The government’s traffic light system was put to bed at midnight, and the Covid-19 surges experienced in Central have eased.

Prime minister Jacinda Arden announced changes yesterday (Monday September 12), including removing mask requirements (except for in certain health care facilities), an end to isolation for household contacts (individuals with Covid-19 must still isolate for seven days) and an end to vaccination requirements for travellers coming to New Zealand.

All government vaccination mandates will end on September 26, although some employers may still insist on vaccination for employees. 

For local hospitality and retail businesses this is a welcome relief. Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White said operators had been hanging out for this news for a long time.

“This will make a difference to all businesses big and small, as it will hopefully give people the confidence they have been waiting for to socialise in venues, cafes and restaurants.”

An Alexandra business owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was thrilled for his team to be able to ditch masks, as body language and smiles could become commonplace again when greeting clients.

Nationally the numbers have eased; the seven day rolling average of new community cases of Covid-19 and the seven day rolling average of hospitalisations are dropping, and Central case numbers are also at record lows.

The 981 cases reported on September 11 was the first time case numbers dropped below 1,000 since February in New Zealand. The last time our numbers were that low was February 15 (when 744 new cases were reported).

The Ministry of Health reported seven people were in hospital in the Southern district and in total 225 people were in hospital with Covid-19 in Aotearoa (on September 12).

In Southern there were 502 active Covid-19 cases, and 49 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.

Te Whatu Ora Southern no longer reports weekly case numbers (these press releases ceased on August 23), but when a case map was last published on social media (on September 7) there were 55 active cases in Central. 

Read more about the next phase of New Zealand’s Covid-19 response here.