Jacinda Ardern has shot down the possibility of moving to Alert Level 4 for now, saying there are positive signs New Zealand is managing the outbreak.
"No intention, as we've always said, no intention to move to Level 4 and no need to. You can see from the cases reported today we're seeing the perimeter of the cluster."
Only six new cases of Covid-19 were reported in New Zealand today, with one being an imported case at a managed isolation facility.
The remaining five have all been linked to the Auckland cluster and no new cases having been traced back to the Rydges Hotel maintenance worker.
"There is obviously a way to go yet but they are early signs of the management of this cluster. Of course we will continue to see cases but no, absolutely no intention to move..." Ms Ardern said this afternoon.
When it comes to moving back down through the alert levels again, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says Kiwis need to prepare for restrictions to change.
"What we want to do is maintain those sorts of activities when we go back down to Level 1 and that may mean somethings that we need to routinely do even at Alert Level 1 that we weren't doing before."
He says the introduction of face masks to the Ministry of Health's guidelines may continue to be used in some settings as well as regularly using the Covid-19 contact tracer app.
SHARE ME