PM Jacinda Ardern explains what alert level three means for you, your family and your business.
COMMENT
It was a bad day for chickens but the announcement that level 3 of the Covid-19 lockdown was nigh was a much-anticipated parole for the rest of us.
The prospect of takeaways felt like a reward for good behaviour during lockdown.
The decision to move to level 3 wasa sign Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield were confident the goal of "elimination" would not necessarily be imperilled by 500,000 people returning to work and sitting in drive-thru queues for takeaways.
They were apparently so confident of this they did not answer a question about whether something could still derail the end of level 4 over the next week, such as the discovery of a new outbreak, or what circumstances would cause them to delay further.
It is, however, possible Ardern had a "touch wood" moment on her lectern when that was asked.
Instead, Ardern said the results of the past week had been consistent, and they now had the confidence to move. "Over the next week, we expect further confidence again. I'm not expecting any surprises."
Despite such apparent confidence, they have given themselves an extra five days to be doubly sure.
The initial lockdown was scheduled to end on Wednesday night.
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National Party leader Simon Bridges said the extra five days showed that the contact tracing and widespread testing that had been required had not happened to the extent it was needed.
There is an element of that to the extension. The wider community testing of non-symptomatic people had not begun until the last four days before the decision. The extra five days will allow more time to back that up.
Bloomfield also said the ministry was working on further improving contact tracing, after a review found holes in the pace and thoroughness with which that was happening. The ability to trace contacts quickly is a critical factor in the elimination target.
But so too is public behaviour.
But by and large, the extra five days will be seen as acceptable.
It is time for another 20,000 tests, and a compromise between the two weeks public health experts wanted, the cries of businesses to open as soon as possible and public tolerance.
Ardern emphasised New Zealand would be one of precious few countries in the world to achieve elimination - a stage at which cases were rare and could quickly be identified and wrestled under control again.
The difficulty now is keeping things that way. That comes at a cost – both to business and people's ordinary lives.
It requires New Zealanders to continue to abide by whatever restrictions are still in place on their behaviour. To do that, they need to be convinced those restrictions are still necessary.
Ardern had begun by delivering something of a triumphant address about New Zealand's success in containing the spread of the virus compared with other countries.
But she then went to some lengths to emphasise the danger was not over – and there was a risk of "yo-yo'ing" in and out of lockdown if people did not continue to behave.
She also threw out a further inducement: that of moving down to level 2 a mere two weeks later.
That decision will be made by Cabinet on May 11.
Although the details of alert level 2 are still being worked out, it would allow many more businesses to get back into action, and domestic travel. Sports teams might even be allowed to start training again.
Ardern made it clear the likelihood of that happening would depend on people abiding by the rules of level 3.
But for now there is very much a sense of crisis averted. Unless you're a chicken.
