The country will remain at the Orange traffic light setting, with cases and hospitalisations remaining much lower than the peaks experienced earlier in the year. But with hospitals under pressure from flu and COVID the numbers starting to creep up again.
While reinfections are low at the moment they are likely to increase. The B.5 variant of Omicron is predicted to become the dominant strain in the country in the coming weeks and is a different variant to what most New Zealanders have caught previously.
Updated Reinfection Rules
People that have had previous Covid-19 infection and ar now experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, 29 days or longer following their initial infection should test. Should they test positive they will need to isolate for 7 days. This is a change from earlier advice which was that people would not need to re-test if they had tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days.
Household contacts who have had COVID-19 within 90 days won’t need to isolate, unless they are symptomatic.
Mask Wearing still in place
There have been no changes at the moment around wearing masks. There have been low levels of compliance in this area across the board and it is a timely reminder that the continued use of masks will help to protect ourselves and our employees. It is also important that anyone who is unwell stays at home.