University of Auckland Professor Shaun Hendy urged Auckland retailers to be cautious when they welcome shoppers back on Wednesday.
It comes as Auckland DHBs are all at 90 per cent for first vaccine doses and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said current projections indicated Auckland should reach the 90 per cent double vaccine target by the end of this month.
Auckland will move to the new traffic light system once 90 per cent of the city is fully vaccinated.
It was also announced today Auckland would move to Step 2, Level 3 on Tuesday evening.
Hendy told Seven Sharp that while it was "fantastic" to see Auckland reaching those targets, it was important to remember "90 per cent is not a magic number".
Hendy believes retailers would need to be very cautious about how they manage their shops when they reopen this week, taking extra care with ventilation, mask use and scanning.
Looking ahead, Hendy says Auckland had a "fighting chance" of getting to 90 per cent fully vaccinated across all three DHBs by November 29, and said it would be the Government's call on whether Aucklanders had "worked hard enough" to have restrictions lifted.
However, he was cautious over the potential opening of Auckland's regional border, saying communities with low vaccination rates around the country should not be left behind.
"It's going to depend how case number evolve in Auckland. We'd like to see case numbers go down before moving to the traffic light system as a country," Hendy said.
A record number of 81 hospitalisations were recorded on Monday, but just seven of those were in ICU. Hendy said this was in part due to the current outbreak having been spread among the younger population.
However, ICU numbers could rise quickly if the virus spread to older communities throughout the country, he said.
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