Level 3 is here
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there is a good chance New Zealand won’t stay in level three for long but that every Kiwi will need to do their bit by not socialising, even as roughly 400,000 of us head back to work today.
Speaking to Stuff in an exclusive interview ahead of the move to level three at 11.59pm yesterday, Ardern said New Zealand appeared to be in the ‘‘tail’’ of the coronavirus epidemic, and if it could keep numbers down that would make moving on from alert level three more likely.
‘‘That tail is tricky but as long as we can keep those numbers down, then our chances of spending less time in [level] three are good. But I can’t predict it.
‘‘It’s as much up to every New Zealander as it is up to me.’’
Just five new cases of Covid-19 were identified yesterday in New Zealand, after about a week of single-digit case increases.
New Zealand is scheduled to spend two weeks at level three before the Government decides what to do next.
Ardern said leaving level three would not require a complete halt in cases but instead ‘‘zero tolerance’’ for new cases, with the ability for the country to immediately stamp out any spread when new cases arose.
‘‘An elimination strategy is about saying that you have zero tolerance for cases, not that you will always have zero cases.
‘‘Of course, that’s your ongoing ambition. We will have cases bubble up. We just need to pile in on that and be really aggressive when they do come up.’’
Ardern said keeping the number of new cases down would require New Zealanders not to see the loosening of rules around work and education as permission to start socialising again.
‘‘We can’t afford to loosen up our personal lives, because we’re entering new risks with our places of work and our places of education,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘Stay home. Yes, those who can’t work at home will be going out and those who can’t learn at home will be going out. But the thing we can control is what we do socially. Whilst your work life may be changing, unfortunately your social life can’t for now.’’
Ardern said she was confident in a high level of compliance.
‘‘I have quite a bit of faith in New Zealanders. That’s not built out of nothing – that’s built out of their response to level four.’’
Meanwhile, Ardern said the Budget, scheduled for May 14, would not be the only way to solve the crash brought on by Covid-19.
The Government’s 12-week, $10 billion wage subsidy scheme will start to run out for firms in June, potentially sending unemployment numbers rocketing.
Ardern laid out three phases for the economic response: the immediate support it was engaged in now; a ‘‘kick-start’’ to ‘‘reinvigorate the economy’’ as the country left level three; and a longer period of regeneration.
However, the third phase would not simply be about getting the country back to where it was before Covid-19.
‘‘This period is an acceleration of what already was our view: that the status quo was not good enough for New Zealanders.
‘‘We were never a Government
that was keeping us in status quo, nor should you assume that our view of the recovery should be.’’
She came close to ruling out one suggestion – a dramatic GST reduction, saying it ‘‘didn’t rank as highly’’ as other options.
‘‘The Budget is not going to be the endpoint but the beginning of our regeneration.’’
‘‘We needed to adapt to digital transformation, we needed a just transition for our workforce as we made sure we were climate-resilient and climate-ready.’’
Ardern said climate would not take a back-seat during the economic recovery and that rapid policy innovation would likely be needed.