Police stop and talk to a driver at a checkpoint in Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME
Police stop and talk to a driver at a checkpoint in Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME
Auckland police are reminding drivers the country is still at alert level 4, after noticing increased levels of traffic in the region.
"Police across Auckland have noticed an increased amount of traffic on our roads today and more people out and about in the community," authorities wrote on Facebook yesterday.
"Our communities have done an incredible job of staying in their bubbles but we must remember that we have to continue to do this while alert level 4 restrictions remain in place."
Police warned they will remain "highly visible" over the weekend and there will continue to be "a number of checkpoints across Auckland, including rurally and in the suburbs".
"We will not hesitate to take enforcement action through warnings or arrests if we need to."
"We want to thank everyone for their efforts and urge people to keep it up - it is making a huge difference."
Numerous people commented saying they have also witnessed an increase in traffic and people on the streets.
"Northwestern motorway was full-on today and some roadblocks on the main roads north would have been great," one person said.
"The amount of people driving to Cornwall Park and parking in the side streets is ridiculous," another person commented.
Google has been using the tracking it does of New Zealanders to generate reports on people's movements across different parts of the country.
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While overall numbers of traffic are down compared to pre-lockdown times, some numbers have increased in the last few days.
The latest data, from April 11, shows that, in the Auckland region, supermarket and pharmacy trips are down 31 per cent compared to baseline.
However, the previous week, those same trips were down 55 per cent for the same region.
In the Bay of Plenty, the latest Google data shows a drop of 29 per cent in grocery and pharmacy trips. However, that same drop was at 51 per cent the previous week.
Latest police figures show there have been 2078 breaches during lockdown and more than 200 prosecutions.
