Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she wants fewer restrictions on Kiwis, while at the same time balancing being able to manage the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Prime Minister talked with TVNZ1's Breakfast host John Campbell about what factors are being considered to either lift or extend the Level 4 lockdown.
She said the Government would take advice from experts and use the most up to date data on case numbers before making any decision on Monday about when the Level 4 lockdown will be lifted.
"New Zealand is in really the privileged position to be able to get into that level of detail, so just for full transparency for New Zealanders, we definitely haven't made any decision yet around movement out of Alert Level 4."
Ms Ardern said not only would she be looking at numbers, but also how Covid-19 was transmitted to those people.
"That matters to us. If we can't explain what's happened with certain cases then that one case could be really an iceberg with a number of cases underneath it," she explained.
"Our goal has to be early and hard so that we do get into a position where we can ease up restrictions with confidence, know that we won't have those resurgence of infections that other countries are going to face in the future when they come out of lockdowns, but in a different way because we can at least manage our borders.
Take a look at some of the coronavirus numbers from April 14. The graph in the third slide is logarithmic so not to scale. (Source: Other)
"We can manage the variable in this which is people bringing in new cases. That makes us very lucky so we won't squander that success but it will be a decision we have to weigh up lots of factors."
Ms Ardern said border restrictions would be a part of managing Covid-19 for a long time.
"My goal is to have as fewer restrictions as possible on New Zealanders in order to make sure that we are in absolute control over what is happening with Covid-19. I don't want people to be in Level 4 longer than we need to, but I also want to do as much as we need to to guarantee our success in the future."
She said the fifth death due to Covid-19 in New Zealand, announced yesterday, was "a devastating reminder" of why the current restrictions were so important.
"It also reminds why we need to do as much as we can to continue to protect the most vulnerable in New Zealand."
Three of the five deaths were from a cluster of cases at Christchurch's Rosewood Rest Home, and the others were also in elderly people.
The deaths to date are of a woman in her 70s on the West Coast, a woman in her 90s in Christchurch, a man in his 70s in Christchurch, a man in his 80s in Wellington and a man in his 80s from Christchurch.
The number of people caught breaking the rules is on the rise too with the Prime Minister chastising those people. (Source: Other)
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