Weekly Digest – 9 December 2021

What You Need to Know About the Traffic Light System

The new Covid-19 Protection Framework or the traffic light system is now being implemented in New Zealand. Here’s what you need to know:

Red

Red is the most restrictive and is applied to protect vulnerable communities and the health system from unsustainable hospitalisations due to COVID-19.
Face coverings are mandatory when travelling with members of the public, in retail and to an extent in education. Public facilities and retail are open with capacity limits.
With vaccine passes, businesses and gatherings are limited to 100 people.
Without vaccine passes, hospitality must remain contactless and gatherings are limited to 25 people.
Auckland and some parts of the North Island are in the “red” zone.

Orange

Orange is intended for regions where community transmission is pressuring the health system.
With vaccine passes, there are no limits on gathering sizes.
Without vaccine passes, hospitality is still contactless while gathering size limits double to 50.

Green

Green is the least restrictive and would only be applied when there’s limited community transmission and hospitalisations are manageable.
Face coverings are only mandatory on flights and in some settings where vaccine passes are not used.
There are no limits to businesses and gatherings with vaccine passes.
Without passes, gathering sizes are limited to 100 people. Hospitality may return to in-person service, but customers must be 1-metre away from each other.

Auckland lockdown ends

The big news this week is the announcement of the Auckland lockdown ending on December 15. People will be able to travel to and from the city with a vaccine certificate or negative test result.

NZ-Cook Islands Travel Bubble to Reopen in January

Quarantine and isolation-free travel between New Zealand and the Cook Islands will resume on 14 January. The travel bubble will only be for fully vaccinated travellers who are over 12 years old. Those under 12 years old will only be allowed to visit once children aged 5 to 11 in both countries are able to be vaccinated.

Franchises Businesses See Growth

The Franchising New Zealand 2021 report shows that the annual turnover of business format franchises grew by $9.2 billion in the past four years to $36.8 billion, from $27.6 billion in 2017, excluding sales from motor vehicle and fuel retail.

Franchise employment had also risen at a rate of around 8,000 a year since 2017.

Xero Research: ICT Expenditure for Small Businesses Increased by 25%

New Xero research called ‘Picking up the pace: Trends in small business technology adoption and use’ shows ICT expenditure for New Zealand small businesses has increased by 25% compared to pre-Covid-19 levels.

This figure is higher compared to Australia with 13% and the UK with 20%.

This significantly higher expenditure was noted as the key to success for NZ, as their small businesses reported higher total sales levels. If you want to explore your options for technologies to integrate into your business, get in touch with us today!