Mask up New Zealand, because from now on, you'll be required to wear a mask at most indoor venues unless you are eating, drinking or exercising - and the way we test for COVID-19 is about to get a major shake-up too.
From February 3, masks must be worn at food and drink businesses, events, gatherings and close proximity businesses like hairdressers. There is an exception for eating, drinking and exercising.
Children will have to mask up on public transport too.
"As much as possible, in environments where you're not distancing, good practice is to wear a mask," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at her post-Cabinet press conference on Tuesday.
Workforces with mask mandates will be required to wear medical-grade masks. But for the general public, it still doesn't matter which mask you choose - a cloth, medical-grade, or N95 - as long as it's actually a mask.
"A bandana's not good enough, a scarf won't provide you protection, and a T-shirt definitely won't," Ardern said.
The founder of New Zealand N95 mask manufacturer Lanaco says the Government must update its advice.
"If everyone in the world was wearing P2 N95 masks correctly fitted, there would be no COVID in the world."
But Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says they're too pricey.
"We're not going to be recommending the use of N95s for the general public and going about your daily business, partly because they are expensive."
Our whole COVID-19 strategy needs a rethink with Omicron - testing too. The Government says surge capacity for regular PCR testing is now about 78,000 tests, but that surge can only be sustained for seven days.
Lab technician Terry Taylor says that it relies on pooling test samples.
"We most certainly cannot do that when we have a lot of the virus circulating in the community. We have to test every sample as an individual."
That's a lot of people-power.
"We're human beings like everyone else," says Taylor. "We're not robots."
Enter rapid antigen tests. Currently, only asymptomatic unvaccinated travellers can get them - they must be supervised by a trained worker at a pharmacy. But that's all about to change.
"As cases grow, we will increase the use of rapid antigen tests albeit it being a less accurate form of testing," Ardern said.
And Newshub can reveal the Ministry of Health has already told GPs, pharmacies and urgent care clinics to get their orders in, to order "5 per frontline staff member + 10 percent contingency" for staff to test themselves. This would be unsupervised, and enable the critical workforces to remain at work.
Next up, the Ministry of Health recommends ordering enough to provide supervised tests for those who cannot source or use them themselves - the elderly, people with high needs, Māori, Pacific communities and high-deprivation patients they support.
Because the testing strategy - due to be announced on Wednesday - will likely include the use of unsupervised rapid antigen tests by the public.
The Government has ordered 80 million.
But Dr Bloomfield acknowledges it's a "very, very competitive global market and we have a lot on order".
The challenge, he says, is "getting confirmation of delivery".
Here's hoping they arrive before the Omicron tidal wave.
The Government is expecting the first delivery - about 15 million of them - by the end of February. That's five weeks away and it does feel like that may be too late.
Timing is crucial when we're in a race against Omicron.
We have a very short window to get our booster shot numbers up to combat this strain, but the majority of our population isn't due a booster yet.
So, the Government's extra precautions - like monster mask mandates - are designed to buy us as much time as possible to boost.
