Kia ora John,

When you wake up tomorrow (Tuesday 28 April), New Zealand will officially be at COVID-19 Alert Level 3. 

Because of the extraordinary sacrifices New Zealanders have made to this point, we’ve managed to get on top of COVID-19, and countless lives have been saved.

We should celebrate that, but we still have a long road ahead of us. 

This is the last night of Alert Level 4 lockdown, and I know that none of us want to be back here again.

That means making careful, evidence-based decisions to avoid moving back and forth between levels. All of us need to be responsible, follow the rules, and play our part to lock in the gains we’ve made against the virus.

Other countries have seen second waves emerge, and that’s not something we should allow here, and the reason vigilance and discipline is needed now as much as ever.

In some ways, for many of us, life tomorrow won’t look too different from the last few weeks. The message remains the same: work or learn from home if you can, and if you’re not at work, school, exercising or getting essentials then please stay home.

The big difference about Alert Level 3 is that it’ll allow us to begin to restart the economy while making sure we stay on top of the virus.

This means industries like construction, manufacturing, and forestry can get moving again - as long as they ensure proper COVID-19 health and safety measures are in place. We’ll also see retail businesses operating again, as long as they ensure there will be no face-to-face customer interaction. Overall, hundreds of thousands of people will be getting back to work, even as preventing any potential spread is still a priority.

But the reason I’m emailing you today is really to ask you to stick with it. Alert Level 3 isn’t a return to normal, and I know that we’re once again asking a lot from New Zealanders. But if we’re to finish the job that we started - and we must - we need to maintain our united front against the virus.

We’ve made amazing progress over the last four weeks in the fight against COVID-19. We can’t afford to lose those gains and waste the hard work we’ve all put in.

So please, stay home, be kind, let’s finish what we started.

Thank you,

Jacinda