ISSUE
Friday, August 22, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 73
"Anybody who is not an essential worker but tries to go to work during the alert level four lockdown, is "literally putting people at risk", says the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is speaking this afternoon after putting the country on alert yesterday for a lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Ardern said the simplest thing New Zealanders could do to stop the spread of the virus was stay home.
"That's how we will save lives."
"Isolation and physical distancing from other people is key to our response at this level. Now of course, some New Zealanders will still be needed to operate our essential services, those who provide the necessities of life, such as our front line health workers and police being obvious examples.
"And to these people, every one of us owes a debt of gratitude, and I can tell you that we can repay that now by staying at home."
She said if you were not an essential worker, but you try to go to work, or try to carry on as usual, "you are literally putting at risk those who have to be there".
She said Parliament would sit tomorrow to put the country into a state of emergency and establish the lockdown.
She said the underlying principle of alert level four was to bring contact down between people to the bare minimum, that meant people outside the essential services needed to stay home.
The Prime Minister reiterated that people could go outside for exercise, but those people must remain two metres away from anyone they were not in isolation with.
She said while people can drive locally to places like the supermarket to get groceries, she encouraged people to stay inside as much as possible.
"Anybody who is not an essential worker but tries to go to work during the alert level four lockdown, is "literally putting people at risk", says the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is speaking this afternoon after putting the country on alert yesterday for a lockdown to combat the...
"Anybody who is not an essential worker but tries to go to work during the alert level four lockdown, is "literally putting people at risk", says the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is speaking this afternoon after putting the country on alert yesterday for a lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Ardern said the simplest thing New Zealanders could do to stop the spread of the virus was stay home.
"That's how we will save lives."
"Isolation and physical distancing from other people is key to our response at this level. Now of course, some New Zealanders will still be needed to operate our essential services, those who provide the necessities of life, such as our front line health workers and police being obvious examples.
"And to these people, every one of us owes a debt of gratitude, and I can tell you that we can repay that now by staying at home."
She said if you were not an essential worker, but you try to go to work, or try to carry on as usual, "you are literally putting at risk those who have to be there".
She said Parliament would sit tomorrow to put the country into a state of emergency and establish the lockdown.
She said the underlying principle of alert level four was to bring contact down between people to the bare minimum, that meant people outside the essential services needed to stay home.
The Prime Minister reiterated that people could go outside for exercise, but those people must remain two metres away from anyone they were not in isolation with.
She said while people can drive locally to places like the supermarket to get groceries, she encouraged people to stay inside as much as possible.
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