Dated at Wellington this 5th day of October 2021.
Hon Chris Hipkins,
Minister for COVID-19 Response.
Explanatory note
This note is not part of the order, but is intended to indicate its general effect.
Permitted travel into, out of, or through alert level areas
Permissions for travel are adjusted so that a person may go from the alert level 2 area into the Waikato part of the alert level 3 area (but no longer including travelling through the Auckland part of the alert level 3 area) (and return to their home or place of residence afterwards) for the purpose of going to work (emphasis added).
A new item is added to the list of activities for which travel into, out of, or through alert level areas is permitted. The new item relates to the business or service of forestry and wood product processing for which the travel between alert level areas is reasonably necessary to enable the business or service to be provided and where the provision of the business or service cannot reasonably be delayed without substantial implications for the supply chain.
Adjustments to alert level 3 settings
Removal of physical distancing for early childhood services
Alert level 3 settings are adjusted for education entities that are early childhood services (early childhood education and care centres (excluding specified playcentres), home-based education and care services, or hospital-based education and care services). Early childhood services will continue to be allowed to have customers and clients in the workplace without the contact record rule applying, subject to the condition that they must have systems and processes in place to keep children, students, and teachers, so far as is reasonably practicable, in groups that are appropriately sized and stable. But alert level 3 settings are adjusted so that early childhood services—
are not required to comply with the 1-metre physical distancing rule or the 2-metre physical distancing rule; and
need not have systems and processes in place to maintain compliance with the 1-metre physical distancing rule or the 2-metre physical distancing rule for people who are ordinarily at the education entity for the purposes of receiving or providing, or assisting in or supporting the receipt or provision of, education services; but
must have systems and processes in place to mitigate so far as is reasonably practicable the risks that arise to the extent that compliance with the physical distancing requirements that would otherwise apply to the services is not fully maintained (for example, regular cleaning of surfaces).
Expanded outdoor recreation
Alert level 3 settings are also adjusted to permit expanded outdoor recreation and exercise of Māori customary rights to fishing and food gathering. In particular, movement can be anywhere in the alert level 3 area, and may be to undertake activities currently prohibited (for example, water-based activities, or other activities that expose the participant to danger or may require search and rescue services). But it must not involve travel to either Waiheke Island or Great Barrier Island (Aotea Island) by a person whose home or place of residence is not on that island.
Food or drink may be served at controlled gatherings
Alert level 3 settings for a controlled gathering are also adjusted so that—
no more than 10 people, excluding workers, and no more than 5 workers, may be at any one time at the gathering, whether it is for viewing a tūpāpaku or deceased person, a funeral service, a tangihanga, or a wedding or civil union service:
if the controlled gathering is indoors and food or drink is served, people who are eating or drinking must be seated.
People may leave home to attend limited outdoor gatherings
Alert level 3 settings are also adjusted to permit a person to leave their home or place of residence to attend a limited outdoor gathering. A limited outdoor gathering means a gathering that meets all of the following requirements:
the gathering occurs in any outdoor place in the alert level 3 area:
there are no more than 10 people at any one time at the gathering:
each of those people reside at 1 of a total of no more than 2 homes or places of residence within the alert level 3 area.
A limited outdoor gathering may be one at which food or drink is served or consumed, whether or not any person is seated.
Former requirements continued for Waikato part of alert level 3 area
In the Waikato part of the alert level 3 area, the adjustments for expanded outdoor recreation, food or drink being served at controlled gatherings, and limited outdoor gatherings, do not apply. Instead, the former requirements are continued.
Adjustments to alert level 2 settings
Alert level 2 settings are adjusted as follows:
the limit of 100 customers or clients at food and drink businesses and event facilities is removed (and the physical distancing requirements instead determine maximum capacity at those places):
the no-standing rule on public transport is removed.
Approval by resolution required
This order must be approved by a resolution of the House of Representatives before the expiry of the period described in section 16(2) of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. If this does not happen, the order is revoked on the expiry of that period.