Covid 19 coronavirus: Cabinet decision on whether Auckland lockdown levels remain

Herald on Sunday

22 Aug, 2020 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Although PM Jacinda Ardern said alert level 3 had played a critical role in finding the outbreak's perimeter Cabinet will reconsider any shift down levels on Monday. Video / Pool

Cabinet is set to decide the fate of Aucklanders tomorrow when it meets to discuss alert level restrictions and whether the city will be lifted out of lockdown.

Auckland has been in alert level 3 since noon on August 12 after community transmission of Covid-19 was discovered in a family.

The cluster, largely confined to Auckland, has since grown to 92 and nine people are in hospital, with three in intensive care.

Moving to alert level 4 was ruled out early on but on Friday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand would not move out of alert levels early, and must "stay the course".

• Auckland is scheduled to be in alert level 3 and the rest of the country in level 2 until 11.59pm on Wednesday.

• Cabinet will meet tomorrow to decide whether the current alert levels for the city and the rest of New Zealand will change.

• Ardern will announce the decision at 4pm. The press conference will be streamed live on the Herald website and on Newstalk ZB.

• A drop to level 2 in Auckland hinges on a number of factors including the latest health information about the cluster and any unlinked cases.

• On Saturday there were six new confirmed cases of the virus. Four were linked to the cluster including two household contacts and two church contacts. The other two were under investigation.

• If Auckland remained in level 3 workplaces, schools, bars, restaurants, and retail would remain closed.

• Under a drop to level 2, these would reopen but travel restrictions into and out of Auckland could still remain.

Cabinet would also consider contact tracing capacity, results from the surge of testing and whether any new cases were existing contacts, or if they're new.

Ministers would also look at the source of the infections.

New Zealand went into level 4 lockdown on March 25, and moved to level 3 on April 27. We moved into level 2 on May 13 and level 1 on June 9.

Whether the rest of the country goes back to level 1 on Thursday remains to be seen.

A new level 1, dubbed level 1.5, could be implemented to ensure complacency doesn't sneak in, including requirements such as wearing a mask on public transport and in supermarkets, social distancing and continued vigilance around hand-sanitising and remaining home if symptomatic.