Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has given a message to South Islanders over why the mainland is staying at orange despite having high vaccination rates and low case numbers of Covid-19.
At today's post-Cabinet news conference, Ardern announced that Auckland and other regions in red, excluding Northland, would move to orange at 11.59pm on Thursday, December 30.
Though the South Island was "very well placed" to move to green, Ardern pointed out that New Zealand was in transition as the border with Auckland and the rest of the country opened on Wednesday.
"Keeping in mind, one of the big adjustments that comes from orange to green is the ability to have a larger number of people together who are both vaccinated and unvaccinated.
"And right now, while we transition, I believe quite a few people in the South Island would like the comfort that they know they are around vaccinated individuals."
She did "expect things to change in the south" and areas would move into green - but not while the country was in a "transitional period".
'Cautious optimism' over Auckland cases
"Cautious optimism" is how Ardern described Auckland's falling Covid case numbers under the traffic light system.
Cabinet undertook its first review of the new Covid framework today, Ardern said, and it had been encouraging to see a decline in community case numbers in Auckland.
This was good news for everyone, as it reduced the risk of cases escaping outside the city when the Auckland border opened on Wednesday.
In light of Omicron, Ministers will receive the latest advice in early January and check in on its plan to open up the country's borders to New Zealand citizens against the spread of the new variant, Ardern said.
Rapid antigen tests will be available at 149 pharmacies around Auckland from Wednesday.
Results are available after 15 minutes, and Ardern urged people who were not vaccinated and wanted to travel to use it.
Ardern said the border around Auckland remained important despite the move to orange and part of the success of containing the Delta outbreak had been the border.
It was not an onerous ask for the vast majority of Aucklanders, who were vaccinated, she said. They just needed to carry proof of vaccination to move through the border.
Ardern said in Northland, they were 4000 shy of meeting a 90% first dose target.
She said the difference between Northland and other regions is those few thousand vaccinations, and the decision to keep it in red is about being cautious.
Not every car travelling north of Auckland will be stopped by police, she said, and the flow of traffic will be maintained.
Police are operating the checkpoints and they will be taking into account traffic flow. Ardern said checkpoints can only be legally run by police, and they are ultimately the ones in charge.
Booster shots, today's case numbers
Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield said it was reassuring that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against Omicron, especially with a third dose. He said winter is a problem with the spread of the new variant overseas.
By Christmas, about 450,000 people were due for a booster shot in New Zealand. Bloomfield advised those who had taken their second vaccine dose six months ago to get the booster in order to gain full immunity.
A large number of New Zealanders would be due for booster shots in March, April and May, Ardern said.
Earlier today, the Ministry of Health reported 101 new community cases and 61 people with Covid in hospital, including four in ICU.
Today's Covid cases are in Auckland (97), Bay of Plenty (1), Taranaki (1), Nelson-Marlborough (1) and Canterbury (1).
People are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the requirements of life at Orange.
There are three key things to remember at every colour setting - Mask, Scan, Pass:
- Take your face-covering when you leave the house and be ready to wear it
- Scan in wherever you go
- Download your Vaccine Pass and have it ready, so you can go to all your favourite places
Covid-19 traffic light settings
All territorial authorities outside Northland will be orange from December 30. Visit the Covid-19 Protection Framework for more details.
Ardern told RNZ this morning it was still early days of transitioning into the traffic light system and they wanted to make sure they saw the full impact of that before easing more.
"We will take an approach that will stand us in good stead. One thing we are mindful of is if you do move too soon you run the risk of escalating cases and you end up in higher restrictions. We want to go the distance."
Te Pūnaha Matatini Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank cautioned that 10 days was still a bit too early to judge whether the move from lockdown to traffic lights had impacted on the Delta outbreak.
He said it was important to keep cases as low as possible ahead of Auckland's boundary re-opening and summer travel - to reduce the risk of Covid-positive people getting to low vaccinated regions.
- with Otago Daily Times
