Auckland is now at Alert Level 3
**UPDATED:** 1.23pm Sunday 28 February
The Prime Minister and the Director-General of Health have provided an update to media in the Beehive.
Ardern has confirmed that health authorities have found a possible person to person link for how Case M and N picked up Covid-19. This could eliminate concern that there are other chains of transmission to identify.
Ashley Bloomfield asked people to keep an eye out for atypical symptoms
"This new variant of the virus, the B117, does seem to be presenting with symptoms that are not the typical respiratory symptoms," he said.
If you have muscle aches, do consider this might be a Covid-19 symptom.
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**UPDATED:** 12.54 Sunday 28 February
Auckland is now at Alert Level 3 and the rest of the country is at Alert Level 2 until at least March 6.
Auckland Contract tracing locations of interest include:
• City Fitness (20 and 26 February)
• Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) Manukau Campus (22, 24, 25 February)
• Hunters Plaza (26 February)
• Burger King Highland Park (25 February)
• Your Health Pharmacy (23 February)
• Pak n Save Manukau (21 February)
For the latest locations of interest including times and dates please follow this link.
Here's what you need to know:
- Case M, the latest Covid-19 case, is a 21-year-old male, the older sibling of a Papatoetoe High School student.
- If you have symptoms of concern, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or call your GP.
- Find your closest Covid-19 testing location on the Healthpoint website
- Stay home, in your bubbles if you are in Auckland. Gatherings with others outside this bubble are prohibited.
- If you go outside your home maintain physical distancing of 2 metres, or 1 metre in controlled environments where you know the others present.
- Travel in and out of Auckland is for essential travel only. A border will be established around Auckland, similar to the demarcations before.
- Essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open.
- Aucklanders are asked to wear facial coverings when accessing essential services.
- Customer-facing businesses will need to move to non-contact methods of payment and collection.
- See the full list of guidelines under Alert Level 3 and Alert Level 2
- Keep up-to-date with the latest by following the Stuff live blog
Neighbourly will be updating this message as further information comes to hand.
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Poll: Do you think NZ should ban social media for youth?
The Australian Prime Minister has expressed plans to ban social media use for children.
This would make it illegal for under 16-year-olds to have accounts on platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X.
Social media platforms would be tasked with ensuring children have no access (under-age children and their parents wouldn’t be penalised for breaching the age limit)
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What's your favourite recipe for courgettes?
Kia ora neighbours. If you've got a family recipe for courgettes, we'd love to see it and maybe publish it in our magazine. Send your recipe to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, and if we use it in the mag, you will receive a free copy of our January 2025 issue.