New Zealand will go to Covid-19 Alert Level 1 at midnight tonight, the Prime Minister has announced.
Last week, Jacinda Ardern outlined the the rules for Alert Level 1.
Ms Ardern said New Zealand had sacrificed and achieved a "huge amount" throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We united in unprecedented way to crush the virus. Our lockdown was in place 26 days after our first case, when we had just 200 cases.
"Had we not acted, 11 days into our lockdown we had projected 4000 cases. We had 1000.
"We all saw people losing their loved ones and livelihoods. We closed our borders to everyone but New Zealanders 20 days after our first case."
"Moving to Level 1 now is the dividend for everyone's hard work, for now.
Jacinda Ardern stressed the importance of a "sustained effort" as the country moves to Level 1. (Source: Other)
"The world will remain in the grip of a global pandemic for some time to come and we will see cases here again, which we must remain prepared for," Ms Ardern said.
She said the next step was "getting the country moving again" through supporting local businesses.
"I encourage you to buy, play and experience New Zealand-made to get our country moving again. Consider it an extra form of support, to visit our country, buy our local products and support our local businesses."
When asked why the move to Alert Level 1 would be faster than the usual 48-hour period the country usually moves between alert levels, Ms Ardern said it was due to the legal framework.
"For most of the other levels we have had to put in enforcement measures and make sure the orders are ready so that we can legally enforce any of the requirements we set.
"At Alert Level 1 the restrictions simply remain at our borders so there was no reason to have to leave in a timeframe for those provisions."
Ms Ardern revealed she "did a little dance" after hearing New Zealand had no active cases of Covid-19, and Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said he allowed himself a "broad smile".
National and NZ First had been publicly urging a faster move to Alert Level 1.
Mr Muller said he was delighted with the announcement that New Zealand was going to Alert Level 1 at midnight tonight.
"It's a testament to all our collective efforts over the last many weeks and I'm sure New Zealanders share my delight we can all move on to the next phase of this journey, which is a significant economic recovery.
"Today is a day of acknowledgment we all made a collective effort that we have all made to get to this point. All New Zealanders deserve a moment of quiet satisfaction."
Mr Muller said moving to Alert Level 1 would give businesses "some" confidence.
Border measures, public health, cough etiquette and contact tracing would be the "wall of defence" at Level 1 against Covid-19.
"All current rules and restrictions on businesses and services are essentially lifted," Ms Ardern said at the time.
New Zealand has been under an alert levels system since March 21 , when the country was immediately put under Alert Level 2 as the Covid-19 pandemic was increasing.
Five days later the country went to Alert Level 4 .
It was revealed today that there are now no active cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand. It has also been 17 days since a new Covid-19 case has been recorded.
New Zealand has been without community transmission of a case for 38 days.
A leaked Cabinet paper last week had official advice stating Level 1 should be based on "having eliminated chains of transmissions and there having been no new cases from community transmission for at least 28 days".
SHARE ME