Govt hugely loosens Covid rules
PM removes vaccine pass requirements, most vaccine mandates
The Government has significantly loosened Covid-19 rules, removing vaccine pass requirements, most vaccine mandates, QR code scanning, and outdoor gathering limits.
Businesses will still be able to use vaccine passes if they wish to, but will not be required to if they wish to have indoor guests.
Vaccine mandates will be narrowed to cover only health, aged care, corrections, and border workers, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.
The Government has also abolished all outdoor gathering limits and doubled the indoor gathering limit from 100 to 200.
QR code scanning will also be removed. Masks will no longer be required at outdoor venues.
This is all under the ‘‘red’’ setting of the traffic-light system, which New Zealand is staying within for the time being.
The mandate removal and end of the vaccine pass will take effect from April 5, while the other changes go into effect from midnight on Friday.
‘‘To date we’ve had more than 500,000 reported cases of Covid-19 and expert modellers say there have probably been 1.7 million actual infections. That figure, coupled with 95 per cent of New Zealanders being fully vaccinated, means we now have a high level of collective immunity,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘New Zealanders have worked incredibly hard to get through this pandemic and as a result of those efforts we are now in a position to move forward and change the way we do things.’’
‘‘Like many other countries we are retaining a small number of mandates targeted at keeping our Covid-19 frontline staff safe and to ensure our most vulnerable, like those in aged care facilities or those with disabilities, are protected,’’ Ardern said.
If the country moves to orange – which it could do in early-April – then all rules other than masking requirements will be removed.
‘‘We are keeping the traffic light framework in order to offer ongoing protections in the event of a new variant or in cases of future surges, but our plan is to move down to orange and then ultimately green once it is safe to do so.’’
Ardern said the country would review its traffic light setting on April 4. The Government has been under increasing pressure to loosen Covid-19 rules, even as hospitalisations and deaths have risen. Case numbers have begun to fall in Auckland, with the Ministry of Health believing the Omicron wave has peaked there. Hospitalisations generally lag new cases, meaning the Government expects they will fall at some point soon.
But Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has warned that future Omicron waves are likely.
Ardern said the Government needed to keep the traffic light system in place to protect the
healthcare system and keep New Zealand prepared for possible future waves or variants.
But changes to the setting were appropriate as the Government now knows far more – including that hospitality was not actually causing much infection.
All of New Zealand has been at the ‘‘red’’ traffic light setting since Omicron entered the community on January 23.
Red allows mostly normal life for the vaccinated, with seating requirements and gathering limits at venues but no restrictions on travel.
Ardern said the Covid-19 response had been very successful but ‘‘bloody hard’’. New Zealand has seen fewer deaths than most other nations, with an overall drop in all causes mortality while many peer nations saw that mortality soar.
‘‘New Zealanders have worked incredibly hard to get through this pandemic and as a result of those efforts we are now in a position to move forward and change the way we do things.’’
Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister