Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has provided an outline of what life and business activity might look like under a move to Alert Level 3. The key principle of Alert Level 3 is to continue to restrict contact with others as much as possible, but moves from essential operations only to safe operations, including maintainting physical distancing and strict hygiene regimes.
She also emphasised that the Alert Level 3 scenario was not an indication of the decision the Government will be announcing on Monday, regarding any changes to the current alert level status. The current 4-week lockdown is due to end on Wednesday 22 April.
“Level 3 is a progression, not a rush to normality. It carrieds forward many of the restrictions in place at Level 4, including the requirement to mainly be at home in your bubble and to limit contact with others.”
The Prime Minister indicated that tertiary education will remain restricted to online learning in most cases. Exceptions are on-campus research that has to be done on site and practical hands on learning, such as trades courses, where the learning can happen in small groups with appropriate physical distancing. Courses where close contact is unavoidable will remain online.
To this end, Te Puna Ako and Te Korowai Kahurangi teams are working hard behind the scenes with our teaching and support staff to ensure that courses that can return to campus can be accommodated, and that other courses can continue to be taught online with miminal disruption to our students. Refer to this email that was sent to our teaching staff today.
We’ll be updating all staff early next week on how a move to Level 3 will impact work and study at Unitec.
Full details about activities allowed under Alert Level 3 can be found on the Goverment’s COVID-19 website.
Note for teaching staff
Please also refer to these updates and resources that were posted today:
- Updated resources for making changes to teaching, learning and assessment during COVID-19
- Moodle update: New resources and guidelines for online teaching