The Prime Minister says New Zealand could still have to revert to alert level restrictions, a vaccine certificate was announced and Auckland prepares for an easing of some restrictions. See how the day's Covid-19 news unfolded in the RNZ liveblog.
The Prime Minister says New Zealand could still have to revert to alert level restrictions, if there's an outbreak of a Covid variant that doesn't respond to the vaccine.
At today's 1pm press conference, Jacinda Ardern said that the idea is to remove the need for disruptive, hard lockdowns with the pivot away from elimination as a strategy.
But that's in the context of a vaccine that provides a level of protection, she said.
"If we have an environment in the future where, heaven forbid, we have a form of Covid that does not respond to vaccines, then you need to revert to an alert level framework."
Under the first set of loosened restrictions, from midnight tonight Aucklanders will be able to connect with people outside their bubble - but it must be outdoors, with no more than two households and ten people mingling at a time.
Read back on today's RNZ blog: