The Prime Minister says she knows the 10 person gathering limit under Covid-19 Alert Level 2 for events such as funerals and tangihanga "is causing pain".
New Zealand is largely set to move to Alert Level 2 on Thursday. It was previously announced last week that under Level 2, gatherings including weddings, religious events, funerals and tangi would be limited to 100 people.
That rule was backtracked yesterday, when Jacinda Ardern told media it would be limited to 10.
The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand condemned the decision, with president Gary Taylor calling it a "cruel and heartless blow to the thousands of New Zealand families who have lost loved ones".
Today, when asked for the reasoning behind the decision, Ms Ardern said it was around "whether or not you're coming together to be with others".
"That's the risky behaviour. Look back again in the areas where New Zealand has had trouble with Covid. It's been weddings, it's been bars, it's been social gatherings so that's where we've put the limits in place."
"The thing I have found, as a human, hardest in all of this has been funerals and tangihana."
She said she could not imagine "trying to grieve through a global pandemic for a loved one without being able to be together with others".
"But, the one thing I also know is that funerals and tangi are a place where you want to comfort people, that is your natural instinct that’s why we come together."
"We know this is causing pain. This is only intended, we hope, to be for a very, very short period."
Ms Ardern said the Government did consider putting in place exemptions for funerals and tangi, "but it was just a very very difficult thing to find a way to have a carved out exemption".
People can still go to movies, sports games and shows with more than 10 people in the room, "but they'll be spaced out", Ms Ardern said yesterday.
"When we come together to socialise in large numbers with one another, there is risk," Ms Ardern said yesterday. "The best insurance policy we have for that risk, is to reduce the size of our socialising for now and that is what the Director General of Health has recommended we do, for now."
"Why 10? Simple. If something goes wrong with a group of 10, that’s much easier to contain, much easier to contact trace, and much less likely that if something goes wrong that the whole country will have to experience more restrictions."
National's Simon Bridges said it was "inhumane" that some family members would not be able to attend funerals or tangi, especially given less important and "trivial" parts to life were open, like cinemas.
"It's a real tragedy".
He would push for a gathering limit of 100.
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