Professor Michael Baker says now is "not ideal" timing for a loosening of Covid-19 restrictions in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.
The Otago University epidemiologist's comments come after the Government on Monday announced Auckland and the parts of Waikato at Alert Level 3 would move to step two in the current phased roadmap system, with Waikato moving at 11.59pm today (Tuesday) and Auckland a week later.
The decision came the same day as a record 162 new Covid-19 community cases were reported, with 143 on Sunday and 160 on Saturday.
The move will see an easing of restrictions to allow retail to open back up with customers and staff required to be socially distanced and wear face masks.
As well, public facilities such as museums and libraries can reopen with masks and distancing required, while outdoor gathering numbers can increase from 10 to 25.
"I'm certainly concerned about any relaxation of the controls at the moment because we're seeing cases go up, so this is not the ideal time to be relaxing controls," Baker told Breakfast on Tuesday.
"Also, we haven't seen the full effects of senior students going back to school yet."
However, Baker added that the slight easing of restrictions was manageable.
"On the other hand I think this is a relatively a minor relaxation. I think it does give Aucklanders a chance to get out and about more, I mean, that comes with risks, so I think on balance it can be manageable.
"The thing that is making a difference is rising vaccine coverage means we are starting to now see this disconnect now between numbers of cases and hospitalisations. It's not complete so this does carry risks.
"The other thing is this has to really be accompanied by a real change in how people operate in retail environments, so we need to think about ventilation, we need to make sure masks are being widely used and physical distancing.
"But this is about as relaxed as I think we're going to get in Auckland for the foreseeable future. I think we can make it work but we'll have to work very hard at it."
Baker also said, though, that the three-step system added to alert levels, then the transition to the traffic light system is confusing for people.
"I think it would be much simpler if we combined the two and kept the alert level system which I think people really understand."
Baker said the new system was different to what was advised to Government, and done with little consultation.
"A lot of this is pressure from a number of business interests," he said. "We obviously have to walk some line here because we need to keep the public engaged with this.
"I actually do think that this particular change (in restrictions) is manageable, I am much more concerned, in fact, about young school students - the five to 11-year group - going back to school if they're not vaccinated.
"I think it's really important to make sure we do get vaccination of all school students before they go back into classrooms in the future.
"So I'm trying to think about which changes are going to be less critical for limiting the transmission of this virus and what compromises we can live with most effectively."
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