Most COVID-19 vaccine mandates will be lifted on Monday and Cabinet will also consider a shift from the most restrictive 'red' traffic light setting - and Auckland could be first.
It comes as the Government confirms that workers who lost their jobs under COVID-19 vaccine rules won't get their jobs back from April 4.
Sweet Release vegan cafe is fine with maintaining vaccine passes and scanning. Its owner Kris Bartley is keen to keep them - for now, at least.
"I'm getting married on Easter weekend so we've decided we want to keep everyone as safe as we can, at least until then," Bartley told Newshub.
After that, she'll have a hui with her staff about whether to keep the precautions.
"Throughout this whole time, no one in my team has gotten COVID so far."
In six sleeps, it's back to the new, new normal. The unvaccinated will be unrestricted with mandates mostly gone on Monday.
But still, the Parliament protesters are promising they'll be back from Friday.
"It'll be difficult to know exactly what the protest is against," COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Wednesday.
A week after announcing Kiwis don't need to be vaccine-verified anymore, the Government has finally got advice out to businesses.
"It's better sometimes to take a few days and to get it right and people can have confidence when they use the guidance," said Workplace Relations Minister Michael Wood.
ACT leader David Seymour sees it differently.
"It's absolutely critical the Government signals much earlier otherwise people are flat-footed."
Some questions have been answered.
- If you lost your job because you're unvaccinated, you're not entitled to your old job back.
- You can ask prospective employees for the vaccine status if there's a health and safety reason.
- If your business is no longer covered by a mandate, but you want your own mandate, you can do a health and safety assessment.
- When it comes to customers, the Government says businesses can still choose to be vaccine-only venues.
"Businesses that believe that's an appropriate thing to do will still be able to do that. That's a decision for them," Wood said.
Hipkins is not so certain about his own rules. On Wednesday, he couldn't say whether bars and restaurants will remain seated and separated at the 'orange' light.
"I haven't got my nice sheet in front of me," he said at his press conference. "Let me get back to you on that."
The answer: You don't have to be seated to be served at the orange level.
"It's mostly guidance at orange rather than requirements," Hipkins said.
He might want to brush up on the rules, because Cabinet is making a call on a move to orange on Monday and the door is left open for Auckland to potentially get to orange first.
"We've always said within the traffic light framework regional separation is a possibility but we haven't considered whether we'd do that in the current context," Hipkins said.
Come Monday, all traffic light considerations are on the table.
