Open for business
10-people limit, with social distancing, will be Kiwis’ ‘insurance policy’, says PM
New Zealand will be back in action when we start moving into alert level 2 on Thursday morning — but there are winners and losers.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Cabinet decided yesterday that Covid-19 was sufficiently under control to make the change on 11.59pm Wednesday.
Cafes, restaurants, tourism operators, sports clubs, libraries, cinemas and gyms will all be able to throw open their doors in 48 hours.
But bars which don’t serve food will have to stay shut for another week and with gatherings limited to 10 people or fewer, tangi and funerals will still be restricted.
Students and children can go back to school on Monday May 18 and bars which don’t serve food can open on Thursday next week, as long as they can seat and distance patrons. Schools will be allowed to stagger their opening to allow students to ease back into school life.
For most of New Zealand, the move to level 2 will be a welcome return to a new normal.
Monique Jarvis (pictured), co-owner of clothes store Dalston in Auckland’s Grey Lynn, said being able to finally re-open “very exciting”.
There will be winners and losers when Kiwis wake on Thursday in alert level 2. Cafes, restaurants, tourism operators, sports clubs, libraries, cinemas and gyms will all be able to throw open their doors in 48 hours.
But bars which don’t serve food will have to stay shut for a further week and, with gatherings limited to 10 people or fewer, tangi and funerals will still be restricted.
The Tourism Industry Association says the extra week of restrictions for bars could spell the end of some establishments while the Funeral Directors Association has slammed the rules as “both cruel and without compassion”.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Cabinet decided yesterday that Covid-19 was sufficiently under control to move the country to alert level 2 at 11.59pm tomorrow.
Students and children can go back to school on Monday May 18 and bars which don’t serve food can open on Thursday next week, as long as they can seat and distance patrons.
Domestic travel will also be back on again soon, providing a lifeline to a tourism industry that has already seen the loss of thousands of jobs.
Only three new cases were announced yesterday. One was a returned overseas traveller and two were Waita¯kere Hospital nurses who treated cases from the St Margaret’s rest home in Auckland.
The nurses were asymptomatic and their infections were caught in the staff screening process before they returned to work after being identified as a contact of a case.
Ardern, as she’s previously signalled, said aspects of level 2 would be phased in to ensure life in level 3 hadn’t led to any undetected outbreaks. Bars had been deemed “too risky” to open this week.
Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said outbreaks could trigger a return to level 3 but regional measures might be put in place to ring-fence an outbreak.
The move to level 2 also comes with a big responsibilities for Kiwis to take control into their own clean hands. The golden rules of level 2 are:
● Anyone with so much as a sniffle has to stay home. Don’t go to work or school. Don’t socialise. This should be a really low bar.
● Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Do it properly.
● Keep your distance from strangers in public, especially on public transport.
● Don’t socialise with more than 10 people at once.
● Keep track of where you’ve been and who you’ve seen.
“Overall, though, the upshot is that in 10 days’ time we will have reopened most businesses in New Zealand, and sooner than many other countries around the world.”
But it would be a new normal, Ardern said.
For those itching to get to a cafe or restaurant, there’ll be a two-hour limit on seatings but that rule will be flexible if needed.
Every gathering, whether at home or in public, will be limited to 10 people or fewer for at least two weeks so if something goes wrong, it’s easy to contact trace, said Ardern.
“So go and see your mum — just don’t turn it into a massive family reunion while you’re at it.”
And that would mean further sacrifices for people who’d lost loved ones during lockdown and alert level 3. Their suffering was a “hard consideration” but the 10-people limit was a balanced decision on health advice, the Prime Minister said.
“This, alongside social distancing, is our insurance policy.”
Funeral Directors Association president Gary Taylor said the limits on gatherings meant two more weeks before grieving families could have a meaningful service.
Taylor said they’d been led to believe level 2 would allow for gatherings for up to 100 people, as the Government had previously signalled, and had worked on how to manage funerals and tangi safely.
“This is a cruel and heartless blow to the thousands of New Zealand families who have lost loved ones and is unjustifiable.”
But for most of New Zealand, the move to level 2 will be a welcome return to a new normal, with most sectors supporting the move.
Monique Jarvis, co-owner of clothes store Dalston in Auckland’s Grey Lynn, said being able to finally reopen was “very exciting”.
The store will have a few new procedures in place, like a one-in-oneout policy and a register at their door, and Jarvis said they’d been consulting with other stores to make sure they could operate safely for their customers and staff.
“We’re really eager to get back to business and we’re excited to get going with the new norm and see how people feel about finally coming out and shopping.”
Opposition Leader Simon Bridges welcomed the move to level 2 and said it was something the National Party had been calling for.
“New Zealand is ready to get back into a form of normality, and from Government to Opposition, Parliament’s attention now really has to turn to how we can save jobs and get New Zealand working again.”
Act leader David Seymour said alert level 2 should have happened sooner and yesterday’s decision will be particularly hard on bars.
“The wider uncertainty about rules for all kinds of businesses means they may be open, but not profitably.”
The Tourism Industry Association also said the decision to keep bars shut for longer could spell the demise of some establishments.
The association’s chief executive Chris Roberts said many tourism, hospitality and event businesses were teetering on the edge, especially in light of SkyCity announcing yesterday it would axe 700 more jobs on top of the 200 it cut last month.
“In the current circumstances, even a week or two’s delay will push some over the cliff, and result in further job losses and . . . closures.”