The Health Minister is firing a warning shot at Aucklanders considering flouting COVID-19 alert level 2.5 rules after concerns were raised about people from the super city flying to a conference in Queenstown this week.
A tech meeting called the Morgo Conference is taking place at a Queenstown hotel on Thursday and Friday with Aucklanders reportedly planning to attend.
New Zealand is currently at COVID-19 alert level 2, where gatherings are restricted to 100 people. Auckland, however, is still subject to gatherings of 10 in what has been dubbed "alert level 2.5", as cases continue to emerge from the cluster that broke out in the super city about three weeks ago.
Because of this, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says Aucklanders shouldn't be attending the Queenstown conference in question.
"No, is the simple answer to that," said Hipkins, when asked if he was comfortable with Aucklanders attending the conference.
"We're asking Aucklanders to continue to take their alert level with them, so the alert level restrictions in Auckland suggest you shouldn't be attending gatherings of more than 10 people."
Hipkins said the Government was asking for "goodwill" from Aucklanders with regard to the alert level 2.5 restrictions.
Aucklanders had played their part during the super city's alert level 3 restrictions, he said, but admitted there wasn't a "100 percent enforceable system".
"We're asking people to do the right thing," he said.
There were five new cases of COVID-19 announced on Wednesday - two of which were in managed isolation.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the three cases in the community were linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical church, which is genomically tied to the main Auckland cluster.
There are seven people in the hospital, Dr Bloomfield said, two of whom are in intensive care.
