Mayor of Dunedin Aaron Hawkins is welcoming the city’s forthcoming move to Alert Level 3 – along with the rest of the country south of Auckland – as a positive step in the fight against COVID-19’s Delta variant.

But Mr Hawkins is also urging everyone to remain vigilant and stick to the rules when the changes come into force at 11.59pm on Tuesday, 31 August.

“This fight is not over. Delta is tough and resilient, and it only takes a small spark to trigger a fresh outbreak.

“The last thing we want is to see the city – and the rest of the country – going back into lockdown, so we need to continue to play our part and help stamp out this virus.

“I also want to thank the communities in Auckland and Northland, who will continue to carry more of the burden in order to keep us all safe.”

Under Alert Level 3, significant restrictions on day-to-day activities remain in place.

While some businesses can resume operations, many people will still be working from home and most children and young people will be learning from home. People must stay in household bubbles unless they are at work, school, accessing essential services such as buying groceries or visiting a pharmacy, or exercising.

The Dunedin City Council’s critical services – such as water, wastewater and rubbish and mixed recycling collection – will continue uninterrupted, and the collection of blue bin glass recycling will resume.

At Alert Level 3, more of our staff and contractors can get back to work, with appropriate health and safety measures in place. This means we’ll be back mowing sportsfields and other green spaces. It also means we can restart roading construction projects and carry out general maintenance work such as street sweeping, vegetation control and resealing roads.

People can also continue to visit our parks and reserves, which remain open subject to physical distancing requirements, although visitors to DCC playgrounds are still asked not to use the play equipment. DCC staff are also still processing building and resource consents.

However, DCC public facilities – including our libraries, museums and swimming pools, and sporting facilities like Forsyth Barr Stadium and the Edgar Centre – remain closed under Alert Level 3.

Visit www.dunedin.govt.nz/COVID-19 for more information.

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