Ardern readies Kiwis for COVID normal as case peak looms within weeks

Wellington: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the nation’s vaccine pass and mandate system will begin to lift once New Zealand is through its Omicron peak in March.

Ardern said vaccine passes had always been “temporary” and the “least bad option” to make sure people who had done the right thing had more freedoms.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said COVID mandates will soon wind back across New Zealand.Credit: Getty Images

New COVID-19 cases were likely to rapidly decline following the coming peak in mid to late-March, she said. On Monday New Zealand reported 2365 new community cases, a slight drop, 116 hospitalisations and two more deaths.

The Prime Minister spoke as protesters against the mandates and the wider COVID-19 response entered their third week occupying the ground outside Parliament.

Ardern spoke directly to the protesters, saying the mandates would not be lifting due to their actions but because they were always temporary and have done the job of protecting the healthcare system through the peak in cases.

“Everyone is over COVID, no-one wants to live with rules and restrictions, but if we hadn’t done what we did, we would have more COVID and lost people we love,” Ardern said.

Demonstrators, pictured on Friday, have set up camp outside the Parliament building in Wellington, New Zealand.Credit: Bloomberg

“We will move to be less restrictive, but not because they demand it, because it will be safe for our population to do so.”

Ardern said as case numbers fall, New Zealand will would move down through its staged “traffic light” alert system, removing limits on gatherings and other restrictions.

Ardern said the government would also ease mandates and wind back the use of vaccine passes, but did not put a date on these changes.

“We’ll be looking to make sure that we are beyond the peak and that the pressure on the health system was manageable,” Ardern said.

She said the mandates would first lift in areas where the most vulnerable wouldn’t be affected.

The government currently mandates that all health workers, border workers, teachers, and police are vaccinated, along with much of the rest of the public sector.

It has also created a system where businesses can create mandates for their staff and customers – such as hospitality businesses being allowed to host more customers if they check vaccine passes.

Earlier this month the government announced a plan to gradually reopen its borders, first to New Zealanders overseas, then people with visas, and later to tourists.

National leader Christopher Luxon on Monday called for vaccine mandates on border workers, hospitality, and teenage sports to end as soon as the Omicron “peak” was over.

There is no government-ordered mandate on hospitality workers or sports teams but organisations are able to implement them, and hospitality is required to follow them to open for in-house service during the “red alert” level.

“Mandates are becoming increasingly less relevant in our highly vaccinated population and as COVID becomes endemic. They should begin to be removed progressively once we are through the peak of Omicron,” Luxon said.

Luxon stressed that National did not support the protest outside of Parliament, which has now been blocking roads for two weeks, and in which fecal matter thrown on police on Monday morning.

But he said the Ardern led the “most divisive government in recent memory”.

“What we are seeing outside Parliament, and the reaction to it, is the culmination of underlying issues that have been rumbling along in our communities for some time,” Luxon said.

Stuff