The government is scrapping all remaining Covid-19 restrictions, including masks in hospitals.
Most government measures to curb the spread of the virus have already been removed. Still, in a statement, Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said the remaining requirements would no longer be in place from midnight on Monday night.
The remaining rules include mandatory seven-day isolation and wearing a mask if visiting a healthcare or aged care facility.
Verrall said the Ministry of Health's guidance was for people to continue to stay at home if unwell or testing positive for Covid-19, but it was reduced to five days - not seven - and no longer a legal requirement.
Mask-wearing was also still a meaningful way to help prevent the spread of illness in disability and aged care settings, she said. Rapid Antigen tests would also still be available for free.
"While our case numbers will continue to fluctuate, we have not seen the dramatic peaks that characterised Covid-19 rates last year," she said.
"This, paired with the population's immunity levels, means Cabinet and I are advised we're positioned to safely remove the remaining COVID-19 requirements."
She said Covid-19 accounted for 2.2 percent of hospital admissions this morning, and New Zealand was likely past the winter influenza peak.
"It has been a long road; however, thanks to lots of hard work, New Zealand's Covid-19 approach has moved from an emergency response to sustainable long-term management."
Speaking at this week's post-Cabinet meeting media briefing, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the significant milestone that New Zealand is recording today, the formal end of what was a uniquely challenging time for the country and, of course, for the world.
"About three and a half years ago, on the 25th of March 2020, we moved to Covid-19 alert level four, and the entire nation went into self-isolation as a state of national emergency was declared. It was an incredibly fearful time for us and the world, and no one at that time could foresee how things would turn out. However, the speed with which things moved, the unity of the Kiwi response and the sacrifices that were all commonplace all contributed to the many thousands of lives saved.
"2035 people have died in New Zealand with Covid-19 as the main underlying cause, and the virus contributed to the deaths of 1214 people. That starkly reinforces the deadly nature of Covid-19 - all of those people were loved - but if New Zealand had a similar rate of Covid-19 mortality as the United States, we would be reporting around 15,000 deaths from Covid."
He said the government also worked hard to safeguard people's incomes, futures, and economy.
"Despite these successes and saving lives and livelihoods, there is absolutely no sugar-coating just how difficult Covid-19 has been for New Zealand and New Zealand families.”
He continued that closing the border, lockdowns, and the travel bubble with Australia were all things that had an impact on people's lives and livelihoods and people's well-being.
"Auckland, in particular, did the heavy lifting for the rest of the country, going through extended lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus ... and then, of course, there was MIQ. By February last year, almost 230,000 travellers - more than the population of Wellington - had gone through our managed isolation facilities. It was incredibly tough for families and those working at those facilities, but it kept Covid-19 out of our community or at low levels, and it crucially gave New Zealanders time to get vaccinated.
"We undertook the fastest and most effective vaccine campaign in New Zealand's history ... the response ultimately delivered what was needed under incredible pressure. It meant we could step down carefully from pandemic response to business as usual and ultimately reach the point we're now at today.
“Nothing would have been possible without the dedication and selflessness of the many thousands of people who mobilised with their efforts and expertise."
He said the restrictions were being removed because the public health risk was now considered low compared to other pandemic stages.
"I do want to say there were times during the peak of our Covid response when I longed for this particular day. The weight of the enormous decisions that we took sat heavily. I have to confess, as I'm announcing this today, it seems a bit of an anticlimax."
He acknowledged the vaccine mandates created "more of a wedge in the community than I think any of us would like to have seen". He was very hard for some families - but it also supported New Zealand's high vaccination rate, which was one of the main reasons for the country's success in mortality rates.
On MIQ, he said he looked at multiple variations, the fundamental there was that New Zealand had over a million people trying to get into the country and that there were only ever going to be able to accommodate four or five thousand at a time. It would always be a collision course that would be challenging.
Hipkins thanked those others who helped front the Covid-19 response, most of whom have since moved on to other roles, and thanked all New Zealanders for their efforts.
He rejected the suggestion the announcement was related to the coming election.
"We're not still in the middle of winter; we've only got a few weeks to go before spring."
Hipkins said there were few changes he would make to the pandemic response, with many of those decisions hinging on the information the government had at the time. He said the one exception would be doing more to ease the pressure on Aucklanders during the final lockdown, which went on for a long time.
"The government now awaited the outcome of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the lessons learned."
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