New Zealand is seeing a drop in cases, but as Omicron takes hold in our regions, public health advice tells us now is not the time for the country to move to Orange, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed.
“It’s encouraging to see fewer cases. Yesterday was the lowest number we’ve seen since 25 February,” Chris Hipkins said.
“Four weeks ago we were averaging around 20,000 cases a day, compared to today where that average is just over 13,000. But while the drop in cases is mainly in Auckland and Wellington, other places aren’t yet in the same position.
“Hospitalisations have dropped in Auckland, but continue to plateau in regions like Canterbury, Waikato and Northland.
“As a result, the public health advice is that it is not yet the time to ease the existing restrictions and drop down to Orange. Ministers will review these settings again next week.
“We have put this check in place due to the pace at which we are seeing the COVID-19 situation changing, and acknowledging that Easter and the upcoming school holidays are an important time for businesses – particularly those in our tourist regions,” Chris Hipkins said.
As we’ve learned over the last two years, keeping ourselves and each other safe from COVID-19 continues to be a team effort.
“Nearly two weeks ago we announced changes to the COVID-19 Protection Framework to make it simpler and allow us to live more normal lives, while keeping the public health measures in place that we know work. We also announced changes to vaccine passes and mandates,” Chris Hipkins said.
“At 11:59pm tonight, Kiwis will no longer need to use My Vaccine Pass. This was an extremely useful tool while we were getting the country vaccinated and in our fight against Delta, but with around 95% of the eligible adult population at least double dosed, we no longer need this. Businesses will still be able to use the system if they choose to but from tonight, it’s not required.
“Government vaccine mandates for all sectors except health and care workers, prison staff, and border workers will be removed from tonight. They remain for health and care workers and prison staff because they come into contact with a lot of people who are at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and for our border workers because they are the first people who would likely be exposed to any new variant of concern that emerges internationally.
“Our COVID-19 response has always prioritised the health of kiwis by ensuring we’re protecting our immunocompromised and high-risk members in our communities.
“Red means wearing a face mask in most indoor settings, limiting indoor capacity to 200, and if you catch COVID-19 – or someone you live with does – isolating for 7 days.
“Next to being vaccinated and having a booster, face masks are our best defence against COVID-19. Wearing them can reduce new cases of the virus by as much as 53%. That means by putting on a face mask you are contributing to lowering our case numbers, lowering the numbers of people in hospital, and lowering the number of deaths,” Chris Hipkins said.
More Govt Disinformation …
That BMJ article that headlined the 53% figure went on to clarify …
“Up to now there have been no studies that allow the conclusion that wearing masks beyond any doubt can protect against infection or transmission of the virus (2,5,15,16,18,19). A report of the ECDC concluded there is no real evidence in favour of facemasks (9).”
They can lie faster than we can correct the story. ????????
There’s no harm in wearing one, unless you’re really weird, and there is some evidence of effectiveness in preventing transmission along either other sensible public health measures, so why not just put one on? Does they hurt your little ears or something?
Well a 30% higher chance of developing throat cancer just for a start
Anonymouse: “There’s no harm in wearing one, just put one on…”
Yeah, there’s no harm in getting on the trains, just do it. The Germans just want us all to be safe. Be reasonable ????
I’m really sorry but it isn’t clear cut to say masks don’t cause harm as there are plenty of studies that suggest they do (pre pandemic). Just google it – it’s not hard. Or does typing hurt your fingers?
Kiwis cannot afford to the real masks either. Most of the masks worn are poor quality masks, which are again over priced in NZ compared to UK and other countries. Even RAT kit is way highly priced in NZ. Millions of dollars is wasted at the end of the day.
Hipkins is drunk on power; the way he treated Charlotte Bellis and lied is just an example of his arrogance.
The more corrupt the state, the more laws.
The red light stays because the government do not want to give up control. The government say that the health system is coping and has never been overwhelmed. It should have been at green right from the start. And masks at 53% is complete misinformation. Numerous responses to the BMJ article point out massive flaws in the conclusion. The Bangladesh study suggests other than N95 masks there’s no benefit. N95 makes in general population makes virtually no difference at around 10% best case scenario – and that was pre-omicron.
Ashley salivating already for the very mild XE variant
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/new-covid-variant-could-force-tougher-rules-bloomfield
Take your rules and you know what you can do with them Ashley. We aren’t buying your scare tactics anymore. Boy who cried wolf and all that. Us ‘little people’ have had an absolute GUTSFUL of the lies and BS.
Honestly mate, I know someone who went to school with you Ashley and they looked up to you as you were head boy. What a MISTAKE that was. What happened to you Ashley? Where did that person go? I am afraid the time of redeeming yourself has long since passed. How sad for you.
Traffic light status was supposed to be regional, they say one thing and do another like they have done from the start, liers goota lie.
“So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over–a weary, battered old brontosaurus–and became extinct.”…..Malcolm Muggeridge.
More lies
Who knows what the ‘settings’ are any more? I gave up listening a long time ago. I have more important things to focus on quite frankly.
People need to stop listening to the media and those ridiculous ‘podium’ of lies. How anyone can be any of it anymore is beyond me as there is no science being following and everything is contradicted and without sense or reason.
Turn it all off.
‘Believe any of it’ and ‘being followed’ (sorry need to check before posting!)
You lost me at “Chris Hipkins says”
????????????
Of course he wants to stay at red!! That’s the colour of his beloved communist party!Just ignore the little d.ck. Pink, orange, purple ,yellow ,green, blue just ignore them all. Put up your boundaries people, no longer can we accept their narrative in light of the facts, their refusal to quickly remove a lethal injection from our nation shows that they have and have always had a sinister agenda. They have proven they will do nothing so it is up to us. A government that is kind would have pulled the pin on this sh.t ages ago. Face it nz they have never cared about us, and if you think they are evil now… just wait!!!
Tell the truth hipkins! You don’t give a rats a.se about the tourism industry or any other business for that matter!!! For your new world order to take place, and for your NEW economy to be implemented you must first crash the old one. Small business does not register on the radar of wef plan of great reset. Your arrogance in thinking we don’t know what you are up to is laughable. This government’s ridiculous attempts to hide the truth from us who are awake is futile. Just stop talking for f… sake. So we will tell the businesses and tell the tourist industry that the government wants you gone for good, that they pretended to support you but the truth is that you do not have a part to play in their global plan. So yeah RED is the colour for the day cause they need a bit longer to cripple you. NEC minute more lockdowns just in case there’s still a heartbeat in your industry. The government will be sorry, of course.
Well said.
People need to realise the government is DELIBERATELY ruining our economy, they have NO intention of paying any of the money back. They have printed money to bribe people and now we are paying the price with inflation. Start getting really angry folks. They screwed us and they did it on purpose. They don’t care about small business. They want our country to be run by big businesse. “stakeholder capitalism” is what the World Economic Forum calls it. Who benefited the most during the lockdowns? Not your local butcher that for sure.
They want to make us even more enslaved than we already are. They don’t care about you, they don’t care about me, they don’t care about our kids, they don’t care about elderly. We have all been deceived and I am DAMN ANGRY ABOUT IT. They only care about themselves and how they can control and dictate to people while receiving vast sums of money in return for selling out their FELLOW CITIZENS ????????????????????. They are supposed to work for US not the World Economic Forum, the WHO or the UN.
I hear Dr Robert Malone is getting together with some tech savvy people in Sweden and they are releasing a full list of all WEF puppets throughout the world. (so far 4000 and counting) The list will be on a secure website that will not be able to be taken down. We will soon know who else in New Zealand (besides Simon Bridges and Jacinda Ardern) is bought and paid for by the WEF.
Now did you see that? Simon Bridges. Yes that’s right the old WEF had their bases covered didn’t they? So you see there is no left and right. They are ALL singing from the same song sheet.
They will tax and rate us out of our houses that many of us have worked so hard for and there will be NO future for our kids. ????????????????????
Some of my family members were tricked into taking that jab and by GOD if any of them are harmed in any way by it then HEAVEN please help me. ????????????????????
We need to save our country from these treasonous leeches and install a whole new system with GOOD HONEST ACCOUNTABLE PEOPLE.
Get educating your fellow citizens if you haven’t already.
We have a crisis alright. A crisis of morals and integrity among the people in our parliament.
And the cretins still wear their masks like good little sheep! The economy has been destroyed, small business destroyed, a massive mental health crisis is here along with a MASSIVE national debt and this little commie wants to maintain the lie.
Are they commies? Or are they REALLY just like that other famous national socialist party…..you know the one. They liked red too.
Funny how some people think that party was ‘alt right’ or extreme right though eh. That’s because that’s what our media keeps calling them to fool everyone.
Maybe it’s a case of socialist, communist and fascist all mixed up into one nasty mix.
There is still some hope. Viktor Orban won a stunning landslide victory in Hungary. The EU/US put up an oppostion that included all contrasts as you said “socialist, communist and fascist all mixed up into one nasty mix and promoted a puppet Peter Marki-Zay. All the globalist and MSM promoted the opposition but failed to convince the hungarian public who clearly spotted the wokes and fakes.
Viktor Orban declared victory over 6 foes in his speech:
1) The “left” at home
2) The “international left” abroad
3) The Brussels bureaucrats
4) George Soros
5) The international media
6) Volodymyr Zelensky
https://rumble.com/vzmmoz-viktor-orban-declared-victory-over-6-foes-in-his-speech.html
Never heard such B.S in my life
What part is BS? The WEF and it’s plans for the world? If that’s the case then you start looking it up it’s all there online. The WEF has a website. Their founder had written books. Have a look at all that (like we have)and decide if you want that future for yourself and your kids. While you are at it look at Yuval Noah Harari and listen carefully to what he says because he is one of their advisers. It’s disturbing.
Our Prime Minsiter is one of their ‘young global leaders’. She is following their doctrine. Did you vote for that? I know I didn’t.
You can either stay in peace with your head in the sand or catch up with the rest of us who know what is really going on and join us in working out how we can push back against their plans for us. The sooner you come to terms with this the better. Knowledge is power.
If I have the wrong end of the stick I apologise. But if not then please get out of your comfort chair and start informing yourself.
This is an interesting article: (link looks odd but is safe)
https://duepublico2.uni-due.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/duepublico_derivate_00073283/Hiepel_European_Management_Forum.pdf
It came from this information:
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/03/investigative-reports/dr-klaus-schwab-or-how-the-cfr-taught-me-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb/
I dismiss everything that comes out of Hipkins’ smug little private school face. Like his boss, Mr. Ed’s daughter, they don’t even have the base level politician skills of trying to affect an attitude or demeanour of concern for the nation they claim to govern.
Doomfield is going, going, gone
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/health-boss-ashley-bloomfield-stepping-down
We are likely to get a replacement, possibly an overseas “health expert” with “WHO” experience after a temporary local puppet; thats my bet.
“As we’ve learned over the last two years, keeping ourselves and each other safe from COVID-19 continues to be a team effort.”
We’re forever having to be protected from ourselves on our own taxpaid dollar. Hipkins, you and your fellow travelers are parasites. The time is coming when you’ll have to let this circle of fear racket go. A pretend government can’t trade its way to an election on how its kept voters contained. The health elite are barreling out together. What does that say? Maybe we’ll just leave it to the next poll.