New Zealand’s largest city will finally leave heightened Covid-19 restrictions, Jacinda Ardern says, while urging Kiwis against complacency
Auckland will return to Level 1 on Wednesday night following the city’s Covid-19 resurgence in August, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed.
However, Ardern has urged Kiwis to continue using the Covid Tracer app and taking health precautions to guard against any possible outbreak in future.
Speaking to media in Christchurch, the Prime Minister delivered on the public’s expectations by saying that Auckland was now in a position to move down from Level 2.
Modelling had shown a 95 percent probability that the cluster had been eliminated, she said.
While there were no plans for a mask mandate at Level 1 either in the city or further afield, New Zealanders still needed to wash their hands regularly, stay at home if they were sick, and track their movements through the Covid Tracer app.
“I don’t want anyone to think that because we’re at Level 1 that Covid is now absent from New Zealand.”
Such measures had become “acts of public service” for the country, she said.
Ardern praised those in Auckland and New Zealand who had followed public health measures and Covid restrictions following the latest cluster, comparing New Zealand’s response with the less certain situation facing other nations around the world.
