The Government is removing the remaining COVID-19 restrictions, three-and-a-half years after the first was put in place.
The changes will come into effect at 12.01am tomorrow, 15 August 2023.
Since September last year, the only remaining restrictions have been for people with COVID-19 to isolate for seven days, as well as the requirement for visitors to wear face masks in certain healthcare facilities.
Public health officials have advised risk from COVID-19 is now considered low compared to other stages of the pandemic and it’s safe to remove the final requirements.
While fluctuations from week to week are expected, overall COVID-19 case rates, wastewater levels and hospitalisations have been trending downwards since the beginning of June and over the past month reported COVID-19 cases have hit their lowest levels since February 2022.
COVID-19 accounted for 2.2% of hospital admissions this morning and New Zealand has now likely passed the winter influenza peak.
While not mandated, the Ministry of Health guidance is to stay at home for five days if you have tested positive for COVID-19.
There were three new deaths with COVID-19 as either a contributing factor or the underlying cause of death reported in Northland this week.
113 COVID-19 related deaths have now been confirmed in Northland throughout the outbreak.
168 new cases were reported in Northland this week, compared to 168 new cases reported last week.
75,326 Northland cases have now recovered and there have now been a total of 75,605 Northland cases reported throughout the outbreak.
Across the country, 22 new COVID-19 related deaths were reported this week, compared to 25 reported last week.
171 cases were in hospitals around the country at the end of this week, compared to 160 reported at the end of last week.
5,372 new cases were reported across the country this week (2,736 were reinfections), compared to 4,645 reported last week.
The national seven-day rolling average of new cases reported each day was 763 at the end of this week, compared to 659 last week.