the total number of cases had reached 2,870; the total number of recoveries had reached 2,799 while the death toll had reached 26. on 17 august 2021, the ministry of health announced one new community case of covid-19 in auckland. in response, the government moved the country into alert level 4 effective 11.59pm 17 august 2021. by 19 august the number of community cases had reached 21, with most being from the delta variant. following the august 2021 outbreak in auckland, the number of both community and border cases in new zealand rose substantially, reaching a total of 14,118 cases by 31 december 2021. the total number of recoveries also reached to 12,870 while the death toll rose to 51. on 29 december 2021, british musician robert etheridge (dimension) was identified as the country's first omicron case. in early 2022, the total number of recorded cases rose exponentially; rising from 16,416 cases on 31 january to 100,821 on 28 february. in addition, the death toll reached 56 while the total number of recoveries reached 18,332 on 28 february 2022. covid-19 modelling aotearoa project leader dion o'neale attributed the sharp rise of reported cases in february 2022 to backlogs in polymerase chain reaction (pcr) testing and data processing as well as the recent introduction of rapid antigen testing (rats) for public usage. responses the queen's message to new zealanders, stating that she is confident kiwis will "rise to the challenge and overcome" the coronavirus pandemic. central government responses main article: new zealand government response to the covid-19 pandemic the new zealand government responded to the global covid-19 pandemic by establishing a national health coordination centre (nhcc). in early february 2020, the government barred entry to most travellers from china in response to the global covid-19 pandemic that originated wuhan. in addition, the government sponsored several repatriation flights for returning citizens, residents, and their family members, beginning with wuhan in february 2020. in response to rising cases from overseas travel and within the community, prime minister jacinda ardern closed the country's borders to non-citizens and non-residents on 19 march 2020. on 21 march, the government introduced a four-tier alert level system, which placed much of the country's population and economy into lockdown from 25 march. due to the success of the government's elimination strategy in reducing the spread of covid-19, lockdown restrictions on mobility, social gatherings and economic activities were progressively lifted on 28 april, 11 may, 25 may, and 8 june. the lifting of alert level 1 restrictions on 8 june eliminated social distancing and lockdown restrictions but retained border restrictions. on 13 may, the government passed the controversial covid-19 public health response act 2020 which empowered law enforcement to enter homes and other premises without a warrant in order to enforce lockdown restrictions. on 11 august 2020, the government reinstated lockdown restrictions following a second outbreak of community transmissions in auckland. due to the reduction in community transmissions, lockdown restrictions in auckland and the rest of new zealand were progressively eliminated on 30 august, 23 september, and 7 october 2020. in early november, the government required travellers entering new zealand to book a place in managed isolation prior to travelling to the country. in mid-december 2020, the government announced plans to establish travel bubbles with the cook islands and australia in 2021. following a community outbreak in south auckland's papatoetoe suburb on 14 february 2021, the government placed an alert level 3 lockdown on auckland and an alert level 2 lockdown over the rest of the country until 17 february. on 17 february, auckland's lockdown was lowered to alert level 2 while the rest of the country reverted to alert level 1. on 22 february, the government announced that auckland would revert to alert level 1 on 22 february. following new community cases that were connected to the auckland february cluster, the government placed an alert level 3 lockdown on auckland and an alert level 2 lockdown over the rest of the country commencing 28 february 2021 for the next seven days. following a new community outbreak in auckland in august 2021, the nz government reinstated alert level 4 restrictions on 17 august 2021. due to rising cases in auckland and parts of the north island, the government abandoned its elimination strategy while accelerating the country's vaccination rollout. the "alert level system" was subsequently replaced by the covid-19 protection framework ("traffic light system"), which came into force on 3 december 2021. in addition, the government launched a covid-19 vaccination pass system, which came into effect on 16 november 2021. on 23 november, the government passed the covid-19 response (vaccinations) legislation act 2021, which provided a legal framework for the "traffic light system" and vaccine mandates for certain occupations. on 17 january 2022, the government launched its vaccination rollout for children aged between five and 12 years. in late january, the government also launched a three-stage plan to combat the spread of the sars-cov-2 omicron variant based on contact tracing, testing and self-isolation. on 3 february, the government also launched a five-stage plan to reopen new zealand's borders throughout 2022. on 23 march, the government eased several "traffic light" restrictions including limits on public gatherings, vaccine pass requirements, vaccine mandates for most occupations, and nz covid tracer qr code scanning requirements. in may 2022, the government also accelerated the reopening of the border for various work, visitor and student visa classes. in mid september 2022, the government abolished the "traffic light system," ending most remaining covid-19 mask, vaccine, and close contact isolation mandates and restrictions. in mid october 2022, the government scrapped several of the covid-19 public health response act 2020's provisions including its powers to implement lockdowns, managed isolation and quarantine (miq), border closures, vaccine passes and mandates. the government however opted to retain the act's provisions for seven-day isolation periods, mask use and border entry requirements until parliament passed newer, general pandemic legislation. the government also revoked the epidemic notice, signalling a shift from emergency management to long-term management of covid-19. in addition, covid-19 response minister chris hipkins confirmed that the government would hold a royal commission of inquiry into its response to the covid-19 pandemic. genome sequencing during the further outbreak of covid-19 cases in auckland in august 2020, genome sequencing was noted as a "new tool" in the government's strategy to manage the pandemic. ashley bloomfield said "we are also doing genome sequencing on all those who have tested positive and our recent cases and current cases in managed isolation and quarantine" a phylodynamics specialist said that compared to the first outbreak when only 25 people out of approximately 1000 were sequenced, "mapping the genetic sequences of the virus from confirmed covid-19 cases in a bid to track its spread – is now an integral part of new zealand's coronavirus response. it is providing greater certainty in identifying clusters and helps focus the investigations of contact tracers." bloomfield said that sequencing will provide information about how the outbreak started and jemma geoghegan, a senior lecturer in viral evolution at the university of otago who was working on genome sequencing with the institute of environmental science and research (esr), told radio new zealand:by comparing the genomes of the new cases to those from the isolation facilities as well as the global population and the other cases in new zealand, we can begin to understand how long that chain of transmission potentially is, and likely estimate when that virus emerged and first arrived into new zealand. when an air new zealand crew member tested positive for covid-19 in november 2020, joel de ligt, a scientist at esr, said that while he was reasonably confident the sequencing had provided a good picture of what was happening across the country, there was still a slight chance that there was something in the community not identified. specific sequencing of the genomes of the air crew member would show whether it was linked to a new zealand genome, or related to information from sequencing overseas, making it "more likely that it is what we call a travel-related infection, where we might start to look more in detail at the airports, or the airlines involved with the movements of a certain person." geoghegan stressed the importance of genome sequencing in cases such as returning air crew, which was later used to demonstrate a case of in-flight transmission. local and regional governmental responses on 20 march, the auckland council closed all public libraries, swimming pools, and recreational centres, including the auckland art gallery and the new zealand maritime museum. on 21 march, several local body councils in auckland, wellington, christchurch, dunedin, lower hutt and porirua announced the closures of public facilities including swimming pools, libraries, recreation centres, community centres, art galleries, and museums. on 24 march, the auckland council announced they were closing their campgrounds and canterbury regional council announced that they would also close new zealand motor caravan association camping grounds within 48 hours. auckland council announced on 14 april that it was applying for special project funding for a number of infrastructure projects that had been suspended due to lockdown. on 15 april, several otago mayors including mayor of dunedin aaron hawkins, central otago district mayor tim cadogan, queenstown lakes district mayor jim boult, clutha district mayor bryan cadogan, waitaki district mayor gary kircher and otago regional council chair marian hobbs were donating part of their salaries to local charities to assist with coronavirus pandemic relief efforts. in addition, several dunedin city council officials including chief executive sue bidrose announced that they were taking pay cuts to help their local communities cope with the effects of covid-19. on 10 july, the auckland council announced that it was going to eliminate 500 permanent jobs as a result of the economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic. on 27 august, auckland councillor efeso collins called for the government to grant an amnesty to people who had overstayed their visas in order to encourage members of the pasifika community to come forward for covid-19 tests. the health minister chris hipkins has reassured the pasifika community that the government would not use any information collected during testing for immigration purposes. collins urged pacific community leaders, church leaders and health professionals to encourage overstayers to get tested for covid-19 without fear of repercussions. on 12 november, mayor of auckland phil goff and local health authorities have urged people in the auckland cbd area to work from home after the discovery of a community transmission case who worked at the a-z collections shop on auckland's high st in the city centre. goff also criticised the store's owner for allegedly telling the employee to come to work while she was awaiting test results for her covid-19 test. the store owner disputed goff's account, explaining that the employee had called on tuesday to say she had a sore throat and would be visiting a doctor. the following day, the shop worker issued a statement criticising health officials who interviewed her for not providing a chinese language translator, causing misinformation about her prior whereabouts, actions, and contacts. as a result of this miscommunication, her employer and their families had received abusive online messages. on 2 november 2021, far north district mayor john carter supported the government's decision to impose a level 3 lockdown in the northern part of the northland region following two undetected cases. he urged people to get tested and vaccinated. health sector responses on 19 march, the medical recruitment company medworld appealed for retired and part-time doctors to assist efforts by the health sector and government to combat the spread of covid-19. on 10 june, st john new zealand, which provides ambulance and first aid services, announced that it would be laying off staff due to a $30 million deficit caused by the covid-19 pandemic. the organisation had also tried to apply for the government's wage subsidy scheme but was told that it was not eligible for it despite a 40% drop in income. on 27 august, pasifika gp network member api talemaitoga announced that the government's testing strategy group would seek to ensure that members of the māori and pasifika communities would have fair access to testing. these measures include offering free testing, mobile testing centers and clinicians who could translate. health authorities have also sought to