The government has announced that the ‘traffic light’ system has been stopped in New Zealand.
This means that mask wearing requirements, except in healthcare, will be scrapped and household contacts will no longer need to isolate.
The traffic light system officially ended on 12th September 2022 at 11.59pm.
The changes include:
- Mask-wearing only required in healthcare and aged care: including hospitals, pharmacies, primary care, aged residential and disability-related residential care
- People who test positive for Covid-19 must still isolate for seven days, but household contacts no longer required to provided they take a RAT test every day
- All government vaccine mandates to end on 26 September
- Removal of all vaccine requirements for incoming travellers and air crew
- Leave support payments to continue
- All New Zealanders over age 65, and Māori over age 50, to get automatic access to Covid-19 antiviral drugs if they test positive for Covid-19
- From Tuesday, case and hospitalisation number reporting becomes weekly, not daily
People may still be asked to wear a mask in some places but it would be at the discretion of those managing the location, not a government requirement.
Vaccination requirements would also be at the discretion of employers.
