The South starts today back at Covid-19 Alert Level 3, accompanied by a promise from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to ‘‘very genuinely reassess’’ next Monday whether the island can drop back to Level 2. Ms Ardern, when asked if the Government had already decided the South Island would spend more than the already announced week at Level 3, denied that was the case. ‘‘We will very genuinely reassess that risk after seven days and make a decision. ‘‘We haven’t had a case in the South Island for a long time and we want to keep it that way so that’s our goal. Ms Ardern said the Government was working on securing more supplies of the vaccine to meet the demand.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 31, 2021 16:32 UTC