Auckland retail can reopen next Tuesday
Waikato to move to level 3 (step 2) this Tuesday (Nov 2), which means retail can open with masks and outdoor gatherings of 25 allowed; Auckland to also move level 3 (step 2), but next Tuesday Nov 9
TLDR & TLDL: Cabinet has decided to allow Auckland to reopen retail stores and allow gatherings outdoors of up to 25 people in a move to ‘step two’ of level three Covid restrictions, but not until the end of next Tuesday, November 9. That means there is no opening target date for hospitality.
PM Jacinda Ardern told the 4pm post-Cabinet news conference in the Beehive Theatrette that Waikato could move to step two of level three from Tuesday November 2 because its cases appeared contained with few unexpected new cases.
“We are going to be okay. We just need to keep going,” Ardern said.
She said the Ministry of Health had recommended today that Auckland stay at the current step one of level three for now, but had agreed to the move to step two from next Tuesday because opening retail (but not hospitality) was a relatively low risk option, along with groups of 25 outdoors.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Kākā by Bernard Hickey to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.