Changes to Covid-19 rules to be announced on Wednesday

The Prime Minister has confirmed the Government will be making changes to the rules around Covid-19 vaccine passes and mandates, as well as traffic light settings, once the worst of the Omicron wave passes.

Jacinda Ardern said Cabinet discussed changes on Monday afternoon and would be making an announcement on Wednesday to detail the changes.

She added that none of the changes announced then would take "immediate" effect.

When 1News asked why she was delaying announcing details on Monday, Ardern said final details needed to be ironed out, such as updating orders and guidance.

"There is literally no one that will be impacted by us taking those extra 48 hours because those changes aren't immediate," she said.

ACT leader David Seymour criticised Ardern for making an announcement about an announcement.

“Cabinet made the decision about restrictions today. Jacinda should treat us like adults and tell us what it is."

Last week, the National Party called for the Government to scrap the traffic light system, vaccine pass requirements in most places, pre-departure testing, and phase out vaccination mandates from April once borders opened to Australians.

"Vaccine passes and mandates made sense under Delta. They don't under Omicron," National's Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop said.

Meanwhile, the Green Party said pandemic restrictions shouldn't be dropped until it was clear that the Omicron outbreak had passed.

Covid-related hospitalisation numbers continued to rise, while national daily case numbers fell slightly from the height of about 20,000 at the beginning of March.

The Greens' Covid-19 spokesperson Teanau Tuiono said the Government needed to consider that Pasifika and Māori booster rates were still about 60%, compared to 73% for all ethnicities.

Child vaccinations for Covid-19 were also lagging for Pasifika and Māori - Ministry of Health data showed this was the case for nearly every DHB in the country.

“We urge the Government to not only listen to the health experts, but listen to disabled communities, Māori and Pasifika, immunocompromised people, and teachers and principals worried about vulnerable tamariki," Tuiono said.

“Instead of discussing what Covid-19 protection measures to remove and when… Cabinet should be discussing how it can continue to protect those most at-risk. Not only to get through the current outbreak, but to prepare for any new variants over winter."

Ardern said thought went into what should be done to protect vulnerable groups in light of the changes, but didn't specify who the Government had consulted.

"It's our job to make sure we build that into our thinking, that we assess the likely impacts, that we mitigate them as much as we can."

Ardern said vaccine mandates would still apply for some, such as those working with vulnerable people.