Covid 19 coronavirus: PM reminds New Zealanders level 3 eases business restrictions, not social ones

You can have takeaway coffee next week, but you still can't meet your friend for a coffee.

As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a lockdown end date this afternoon, she also reiterated alert level 3 will not change how much socialising New Zealanders can do compared to level 4.

New Zealand will move down to alert level 3 at 11.59pm next Monday, April 27, and Ardern says the move will be about easing business restrictions, not social ones.

What awaits New Zealand in a week's time is not remarkably different from the situation we've now been in for four weeks.

"Yes alert level 3 allows more economic activity like construction, manufacturing and forestry, but it does not allow more social activity," Ardern said this afternoon.

"And for good reason. If we want to make sure that we are a health success story, and ensure our economy can start to operate again without the virus taking off, we need to get the next phase right. The worst thing we can do for our country is to yo-yo between levels, with all of the uncertainty that this would bring," the Prime Minister added.

New Zealand will be at level 3 for "at least" two weeks.

Ardern said New Zealand has done what few countries have been able to do: "We have stopped a wave of devastation."

"In short, the effort of our team of 5 million has broken the chain of transmission and taken a quantum leap forward in our goal to eliminate the virus," she added.

The Prime Minister says the extra week at level 4 and the two weeks at level 3 are to ensure New Zealand does not waste the gains it has made in the last four weeks.

"You, all of you, have stopped the uncontrolled explosion of Covid-19 in New Zealand, and I couldn't feel prouder of the start we have made together," she said.

"But I also feel a huge responsibility to ensure that we do not lose any of the gains we have made either."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website