have all been negative, with the exception of the site near Jet Park, where we’re currently quarantining people who have COVID-19, and we would expect to see positive results from that.
That's a massive credit to our testing teams and our contact tracing teams, and should provide the public with confidence that our systems are well placed to assist in the future if further cases were to arise. On the basis of this hard mahi and the fact that we found no new cases beyond household members, by Friday, Cabinet was confident to move Auckland to alert level 2 and the rest of New Zealand to alert level 1 from Sunday morning. We also agreed to meet again later this week, with a view to moving Auckland back to alert level 1 on Saturday if evidence suggests that it is safe to do so. This plan is consistent with our elimination strategy.
I am pleased to report the Government is also making good progress with the roll-out of our vaccine. Border workers and their household contacts are receiving their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine: a vaccine that is now a much greater reality for many more New Zealanders with the announcement we’ve secured an additional 8.5 million doses within our portfolio. While a vaccine does signal a promising light at the end of this very long tunnel, it remains vital that everyone continues to stringently follow the public health messages, which is continuing to keep your distance from people when out and about in public. And on public transport, if you can’t maintain that distance of 2 metres, we encourage you to carry a facemask or face covering with you. If you are sick, stay at home—don’t go to work or school and don’t socialise. This protects you and it protects others. If you have symptoms of a cold or flu nature, if you’ve got aches or pains, call your doctor or Healthline and arrange to get a test. And please, to everybody, keep track of your movements at all times.
Moving down alert levels should not result in an increase in complacency. Indeed, with increased freedom comes increased responsibility—I know that our team of 5 million is up to that. We have the fourth lowest number of stay-at-home days of all OECD countries and the lowest average rating of OECD countries on the Oxford stringency index, meaning, on average, over the last year, we’ve had the fewest restrictions and the most freedoms of any country in the OECD. We all need to remain vigilant and to keep up that good work so that we can all continue to enjoy that.
SPEAKER: Before I call a member, I think there might have been a slight communications failure, but the only people who are allowed in the Speaker’s gallery are members of Parliament or those people who are in there for security purposes. There are at least three people who I can see there who are not members of Parliament or there for those purposes—could I ask you to go to the other galleries, thank you. I might have very poor eyesight, but I think there are at least two more people up there who are in neither of those categories.
CHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his statement. This was New Zealand’s first yo-yo lockdown when we went up to level 3 in Auckland, back down again, and then back up, all linked to the same cluster. So in light of that, it’s important we get to the bottom of what happened and learn those lessons. We on this side of the House have called for an inquiry, and I note the Government’s announcement of another group chaired by Sir Brian Roche to consider the events of the recent month, and we welcome that announcement.
I do have a question for the Minister, though, to start things off—I have several, but to start things off—on whether or not he can update the House on the original source of the Valentine’s Day cluster and how the investigations are going into that. In particular, is there any clarity on whether it is linked to the case at managed isolation and quarantine, at the Four Points by Sheraton, as he signalled was possible a couple of weeks ago?
