New Zealand Plunges Into Stage 3 As Cases Explode

Isolation “self-management”

Twitter

New Zealand will plunge into phase 3 of their Omicron response from 11:59pm as cases erupt.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced the move after NZ reported 6,137 new locally acquired infections on Thursday.

"I don't think the shift is going to come as a surprise to many people," Mr Hipkins said.

"Phase three won't mean any sudden lurch in terms of personal movements or restrictions."
- MP Hipkins

Stay up-to-date on the latest news with The National Briefing - keeping you in the loop with news as it hits

Complimenting New Zealand's Covid traffic light system, the Ardern government has been operating a three-phase approach to Omicron.

As Covid cases have been on the rise, stretching the public health system and sabotaging workforce stability, the country has been moving from phase 1, “stamp it out”, to phase 3.

In phase 3, isolation times remain the same, however the definitions of who is a close contact changes, while the focus shift from contact tracing and testing regimes to '“self-management”.

Highlighting that safety without major disruption, remains a major priority, Hipkins said that it will "only be confirmed cases and their household contacts who will be required to isolate."

"Our priorities now shift to isolating those with Covid-19 and their household contacts to reduce the spread, while at the same time supporting supply chains and essential services to continue to operate."
- MP Hipkins

Not dissimilar to Australia's amended quarantine rules, the NZ ministry has announced that essential healthcare workers who are household contacts must isolate for seven days but may return to work after that if they return a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) on days five and six and are asymptomatic.

With that in mind, Mr Bloomfield has urged Kiwi's to be incredibly mindful about who they visit over the coming weeks.

"As we did earlier in the pandemic, act as if you have Covid, and look to protect others around you, remembering that over a third of people if you are infected with Omicron will not have any symptoms."

The move comes as cases have rapidly increased from yesterday's number of 3297 - a first for New Zealand.

Encouraging New Zealanders to do the right thing, the Director-General said he expects that they will continue to do just that.