All parts of the country at the Red level of the Covid-19 alert level system, other than Northland, will move to Orange at 11:59pm on December 30.
Auckland, Taupō, Rotorua, Kawerau, Whakatane, Ōpōtiki, Gisborne, Wairoa, Rangitikei, Whanganui and Ruapehu will join the rest of New Zealand at Orange on December 30.
This means vaccinated people will be able to attend large events, including new year's eve festivals, everywhere other than in Northland.
Cabinet made the decision on Monday on the back of Ministry of Health advice.
The settings will be reviewed again on January 17.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would get an update on Omicron in early-January to ensure border settings appropriately factor in the risk associated with the new variant of Covid-19.
Border restrictions are due to start being relaxed from January 17, when vaccinated New Zealanders arriving from Australia will be allowed to self-isolate for seven days rather than go to managed isolation.
From February 14, the same rules are due to apply to New Zealanders arriving from other parts of the world, ahead of the border slowly reopening to foreigners from April 13.
See this story for more on the current plan for reopening the border, which might be up for review when more information about Omicron comes to hand.
45 Comments
The pain for NZ will come late summer early winter. We have the trifecta lining up. The normal cold / flu time of year, everyones vax waning around the same time, and a lot of dry kindling - in that we haven't had any significant waves before so there almost no one with natural immunity. We'll be pushing 2-3k cases a day when that wave really hits.
Far from flattening the curve, the government got everyone vax with tight space of time so we all going to have waning immunity at the same time. It's the opposite of what they should have done. But it seems we want to follow the failed path of other nations.
Take a look at Denmark, they had the same 3 things line up. They just peaked at 7.5k cases a day.
Jacinda and Clark are in the Pink, whatever they do. Cash up front, fiddling House Movements, not speculating, know up front, Labour, no thanks..Work is a four letter word.
Only for the glamour us. Houses are only game in town......Tv personalities, not with standing.
Amazing that having hit 97% first dose and 94% 2nd dose -- case numbers half their peak hospitalisations under 50 and ICU beds the same as a one vehicle car crash -- Aucklanders still have to wait 17 more days to move out of the most restrictive settings
Be worried if i was in the SI -- after all you are only at Orange now -- and it can only get worse in terms of cases, hospital and ICU usage going forward -- you may be there forever or even red!
All because MPs need their 7 weeks xmas holiday and could not wait four more days to see the full two weeks of a cycle!
Just for some context. Germany, with a much higher population density, was in lockdown for a grand total of 23 days. That was under Angela Merkel. Olaf Schultz (who is kinda equal to NZ Labour ie hardcore socialist) is now chomping at the bit to lockdown the country again despite this thing being almost over.
Seems like a lot of events, festivals etc still being cancelled.
There are going to be some grumpy teenyboppers for sure - they listened to the radio ads that told them "two shots for a sick as summer" and their beloved 'festies' still get canned.
I guess "two shots to sit at home doing what you've been doing for the past two years" isn't quite such a compelling ad (nor would it be so easy to rap).
Yay! new zealand gets its freedoms back...well except the unvaccinated.. !!
Icu case numbers climbing and still no more beds, nearly 2 years later....
$100bil buys a lot of hospital beds....
Auckland is still not under control and borders opening... Sounds like a covid mess is coming next year, more lockdowns... yay who's in?
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would get an update on Omicron in early-January to ensure border settings appropriately factor in the risk associated with the new variant of Covid-19.
Looking at the hospital capacity trackers in the UK Omicron is having no effect [link]. Milder symptoms are meaning fewer hospitalisations and a much shorter stay for those who are hospitalised.
In South Africa [link]:
- Only about 30 percent of those hospitalized with COVID-19 in recent weeks have been seriously ill, less than half the rate as during the first weeks of previous pandemic waves.
- Average hospital stays for COVID-19 have been shorter this time — about 2.8 days compared to eight days.
- Just 3% of patients hospitalized recently with COVID-19 have died, versus about 20% in the country’s earlier outbreaks.
Based on data so far I'd rather deal with Omicron than Delta, particularly heading into winter when cases rapidly accelerate and health systems get overrun.
Too early to tell in the UK .. Delta is still the bulk of the cases. Omicron cases are increasing but most are only a few days old - not long enough to develop severe illness.
SA data looks very promising - but the level of natural immunity there is much greater than in the UK ( or - goes without saying - here in NZ ).
Omicron vs vaccine immunity is still the big unknown .. but the signs are not good at all . This is what is driving UK decision making ; one hopes they are wrong but I fear they are not.
1st UK Omicron death and most Omicron hospitalisations had two vaccines. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2021/12/covid-19-first-omicron-var…
What intrigues me the the govt here and in UK don't release individual ages vaccinations and co-morbidities of those who have died. In NZ I'm referring to the one who died in the last two days or so. It appears to be on a need to know basis and the public don't need to know. Difficult to ascertain whrther MSM have been supplied this information and decide not to release it or the govt don't want in the public arena for at least a week or more. My suspicious mind is that its the govt in this instance not releasing the information.
Auckland is just about the most vaccinated city in the world. What threshold do they need to cross to be at level green?
I'm cautious, wear a mask everywhere, vaccinated etc and don't live in Auckland. I don't understand how these decisions are made it seems to be gut feel.
I just came from overseas work trip involved few countries. I can tell you that in Europe or Africa they know basically nothing what is happening here or in Australia. The news that we are getting here are very carefully filtered as well.
Several of people i know in Europe have covid right now - all double vaccinated. It is scary, not mentioning the number of people with side effects after vaccination.
I'm really concerned as if the same situation will repeat here (and i do not see why not) we will be in big trouble.
The saddest thing is manipulation and divide of the society - INCREDIBLE in NZ. Very, very sad.
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