Health chief Ashley Bloomfield is cautious about shifting down the COVID-19 traffic lights but National leader Christopher Luxon maintains the "fake" framework should be scrapped.
It comes after the Government announced changes to the current 'red' traffic light setting from this weekend, with mandatory QR code scanning and outdoor gathering limits dropped, while indoor gathering limits will be increased from 100 to 200.
While it represents an easing of the COVID-19 rules, Luxon believes the traffic light system - officially known as the COVID Protection Framework that replaced the previous alert levels - should be dropped completely.
"I just don't think the traffic light system should exist," Luxon told reporters on Thursday in Levin.
"I just think we've caught ourselves up into the logic of a traffic light system that doesn't add any value because it's really predicated on vaccine passes."
Luxon says the traffic light framework should be scrapped and replaced with rules on mask-wearing and gathering limits. He believes the traffic lights are now redundant because from April 4 vaccine passes will no longer be mandatory to enter the likes of restaurants and bars.
"Trying to put it into a fake framework that doesn't have logic is all a bit academic to me."
ACT has a similar position.
"It's time to start following the science and make the move to orange. It will make little difference to transmission but the world of difference to hospitality businesses, or better yet - scrap the traffic light system completely," ACT MP Chris Baillie, spokesperson for small business, said.
"Bar and restaurant owners are desperate for more clientele. As Hospitality New Zealand said yesterday moving the cap to 200 is a waste of time, because people still have to be seated. Why 200? It's nonsensical."
But with tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases reported each week now that Omicron is rampant in the community, Director-General of Health Dr Bloomfield is cautious about shifting down the traffic lights, let alone getting rid of them altogether.
"We're still clearly in an outbreak. We know that it is waning quite quickly in Auckland but it is still quite active in the rest of the country," Dr Bloomfield said on Thursday, when asked if it was too soon to move down the levels.
The less restrictive 'orange' level would mean no indoor gathering limits but masks would still be required in some indoor settings. There is also no 'seated and separated' rule for hospitality venues at orange like there is at red.
Dr Bloomfield says now is not the right time to shift down to orange because the Omicron outbreak has not yet peaked. Ministry of Health data shows it has peaked in Auckland but not the rest of New Zealand.
"No," he said, when asked if a move to orange could happen now. "I'm confident that when [the decision] is made - and the decision will be made based on what's happening with the outbreak - that it won't create a big jump in the increase in risk."
Cabinet will decide on April 4 if the time is right, based on the Ministry of Health's latest advice.
"All our regional hubs around the motu are going to provide input in terms of what they're seeing around care in the community, the proportion of people accessing that, what their needs are, any vulnerable groups who are particularly affected at the moment right around the country, and we'll get input from our Public Health Units as well," Dr Bloomfield said.
"We'll look at hospitalisations as well as what's happening with general practice in the community. That will inform the advice around that potential move down to orange."
The latest Ministry of Health data shows 899 people in hospital with COVID-19. Though it is worth noting that not all will be there because of virus symptoms. Last week Dr Bloomfield said of the COVID-19 hospitalisations from March 2-11 at Waikato Hospital, "only about 20 percent were there primarily to have their COVID-related symptoms treated.
Nevertheless, COVID-19 is far from over, according to Otago University Professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist.
"Remember, we've got more circulating COVID-19 in New Zealand now than ever before. We're still seeing tens of thousands of people getting infected with this virus and some of them will have really bad outcomes," he told Newshub.
"Fortunately, if you're vaccinated and boosted, you're probably going to do very well, but some people with underlying health conditions means the vaccine won't give them as much protection as we'd like."
The latest data shows 95 percent of the eligible population has had two doses of COVID-19 vaccine while 72 percent have had a third dose, considered the most important to protect against Omicron.
"We are far from being out of the worst of this COVID-19 pandemic wave. This is a really tough time for New Zealand. I think it's far too soon to be relaxing controls at the moment," Prof Baker told Newshub.
He wants to keep the traffic light framework.
"I think we definitely need a system for sending a message if the outbreak gets worse or if we get a more dangerous variant that we need greater physical distancing.
"It's only one of the tools for managing the outbreak. The others of course are vaccination, boosting, and also isolation of cases and their contacts. But physical distancing and mask use are still critical if you really want to dampen down transmission."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged how difficult the traffic light restrictions have been for the events industry.
"It's one of the reasons we've had targeted support for the events industry, because it's been so difficult for them and I totally acknowledge that," she told reporters on Thursday.
"But the call we've made on outdoor facilities is based on the science, based on the evidence. We know that obviously the natural ventilation of places like these [Eden Park] just means that the risk isn't there in the same way that an indoor event is.
"We will continue to monitor the situation and move to orange - a place where you have fewer restrictions - as soon as we can."
Ardern said it was a possibility that some regions could be in red with others in orange, depending on the pressure on the local health system.
"We've always kept open the fact that different regions may be at different levels in the traffic light system. It's all about the pressure on the health system. We want to make sure that everyone gets the care they need," Ardern said.
"So, it's less about cases and more about hospitalisations and we'll be undertaking a review in that first week of April.
"If we're hearing from primary care and our hospital network that what they're seeing is a bit more normalisation, then that'll be a big factor for us in considering what we do with those levels."
