Auckland hairdressers and barbers will "trial" the new traffic light system restrictions before New Zealand adopts the framework in 10 days' time. Meanwhile, 205 new community cases in five regions were reported.
Photo: POOL/RNZ
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in her post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon that New Zealand will move to the traffic light system at 11.59pm on Thursday 2 December.
Auckland will move to red, while she expects to announce the settings for other regions on 29 November. The regions' vaccination rates and case numbers will be taken into consideration, she said. However, Ardern said no region will start at green.
For the most part, New Zealanders who are vaccinated will be able to do most things, but with limitations placed on numbers in some settings, Ardern said.
Guidance will be given to businesses ahead of the move, and specific guidance will be given to schools and local governments, which might hold events with no clear entry and exit points, she said.
The hard truth was that Delta is here in New Zealand, and it is not going away, Ardern said.
However, both the prime minister and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said New Zealand was in the best position possible going into the next phase - we have high vaccination rates, we're heading into summer and it's a controlled outbreak.
'Trial period' for hairdressers, barbers
Ardern said there would be a "trial period" ahead of Auckland's move to the traffic light system, with hairdressers and barbers allowed to work from this Thursday.
The hairdressers and barbers will need to:
- Operate with vaccine passes
- Take bookings only (no walk-ins)
- Staff must be fully vaccinated
- Using alert level 2 settings - staff wearing masks and 1m distancing between chairs
Ardern said the decision to allow hairdressers to open but not hospitality was because it was a group where the numbers are smaller and more confined, which allowed the vaccine pass system to be safely tested.
Case numbers
Ministry of Health reported 205 new community cases and one death today.
In a statement the ministry said Counties Manukau DHB reported the death of a man in his 40s at Middlemore Hospital.
Of the new cases, 175 were in Auckland, 20 in Waikato, five in Bay of Plenty, one in Taupō and four in Northland.
It also reported a case in Palmerston North, who is linked to a previous case. This case will be recorded in tomorrow's tally.
There are 85 people in hospital including six people in ICU.
New locations of interest are being added to the ministry's Covid-19 website as cases crop up outside Auckland. Locations added today include retail, supermarkets, a pharmacy, hospitality venues and petrol stations in the Hawke's Bay, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Turangi and Rotorua.
Traffic light system
New Zealand will move to the traffic light framework one minute before midnight on 2 December. Ministry of Health describes the framework as bringing us "a world where we are freer to move and live with less disruption and offers the stability businesses need to plan for the future".
There will be more freedoms for vaccinated Aucklanders who have been in lockdown for more than three months, but greater restrictions for those who are not vaccinated.
At red, masks are mandatory on flights, public transport, in taxis, retail, public venues and recommended when leaving the house. Record keeping and scanning are required.
Public facilities can open with up to 100 people, retail is open - with 1m distancing, schools and early childhood are open, with public health measures, and some outdoor community events are allowed, with limits on numbers.
Gyms, hospitality, churches, marae can open if using vaccination certificates to up to 100 people, based on 1m distancing. Same applies to weddings, civil union ceremonies, funerals and tangihanga and other indoor and outdoor events.
Gatherings are limited to 10 people and hospitality must remain contactless only if vaccine certificates aren't used.
Some places, such as close contact businesses, including hairdressers, and gyms cannot operate without vaccine certificates.
Read more about the traffic light system, including the requirements for orange and green levels here.
So far 1.2 million people have downloaded their vaccine pass, and Ardern urged those who had not yet done so to get in now.
Calls for Pacific providers to play bigger role
There are calls for Pacific health providers to be given a bigger role in caring for Pasifika with Covid-19 who are isolating at home.
This follows the case of an Auckland family, who said they [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/456244/she-couldn-t-even-breathe-families-challenged-to-care-for-covid-19-relatives-at-home didn't know when to call an ambulance for their wife and mother, who was struggling to breathe.
Her husband said they were watching the pulse oximeter, a machine for monitoring oxygen levels, to decide what to do. The machine said her levels were 96, 97 and the information which came with the metre said to call an ambulance if they dropped below 95.
When they eventually called an ambulance, the crew said the reading was wrong.
The woman spent five days in hospital and is now back home with family.
The man said The Fono, a Whānau Ora provider supporting Pacific families with Covid-19 in the community, had been much more supportive than government agencies, helping them quickly with food and supplies and anything they needed.
Pasifika Futures chief executive Debbie Sorensen said it was a big call to ask people to work the pulse oximeters and ideally they should be walked through how to work them. Pacific providers needed to be given a bigger role in helping Pacific families, Sorensen said.
Meanwhile, health officials and government ministers are at odds over whether every household isolating with a positive Covid-19 case should get the device.
Police investigating anti-lockdown protest
Police are still investigating if alert level rules were broken during an anti-lockdown protest in Auckland Domain on Saturday.
Auckland Museum closed for the day due to the demonstration organised by the Freedoms and Rights Coalition.
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki spoke to those gathered, despite a warning from the courts.
Tamaki's bail conditions include not organising or attending protests in breach of Covid level restrictions.
Police declined to say if they had made any arrests, and if they were looking into a breach of bail conditions.
Earlier they said they would take action against anyone who breached alert level 3 restrictions.
