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Covid-19 restrictions have relaxed across Aotearoa – except Auckland. How much longer will the city have to wait?

Experts Alex James (UC) and Shaun Hendy (UoA) say preventing major outbreaks requires a significant change in public behaviour. They recommend the use of masks on public transport and suggest that restrictions on large gatherings, particularly indoors, may need to be kept in place in the longer term to protect Aotearoa.

People queuing up to get a COVID-19 test in Auckland. Hannah Peters/Getty Images

But restrictions in Auckland will remain in place until midnight on Wednesday, and the city will then move to alert level 2 for at least another two weeks. This means Aucklanders have to continue wearing masks on public transport, but will be allowed gatherings of up to 100 people.

The decision to keep Auckland under stronger restrictions is sensible. Our modelling suggests the current cluster could have a long tail and there may still be undetected cases in the city.

A return to level 1 is premature for Auckland, but the absence of new cases over the past week suggests the cluster is well contained.

Before the entire country can return to level 1, we should consider updating alert level guidelines to keep the requirement of mask wearing and restrictions on large gatherings in place for longer.

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