Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has mentioned the South Island in this morning’s Government announcement on COVID-19.

The government has announced details of its Covid-19 Protection Framework, which involves rolling out a ‘traffic-light’ system across the country to contain the spread of the virus.

“We have looked at all of the evidence, talked to experts, looked at modelling for our situation, and set a target of 90 percent fully vaccinated for each DHB in New Zealand.”

 “The reason we have focused on each DHB, is because we need every region to be highly vaccinated. And by focusing on DHBs, we also make sure we get more equitable outcomes.”

And when every DHB reaches this target that is when we will move into a new framework called the COVID-19 Protection Framework.

She said “ in thinking about these settings, and when the country moves into them, we did think specifically about the South Island.”

“We also thought about scenarios where we are close to the targets for each DHB, but possibly stuck a small way shy of where we want to be to transition.” 

 “That’s why on the 29th of November, Cabinet will review the progress that Auckland has made, and the rest of the country, to see if anything needs to change.”

 “We are open to moving the South Island before the rest of the country, if all the DHBs in the south hit their targets before others.”

“But because we won’t take this step until we are at 90 percent vaccination we will also have high levels of protection that limit COVID’s impact. In fact, we will be one of the few countries that will have such high levels of vaccination while still using public health measures to keep everyone as safe as we can, while still enjoying the things we miss and love.”