Auckland, 23 January – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed New Zealand will move to the red traffic light setting at midnight 11.59pm tonight. Nine Covid cases in Motueka are confirmed to have the Omicron variant, prompting the decision, Ardern said. They attended a wedding in Auckland along with a funeral, an amusement park and the Sky Tower on the weekend of January 15 and 16. These events had well over 100 people. Ardern said Omicron is now circulating in Auckland and possibly the Nelson area.
The Government will be taking a three-stage approach to the point where New Zealand sees 1000 cases a day, Ardern said. Stage one will be the familiar stamp it out approach, with contact tracing and testing, including rapid antigen tests. Stage two will be a transition stage. The third stage will see changes to contact tracing, and further details on the three stages will be released at a later date, Ardern said. Every region will move to the red setting and she expected the country would stay in red for some weeks.
