New Zealand’s national cabinet has announced the country will move to COVID-19 Alert Level One by midnight on 8 June, effectively removing social distancing restrictions across the country.
Alert Level One allows gatherings of any size, including business events to proceed without restrictions.
Kiwis will also be able to return to school, workplaces and travel freely throughout the country.
At this stage, international borders will remain closed and any arrivals will be quarantined for 14 days.
In an announcement on 8 June, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern thanked the New Zealand public for taking the lockdown seriously.
“We united in an unprecedented way to crush the virus,” Ardern said. “Moving to Level 1 now is the dividend for everyone’s hard work, for now.”
But, the Prime Minister stressed that New Zealanders should still be taking hygiene measures seriously, use the NZ COVID Tracer app, plus urged hospitality businesses to help with contact tracing by displaying the Ministry of Health’s QR Code.
