New Zealand PM cancels own wedding after announcing stricter Covid rules

'Such is life' said NZ PM Jacinda Ardern. Sara-Jayne King interviews Australia correspondent Katie McDonald.

- New Zealand will be placed under Covid Red Alert from midnight, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced

- Ardern said she is cancelling her own wedding as a result of tightened Covid restrictions

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New Zealand will be placed on Covid 'Red Alert' from midnight on Sunday after the detection of a cluster of Omicron cases.

Making the announcement, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was cancelling her own scheduled wedding to television host Clarke Gayford in light of stricter restrictions.

My wedding will not be going ahead, but I just join many other New Zealanders who have had an experience like that as a result of the pandemic.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister

Sara-Jayne King interviews Australia correspondent Katie McDonald (scroll up to listen – skip to 9:10).

As of midnight tonight New Zealand is going into what they call 'red alert level' and they're going to impose mask rules nationwide, limit gatherings...

Katie McDonald, Australia correspondent

Relatively speaking the numbers don't look that high but they're predicting an increase... and Omicron does spread hectically.

Katie McDonald, Australia correspondent

While the Omicron variant has also taken hold in Australia, that government is actually relaxing restrictions McDonald notes.

In Australia even if you're a household contact, unless you've had four hours in the presence of someone, you don't have to isolate. In New Zealand they're upping that to two weeks' isolation... That's getting a lot of criticism.

Katie McDonald, Australia correspondent

To help address the increased infectiousness of Omicron, as an interim measure the isolation time for all COVID-19 cases is being extended to 14 days. It was previously ten days.

— Ministry of Health - Manatū Hauora (@minhealthnz) January 21, 2022

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