Covid-19 Daily Updates

The COVID-19 Protection Framework – The Government has announced the next stage of the COVID-19 response plan to provide a pathway out of lockdown and give vaccinated New Zealanders more freedom: see The traffic light system | Unite against COVID-19 (covid19.govt.nz). For a good graphical representation, see https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/456303/explained-what-the-traffic-light-system-is-and-how-it-works
We encourage all our members to get vaccinated in order to be able to enjoy these freedoms.

All of New Zealand will move to the traffic light settings at 11:59pm on Thursday 2 December 2021.
Auckland will move into Red. We are obtaining specific advice from the Ministry of Health and Business NZ for private music teachers working out of their own homes, regarding what is permissible under the “Red” traffic light setting and will update as soon as we obtain this.

Traffic light settings for the rest of New Zealand will be confirmed on 29 November

Auckland is currently at Alert Level 3 Step 2. See Alert Level 3 Steps 1 to 3 | Unite against COVID-19 (covid19.govt.nz)

The rest of New Zealand is at Alert Level 2. For details of what we need to do at this alert level see: Alert Level 2

Please stay up to date with latest news and advice from the government on either the Ministry of Health or Unite Against COVID-19 websites. 

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR TEACHERS: The Government has mandated the following: “Only staff and support people who are vaccinated can have contact with children and students from 1 January 2022. From 1 January 2022, schools and early learning services and providers will need to maintain a register, and ensure only vaccinated staff and support people have contact with children and students. They need to have their first dose by 15 November. This includes home-based educators, and all those support people in our schools and early learning services such as teacher-aides, administration and maintenance staff and contractors. Secondary schools and kura will also be required to keep a COVID-19 vaccination register for students. Students that do not produce evidence of vaccination will be considered unvaccinated. All school employees in Auckland and other Alert Level 3 regions will be required to return a negative COVID-19 test result before they can return to work onsite. Those who are not fully vaccinated in the period leading up to 1 January 2022 will be required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. Work is continuing on whether mandatory vaccinations will be required in the tertiary education sector.” Please see further information at: Education sector vaccinations | Unite against COVID-19 (covid19.govt.nz)

Please also see further information on this as published on 11 November at Public Health Response Order for Mandatory Vaccinations for Education – Learn Music NZ. Teachers in Auckland should in particular check the guidelines from the Ministry of Education at https://mailchi.mp/education/covid19-update-10-nov.

Teachers in Alert Level 2 must ensure that your teaching studio or business has the QR code prominently displayed (and a manual register available for those who choose to sign in manually) and that you are able enforce scanning in or manually signing in at your teaching studio or business. Specific advice received in response to a query from the Registrar to the Ministry of Health is the following: “Yes understood that wearing a mask is totally not practical when playing an instrument, in the ideal instance the Music Teacher will have a record book of who they see and when and also a QR code for the student to scan if they have a smartphone plus sanitize on arrival. The teacher will keep an ideal 2m distance where possible and pop their mask on when not using the instrument. Also the sharing of instruments is highly discouraged/ sanitize between students if it is something like a Piano. We are trusting that everyone will keep in mind the spread of COVID19 and its impact it would have so just being super cautious about sanitizing and keeping a distance where it is possible.”

If you (as a self-employed individual) or your business is experiencing financial hardship as a result of this latest lockdown, please see  https://covid19.govt.nz/business-and-money/financial-support/ for details regarding assistance that is available to you. 

Please continue to use measures such as: good hand hygiene; cough and sneeze etiquette; avoid touching your face; and clean surfaces such as door handles and phones regularly, to keep yourself and others safe. More details can be found here.

There are 5,213 active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand. There have been 182 new cases over the past 24 hours, with 31 at the border and 5,182 in the community. Active cases are now in both north and south islands. Sadly, 40 people have died. Since the first NZ COVID-19 case, there have been a total of 10,421 confirmed cases in total.