As of 11.59 pm tonight (Monday), New Zealanders will no longer have to wear masks while inside public places and on public transport. All Government vaccine mandates and vaccine requirements for travellers and air crew will also be removed.
The COVID-19 Protection Framework, which was also known as the traffic light system, will be removed one minute before midnight tonight "so all New Zealanders can continue to move forward with certainty," PM Jacinda Ardern announced at her weekly post-cabinet news conference.
“It’s time to safely turn the page on our COVID-19 management, and live without the extraordinary measures we have previously used,” Ardern said.
“Today marks a milestone in our response. Finally, rather than feeling that COVID dictates what happens to us, our lives, and our futures, we take back control," she said.
“For the first time in two years we can approach summer with the much needed certainty New Zealanders and business need, helping to drive greater economic activity critical to our economic recovery."
Ardern said the most recent health advice was that with the lowest cases and hospitalisations since February, New Zealand's population was well vaccinated and had expanded access to anti-viral medicines.
“You will no longer be required by Government to wear a mask anywhere, except in healthcare settings like hospitals, GPs and aged residential care facilities. Some places, such as workplaces, special events, or marae may ask you to wear a mask, but this will be at their discretion and no longer a Government requirement."
All remaining Government vaccine requirements would end on September 26, she said.
"It will now be an employer’s discretion as to whether they require their workforce to be vaccinated.
Seven day isolation remains
However, the seven day isolation period for Covid will remain, although only for those that test positive and not close contacts, who will be asked to take daily RAT tests.
“In short, we now move on to a simple two requirements system of masks in healthcare settings and 7 days isolation for positive cases only,” Ardern said.
Covid1-9 Minister Ayesha Verrall also announced the extra purchase of 40,000 more anti-viral medicine courses.
“We are giving greater access to anti-viral medicines for New Zealanders, and have secured agreements that provide a significant boost to our supply for the long term,” Verrall said.
"“So now, anyone over the age of 65, and Māori and Pacific people over the age of 50, or anyone who meets Pharmac requirements, can access the treatment in the early stages of contracting the virus," she said.
The current rolling seven day average of hospitalisations is 241, the lowest since February and down from 273 this time last week. There are 225 current hospitalisations. There have been a total of 1,950 deaths, a 7 day rolling average of 5.
91 Comments
Yvil,I have to admit to having done that myself by accident,you lug your shopping back to the car,hands full,forget to pull it off as you drive off,then suddenly realise you have forgotten to remove it...big deal...meanwhile,you see this person and go all apoplectic talking to your self about 'sheeple' etc,giving your self an ulcer,rather than saying to each their own...
I'm explaining a 'once off'...and yes,most were still wearing in the local supermarket,I suppose you were one of the 'tough rebels' who thought they were being all anti establishment by walking in without one and eye balling folk for wearing their 'face nappies'...
The boarding staff asked if I had a mask, but didn't actually ask me to put it on.
People are required to remove the face nappy at immigration.
Nobody on the other side (Australia) gives a rats.
Seriously, people have better things to do with their time than enforce pointless mask rules that the rest of the world long ago moved past.
Maybe if you wore an N95 mask instead of your undies,it might not have been so onerous for you :-) I don't know what's funnier either,that you went to the trouble of carrying out an 'experiment'...does anyone care?Are you publishing the results of your ground breaking experiments,or just sharing to loud applause on some qanon website.
So when they asked if you had a mask,did you say "No I don't and I refuse to wear one..."
No,you would have nodded and said yes.
Any how,I'm not sure why you have your undies in twist,restrictions are gone,you should be happy instead of moaning...and having been in an industry that had to deal with sanctimonious twits who thought they were proving something by refusing to follow rules for the last few years,we are not sorry to have moved on.
So all you 'tough' anti maskers...did any of you have the balls to walk on an aircraft and refuse to wear a mask?
It was actually such a non-event that I had completely forgotten about it until you started your inane ranting.
That's correct, I confirmed that I had some undies somewhere and then carried on with my life.
Moaning? You asked a question and then got upset that the answer was unsatisfactory to your jobsworth sensibilities.
How many times did she say "...3 years..."
Mask mandates: August 31, 2020 -> 2 years and 2 weeks.
Vaccine mandates: 30 April, 2021 for health care, 1 January 2022 for teachers healthy & disability later.
Borders - were closed for roughly 2 years, I guess masks off is 2.5 years?.
But sure, 3 years....
This really throws a spanner in the works for the Facebook ranters, though. They were swearing black and blue when these things were instituted that it was the beginning of communism. Now it's being abandoned they'll have to think of new things that are communism, like seatbelts or racial mixing.
With a 3 hour return commute on public transport, boy am I glad.
Sensible restriction re Drs surgeries etc - arguably should have been a policy before the pandemic. After all, those getting a cast taken off shouldn't catch a communicable disease while in the waiting room.
Hope those affected by the mandates can move on with their lives now.
Here we go again.
Rather than follow the framework... Labour just completely change the Framework... again!
Our original step based system would have worked just fine the whole way through.... Isn't what we doing now just the green setting anyway?
Never pass up a good chance to get on TV.
Well no settings is the best but should we get another variant it's just another excuse for something new and a podium visit. I'm so over it that's 2 years gone and so far still not caught it and I'm not vaccinated. All the people I know that caught it were vaccinated so go figure.
The vaccine weakens the immune system, but they don't tell you that. They lump people who had the vaccine within 14 days of testing positive as "unvaccinated", this is a major data manipulation that makes the vaccine look less dangerous. In fact, the immune system weakening may last many months, if not permanently. It's what you would expect from a highly experimental vaccine, using a failed technology, produced by companies that can afford to hire the very best data manipulators on the planet and are completely exempt from legal liability (bit of a giveaway, that).
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-more-you-jab-the-sicker-you-get/
The doctors seem peculiarly vulnerable to fascism solutions, the policies are crafted to exploit their weaknesses. Goebbels was a very clever fellow:
Robert N. Proctor (1988) notes that physicians joined the Nazi party in droves (nearly 50% by 1945), much higher than any other profession. Physicians were seven times more likely to join the SS than other employed German males. Nurses were also major collaborators.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/fernandes-doctors-w…
Moan,moan,moan...move on,everyone,are we going to re-litigate every anti vax,mandate qanon opinion as if anyone who followed the rules are sheep who can't think,whilst those who did "their own research" are somehow superior...
If I choose to wear a seatbelt for my safety,that doesn't mean I am 'scared'
You will find that there are still some restrictions in many different regions around the world,so be careful about assuming the whole world is back to normal when you travel.
We are as close to normal as any of the open countries in the world.
Whinge if we stayed under restrictions,whine if they come off...
Because of one tractor accident with someone doing something stupid, there is a call to impose seatbelts on all tractor drivers. That is overboard bureaucracy, risk does not have to be completely eliminated. Covid risk is low and has been for a while.
I wonder what OSH will say after the kaikoura boating accident.
There are a lot of accidents from tractors, quad bikes and other heavy equipment rolling over, crushing and trapping the driver, and there have been for years: https://data.worksafe.govt.nz/editorial/fatalities_summary_table. It's usually older farmers who have been doing the same thing for decades, then one day it goes wrong. It would be good to reduce that a bit.
Finally, rather than feeling that COVID dictates what happens to us, our lives, and our futures, we take back control," she (Ardern) said.
Covid didn't dictate our lives, you did Jacinda and you revelled in it.
We haven't had 40'000 Covid deaths like Ardern predicted in 2020, the vaccines don't prevent us from getting Covid, Covid is still here in NZ and people are still dying from it but hey:
Let's forget about all the scaremongering of the last two years, somehow Covid is not a big issue anymore...
We need some Myxomatosis....there is gonna be a lot of folk down the 'rabbit hole' re-litigating every thing...sounds like the whole anti vax etc movement is a pacifier for a lot of lost souls...
Smile,summers on the way,all restrictions are off,near full employment,Russians are in reverse,inflation may have peaked,house prices falling...
I have less a problem with some of the early actions taken, than the way they hoodwinked and manipulated the public every step of the way subsequently. From the terror messaging of 2020 to hype up perceptions of lethality & then win an election...to the pivot to positive messaging when it suited them politically, now today the "all over, you're on your own guys" rhetoric when we have 10x more people dying daily than back when a single death made for front page news and a podium eulogy. Following the public in other words, because we've made it clear to them that we're over it and see through the BS.
Then there were all the lies...about the vaccine and how it would work, lies about things they said they wouldn't do (vaccine passes which were then used well beyond official advice, mandates)..and then just general fuckery like the character assassination of returning kiwis, Northland "border breachers" etc.
And all that before you even start on the general incompetence of the bureaucracy (slow vaccine order, failure to use the 18 month hiatus to prep the health system).
A debacle of historic proportions and any marginal achievements do not justify the means. A Royal Commission of enquiry is the least we can do.
Plenty of water to go under the bridge;
https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/taxpayers_union_curia_poll_august_2022
When did other countries change or remove their mask mandates?
Yesterday, the Australian government brought an end to its mask mandate for both domestic and international flights as the country lines up an exit from pandemic restrictions.
However, most Australian states still mandate mask wearing on many other forms of public transport and travellers are still advised to consider wearing a face mask for their own safety on flights.
This follows the English government's decision to remove most Covid-19 restrictions, including those requiring people to wear masks in indoor spaces like shops and restaurants, in July 2021.
England's government said its decision was made to purposefully line up with the end of the school term and the increased ability to be outdoors in summer, to relieve pressure on its struggling health system.
However, after a new wave of Covid ripped through the UK, England's then prime minister Boris Johnson was forced to reintroduce compulsory mask wearing in shops and public transport in late November 2021 to curb the threat of the Omicron variant.
The country's mask mandate was once again dropped in January 2022 after health authorities judged the Omicron variant had passed its peak.
In June 2022, the US removed all requirements for Covid-19 testing for incoming air travellers just months after it ditched mask mandates for all public transport.
Scotland became the last country in the United Kingdom to remove mask mandates in mid-April 2022, replacing the rules with guidance which recommended its citizens continue wearing masks indoors.
France also removed all public transport mask mandates in May 2022, however, less than a month later its health minister was calling for the mandate to be reinstated and asking the public to start wearing masks again in crowded areas.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/474621/mask-mandates-how-have-other…
Nzdan....don't bring facts into this debate,we all know,the whole world removed all restrictions years ago,it has been NZ going alone to control the 'sheeple'
This is japan;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/24/japan-covid-restriction…
I'll still be wearing a mask on the 2 busses and train I'll be using on Thursday. I have a vulnerable 98 year old at home, and I don't want to be the one to bring in the infection that will likely kill her or make her very, very ill.
People act like it's a hardship wearing a mask. It's not.
You face isn't so pretty that people need to see you.
Lastly, a mask serves more than just screening your breath. It also serves as a reminder to keep your fingers away from your nose and mouth, which is especially important when grasping seats and rails on public transport.
You could have had the victory right at the start. There was the massive loophole called the exemption. Many people took it up. The best part about it was the useless implementation of it which meant that you never had to prove it and the Karen’s could argue with you until they were blue in the face and you could just laugh back. I’ll miss those days.
A couple of things that pissed me off
1 getting a vaccine jab along with the bulk of other kiwis and then still being in lockdown for months. Auckland border was shut but people still drove to KFC huntly
2 not being able to comment here on interest.co about the covid articles. Was it the authorities like min of health that told them to shut down the comments section.
This may interest those of you who intend flying........
www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/08/air-travel-and-covid-in-the-biden-et-er…
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