The Prime Minister has announced Cabinet has decided that all of New Zealand will remain at level 4 for an additional four days until 11:59 PM, Fri, 27 August.
She said “this will allow us to have additional data and assurance as to whether the virus has spread from our existing sites and how contained it’s likely to be.”
“Delta has changed the rules of the game”
“These settings will be reviewed this Friday and will give you an update in the afternoon.”
“To give you a sense of what we’ll be looking for in order to decide if the parts of New Zealand are ready to move down alert levels, we’ll be looking to see if any new cases emerge outside of Auckland, whether the wastewater results remain negative and if cases do emerge in other parts of the country, whether or not they are cases that were already in isolation.”
Auckland stays in lockdown longer
The Prime Minister said “for those in Auckland I have different news. You will see this continues to be the primary location of cases here. We believe we know enough to say that your time at level 4 needs to be at least for a 14 days cycle that we’ve used in the past. So Cabinet has decided to give the city that certainty and tell you that Auckland will remain at alert level 4 until 11:59 PM on Tuesday 31 August, and we’ll review those settings on Monday.”
“In both our cases and the decisions that we’ve made today, you can see we are still very much in the thick of this outbreak, but I can also tell you that cabinet and the health team remain confident.”
“Delta has changed the rules of the game, but we’ve changed our approach too going hard and our alert levels widened. Our contact tracing requires more mask-wearing and we are testing more people. It is absolutely possible to get on top of this. We just need to keep it up and ensure that we’re not in restrictions any longer than we need to be.”
“So here’s a reminder of the things we all need to keep doing while we remain at alert level for. Number one – Stay at home. If you’re not an essential worker, you should only be leaving your house for the essentials and some fresh air. If you leave home, please wear a mask and to remember there are some people in our disabled community who are not able to wear face coverings and have exemptions from doing so. Please remember to be kind.
Two – if you are a contact – isolate – Contacts are the people most likely to have the virus and pass it on. Please stay at home, get others to do your groceries. Only leave to get a test. If you need support, please do ask for it.
Three – wash your hands, often with soap, then dry them and cough into your elbow.
“Four – get vaccinated. Now is the time to drive up our vaccination numbers. Over 74% of people aged 40 plus are already booked or vaccinated, but in reality, we need that number to be as close to 100% as possible. Please do it now if you’re not booked in yet, please go to www.bookmyvaccine.co.nz and do your part for the team to help prevent the need for lockdowns in the future. These rules will be so important to leave level 4 we need to.”
