Covid-19: Auckland hospitality sector seeks December 1 reopening for vaccinated

Auckland’s hospitality sector is urging the Government to allow it to reopen by the start of December.

The Hope For Auckland (HFA) campaign wants hospitality, hairdressing and beauty businesses to allow fully vaccinated people through their doors under the Covid-19 Protection Framework – otherwise known as the traffic light system.

Under this framework, hospitality would be allowed to reopen for vaccinated people once Auckland had reached 90 per cent of its eligible population being fully vaccinated. All three of the region's district health boards passed this threshold for first doses on Sunday.

“We’ve weathered this brutal storm for 20 months.

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“We’ve been forced to close our doors, we are paying the price and it has cost us: our livelihoods, our health – and for some of us – our businesses,” the group said.

The date would allow these businesses to start accepting bookings for December, Christmas and into 2022 “with confidence” and customers would know what to expect, HFA said.

“We need clarity that we can get back to doing what we do best, and we need hope that our businesses will survive.”

Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said an opening date was important because it brought “much-needed certainty” for businesses and “urgency to the vaccination programme”.

“Christmas trading is vital and customers need to know what will be open so they can go ahead and make Christmas bookings.

“Hospitality and other small businesses need support to get back to business and hosting Aucklanders again,” Beck said.

With Auckland at 90 per cent for first doses and vaccination passports due by the end of the month, “all roads are leading to December 1st,” she said.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff said he understood how important the pre-Christmas period was for the hospitality sector as part of its recovery from months of being unable to work.

“Aucklanders are also looking forward to enjoying the festive season in the normal way.

“I personally hope that this can and will happen,” Goff said.

While Covid-19 was still spreading throughout the community and “posed a threat”, particularly to those who are not vaccinated, the city could not “maintain lockdown indefinitely”, he said.

“Observance of tight restrictions depends on public support for them. With most people double vaccinated, the public mandate for maintaining tight restrictions won’t continue beyond early December.”