Bye bye covid restrictions
Tāmaki Makaurau – Aotearoa’s covid pandemic restrictions are over.
All mask wearing requirements have been removed, except in healthcare and aged care facilities.
Only covid positive people are required to isolate for seven days and household contacts no longer need to .
All vaccine mandates are to end in on September 26. Incoming travellers and air crews do not need vaccination requirements.
All New Zealanders 65 and over, and Māori 50 and over have automatic access to covid anti-virals if they test positive.
The traffic light system was removed at 11.59pm last night.
For the first time in two years New Zealanders we can approach summer with the much needed certainty.
The most recent health advice now suggests the lowest cases and hospitalisations since February.
Some places, such as workplaces, special events, or marae may ask people to wear masks but this will be at their discretion.
It will be at an employer’s discretion as to whether they require their workforce to be vaccinated. However, seven day isolation period for covid cases remain.
An additional 40,000 more anti-viral medicine courses are expected in the next few days.
From Tuesday, Aotearoa will move to weekly COVID reporting, similar to Australia.
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.