Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has given a very concise answer on whether the anti-mandate protesters are having any influence on his COVID-19 vaccine pass advice.
The protesters have been outside Parliament for just over three weeks now, demanding an end to all COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions by March 1.
Thousands of protesters also closed all southbound lanes on the Auckland harbour bridge on Saturday, causing traffic delays for people heading from the North Shore into the CBD.
On Tuesday, Dr Bloomfield was asked during a press conference if the protest was having any bearing on whether to lift vaccine mandates, to which he gave a very short answer: "Not much." Those two words are all he said in response before moving on to other questions.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has previously said that vaccine mandates will be lifted once it is safe to do so, not because the protesters demanded it.
"Everyone is over COVID, no one wants to live with rules and restrictions, but if we hadn't done what we did, we would have more COVID and lost people we love," she said last Monday.
"We will move to be less restrictive, but not because they demand it, [but] because it will be safe for our population to do so."
Ardern said the vaccine mandates were always designed to be temporary and were the "least bad option" to help protect the healthcare system through the peak of COVID-19.
The vaccine pass system and mandates will lift once Omicron has peaked, which she expects to be this month.
COVID-19 case numbers have been steadily increasing over the past few weeks, with many days where record-high numbers are reported.
On Tuesday, 19,566 new cases were recorded - a new daily record - and 373 people are in hospital.
