Auckland restrictions will be slightly eased as the city moves to Step 2 of Alert Level 3 late Tuesday night, the Prime Minister confirmed at her post-Cabinet address on Monday.
Cabinet made an 'in-principle' decision last week to allow Auckland's retail and some public facilities to reopen, outdoor gatherings limits to rise to 25 and funeral, tangi and weddings to have 25 attendees and five staff, from 11:59pm on Tuesday this week.
Retail and some public amenities will be able to open from Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern confirmed today.
Movie theatres and gyms will remain closed, Ardern said.
She added that Auckland was on track to move to the traffic light system this month.
"Based on current projections Auckland should reach the 90 per cent double vaccinated milestone by the end of the month," Ardern said.
"Cabinet has a check-in on November the 29th and there is a strong expectation that Auckland will likely move into the Covid-19 Protection Framework following this check-in."
She added: "Auckland has worked so hard to get their vaccination rates high, they deserve to be able to move as soon as they hit those targets regardless of what's happening in the rest of the country."
The region will move into Step 2 of Alert Level 3 from 11:59pm on Tuesday.
Northern Northland, which is at Level 3, will move back down to Level 2 at 11.59pm on Thursday night. It had been at Level 3 since Wednesday after two cases were found that were not linked to other Northland cases. Five cases in Northland were reported on Monday.
Auckland has been at Step 1 of Alert Level 3 since October 5 . Auckland will move to the new traffic light system once 90 per cent of the city is fully vaccinated.
Parts of Waikato that are in Covid restrictions moved to Step 2, Level 3 last week.
There was 190 new community cases reported today.
Ardern told Q+A with Jack Tame that Aucklanders would be able to travel through summer - but was not able to provide details of the summer plan.
She said officials were now trying to figure out how to move 30,000 to 40,000 people safely through Auckland’s land border in a way that wasn’t "logistically challenging" for those travelling and for those operating it.
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