FINAL COUNTDOWN
Most vulnerable can soon drive to beach, swim and go into work if safe from virus
The Government is today announcing new rules to allow more freedom for people to go to the beach or expand their bubbles further to include older family members.
The policy shift comes as the country looks forward to the end of lockdown at midnight tomorrow.
It comes after a seventh consecutive day of new cases of Covid-19 sitting in single figures.
The Government is allowing people aged over 70 the same extra freedoms as everyone else under alert level 3, including driving to a nearby beach or swimming from the shore — even though they are at greater risk of dying from Covid-19.
This is a significant change from last month, when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked only the most vulnerable to stay at home while the country was at alert level 2.
New Zealanders are anticipating greater freedoms from Tuesday, when the lockdown eases, and new guidelines make it clear that level 3 restrictions will be the same across all age groups.
“Obviously age is one determinant of risk, but people over 70 are perfectly able to make these judgments for themselves,” Seniors Minister Tracey Martin told the Herald on Sunday. They were being asked to be “especially careful”.
That means they will be able to extend their bubbles, drive to a nearby beach or park for exercise, swim or fish from the shore, or take children to school if they are caregivers — just like anyone else. They can also return to work if those workplaces are Covid-safe.
“It’s wrong if people who are fit and healthy are prevented from working or looking after themselves as anyone else would.”
If they needed to manage their work differently because of health conditions, Martin said the Government’s leave support scheme had been expanded to all businesses, not just essential services.
The fragility of older people with Covid-19 was underlined with the country’s 18th coronavirus fatality — an Auckland woman in her 70s who had an underlying health condition. She had been transferred from St Margaret’s Hospital and Rest Home and died in Waita¯kere Hospital, the second St Margaret’s resident to pass away.
Daily visits by a family member were allowed under strict conditions in the days leading to the woman’s death. All of the 18 people who have died so far were in their 60s or older, and 16 of them were in their 70s or older, including 10 from the Rosewood Rest Home cluster in Christchurch.
Three of yesterday’s five new cases were also linked to aged residential facilities — one in Auckland and two in Christchurch. Yesterday was the seventh consecutive day where the number of new cases was single digit.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has revealed a contact-tracing app would be available within a fortnight.
“The app itself is undergoing further development,” the ministry said. That included work on the use of scannable QR codes. However, with alert level 3 looming, it remains unclear if contact-tracing capacity has reached director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield’s “gold standard” of tracing 80 per cent of contacts within three days.
The ministry said the regional Public Health Units and the national contact-tracing service were prepared for the “contact-tracing needs that might be ahead of us”. That included the ability to scale up to making 10,000 calls a day.