 25-30 more cases in the near future, the contacts of today's cases.
Bloomfield emphasised that vaccines were the key to preventing overload in ICU facilities. Whilst 50 per cent of eligible New Zealanders were now fully vaccinated, only six per cent of those in the outbreak were vaccinated.
