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Covid Protection Framework

Well we finally got more information about this traffic light system and how we need to operate from Friday.  The piece that we are now missing is what level we start at from Friday.

Check out the business.govt.nz website for specific guidance on how the traffic light system will apply to your business activity.  Please note that it may not be easy if your business covers more than one activity type such as food service and close contact.

Like you, we are taking some time today to figure out what this means for our work.  Nonetheless we feel pretty comfortable implementing vaccination policies now after working many clients. 

If you haven’t already checked out our new website do it now because we have an online shop for our services and one of these is a covid vaccination policy pack to help you navigate introducing a vaccination policy.  Even if you are not going to make it mandatory, I strongly recommend you have some sort of policy to outline the expectations about vaccinations. The more certainty you can provide in these uncertain times the better everyone feels and the easier it is to respond when more changes occur.

You can check out our Covid Vaccination Navigator Package on our website here.

You may have already seen emails with the respective timeframes but as a reminder here are the key dates over the next 3-4 months

  • November 17 – My Vaccine Pass is made available to the public.
  • November 29 – Cabinet will confirm the decision to move Auckland and the rest of New Zealand into the new traffic light system.
  • December 2 – At 11:59pm, New Zealand will move to the traffic light system. Auckland will move to Red. Settings for the rest of New Zealand are yet to be decided on.
  • From December 3rd – Depending on the traffic light settings, new vaccination-status restrictions will be imposed on some sectors i.e., hospitality, beauty, and large-scale events.
  • December 15 – People travelling out of Auckland will need to be fully vaccinated, or have a negative test 72 hours prior to departure. This requirement will remain in place during the core summer period, until 17 January 2022.
  • January 17 – The end of MIQ for fully vaccinated New Zealanders travelling from Australia.
  • February 14 – Fully vaccinated New Zealanders from just about anywhere who are double vaccinated can now skip MIQ and isolate at home. The only exception is people arriving from very high-risk countries.
  • April 30 – New Zealand will open to fully vaccinated foreign nationals.

If you have been reading about the great resignation and getting worried, keep an eye out for my next article where I call BS on it.  In this article I will outline why I say BS and why some businesses are not experiencing ‘the great resignation’ like others.