Venkat Raman
February 21, 2022
New Zealand will move to Orange Setting under its Traffic Lights System of the Covid Protection Network as the number of Omicron cases rise and reach its peak, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated.
She expects the Omicron variant to peak over the next three to six weeks, doubling every three or four days, with a large number of people contracting the virus.
Speaking at a media conference after her weekly Cabinet meeting this afternoon, Ms Ardern said that with a high rate of vaccination including booster shots, there is resilience.
“Omicron will be a mild to moderate illness, and boosters make hospitalisation ten times less likely. Public health measures like masks, gathering limits and vaccine passes are helping slow down the spread to ensure everyone who needs a hospital bed can get it,” she said.
According to Ms Ardern, the government’s plan has been working.
The rise and fall of Omicron
“We have 46 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 367 in New South Wales and 664 in Victoria at the same point in the outbreak. Our hospitalisations too are well below Australian states at a similar time. Cases are likely to peak in mid-to-late March, some three to six weeks away. At that point a rapid decline, followed by cases stabilising at a lower level is likely,” she said.
She said that the Traffic Lights System may change at this point and that public health measures can begin to ease. Vaccine passes have been necessary as the “least bad option” but they have always been temporary.
“After we come through a wave and a peak of Omicron, many unvaccinated people would have been exposed to Covid-19. This will allow the government to ease mandates in places where they are less likely to impact vulnerable people.
“They will remain important in some areas though, for some time, she said.
Ms Ardern said that mandates are likely to remain in some areas, particularly among the sections of the healthcare workforce, although the requirements will also be eased.
No set datelines
While it is difficult to set a time frame, the government must ensure that all New Zealanders are well beyond the peak and that the pressure on the health system is manageable.
The reason not to do away with the Traffic Light System entirely is to prepare the country for new variants and potential future waves, and the ensuing Winter.
Message to Protestors
In a message which she labelled as ‘Final,’ to the Protestors, Ms Ardern said that everyone is over Covid and that no one wants to live with rules or restrictions.
She said that if New Zealanders had not been working together to protect each other, we would have been worse off as individuals, including the people we love.
“That has not happened in New Zealand for the most part and that is a fact worth celebrating. We all want to go back to the way life was, and we will, I suspect sooner than you think. But when that happens it will be because easing restrictions will not compromise the life of thousands of people – not because you demand it. This is not the time to dismantle our hard work and preparation, to remove our armour just as the battle begins,” she said.
Confidence in the Police Commissioner
Ms Ardern said that she had ‘full confidence’ in Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.
“He has his Police do an ‘enormous job’ every day including on the forecourt of Parliament. The protesters have been engaging in illegal activity that borders on bullying and harassment of Wellingtonians. I find the calls of the Opposition to lower restrictions quite upsetting that seem to be responding and sympathising with the protesters,” she said.
Ms Ardern said that there will be no engagement with the protesters and that although ACT Leader David Seymour spoke to some of their representatives last week, all political parties have since signed a letter from the Speaker saying that there would be no dialogue from politicians until disruptive and threatening behaviour is brought to an end.
