Auckland will go out of lockdown and drop to level 2 from Sunday. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the change after five days of no cases of community transmission. The rest of the country will move to level 1.
"Bugger it" were the Prime Minister's first thoughts when she was jolted awake by an earthquake on the same day she would decide whether Auckland's Covid outbreak was contained and the city could come out of lockdown.
Ardern felt the 7.1 east coast quake which rattled many New Zealanders awake at 2.27am on Friday. She texted Emergency Management Minister Kiri Allan at 2.29am.
It sparked an eventful 14 hours in New Zealand, with two more major earthquakes in the Pacific, numerous tsunami alerts and evacuations along large parts of the North Island coast - and eventually the Cabinet meeting and decision to ease Covid alert levels from 6am on Sunday.
"Bugger it - pretty much what everyone else thought at that time, but as the minister (Allan) has said - we are the Shaky Isles," Ardern said, when asked how she reacted at 2.27am.
Allan added, laughing: "She sent me a text message to make sure I was going to be doing my job."
The Beehive emergency bunker sprang into action to manage the tsunami threat from the swarm of earthquakes in the Pacific, which passed without injury or damage.
Later in the day, nine floors above the bunker, Cabinet decided to lift Auckland's alert level 3 lockdown and to ease restrictions across the rest of Aotearoa from 6am tomorrow.
Retailers and hospitality outlets rejoiced at the news, which will let Aucklanders burst their bubbles to visit shops, cafe and bars, and go and see family and friends.
America's Cup racing can get under way on the Waitematā Harbour, and crowds can flock to Sky Stadium in Wellington to see the Black Caps and White Ferns play tomorrow.
If the country's Covid situation doesn't worsen, Ardern said the Super City could move to alert level 1 before next weekend.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Emergency Management Minister Kiri Allan who had an early morning text exchange after the earthquake. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Beyond the alert level decision, Ardern said she would outline what the vaccination campaign will mean for New Zealand's Covid elimination strategy.
The Ministry of Health has started vaccinating frontline workers but its own polling has shown that more than 550,000 New Zealanders are unlikely to accept the jab.
The poll, done in September and December last year found many Kiwis wanted to wait and see if others developed side effects before being convinced of the vaccine's safety.
Despite five days straight of no new community cases, Ardern said Cabinet didn't want to lift lockdown early to give the best chance for any positive tests to "manifest" themselves.
Keeping Auckland in alert level 2 for another week would allow for a full 14-day transmission cycle to ensure there weren't any cases that haven't already been ring-fenced.
Level 2 will take effect in time for church services to go ahead tomorrow, but Ardern reminded congregations to limit gatherings to fewer than 100 people and to ensure there was good contact tracing.
And after a week being accused of sending out mixed messages, the Government has taken an additional step of issuing a Health Act Section 70 order requiring contacts from the Valentine's Day outbreak to isolate and get tested.
"It does make it very crystal clear to everybody that there is a formal legal requirement for people to do this," director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said.
The order applies to everyone who was at the City Fitness gym with Case L and anyone already contacted by public health officials and told they're a close, casual plus or casual contact and must isolate.
It legally requires them get tested and stay home until they get their results.
It also means health officials can visit those people's home or place of work to ensure they are following the instructions.
Bloomfield pointed out a legal framework already underpinned what contacts of cases were required to do.
But issuing a Section 70 order made the instructions simpler and reinforced the legal requirement. Maximum penalties for not complying are six months in prison or a fine of up to $4000.
Ten test results are still outstanding for people who were at City Fitness on February 20 and 26, but eight were tested by yesterday.
Tracing services hadn't able to contact two people and ensure they'd been tested.
Bloomfield said he considered the contacts to be low risk as they were at the gym during the earlier visit but was emphatic they would be tracked down.
"They will be found. They will be isolated and tested. And they will remain isolated."
That more than 50,000 tests had been done, mostly in Auckland, gave Bloomfield confidence there had been widespread surveillance for the virus. About 6000 people connected to the outbreak had also been contacted by public health staff.
Ardern and Bloomfield said even with the benefit of hindsight they still would have put Auckland into a week of lockdown because they couldn't take any chances with the highly contagious UK variant.
A number of high-risk exposures could also have led to widespread transmission.
Ardern summed up the outbreak as "unpredictable" because there were fewer cases than expected given how easily it had transmitted between some people.
She also recognised people were getting weary of the restrictions.
"We may not be in the devastating position much of the rest of the world finds itself in but an elimination strategy can still feel like hard work and it is completely natural to feel fatigued.
"Covid is hard work for everyone. Thank you for pushing through once again."
Auckland mayor Phil Goff welcomed the move back to alert level 2 and said cooperation had helped to ensure that the initial cases detected in the community did not spread any further.
"Given this is Auckland's fourth lockdown, the vaccination of Aucklanders needs to be prioritised over areas less impacted by the virus and I will continue to advocate to the government for this."
