Pursuant to clause 27 of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Levels 3 and 2) Order 2020 (“Order”), I, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General, Ministry of Health, hereby declare that the following persons are exempted from clause 8 and clause 23 of the Order:

1. Building and construction services for critical infrastructure projects.
2. Building and construction services required for immediate risks to health and safety.
3. Scientific services (including research organisation) of the following kind or provided by the following entities or facilities:
1. ESR, GNS, GeoNet, NIWA, MetService;
2. services involved in COVID-19 response, including laboratories and Physical Containment level 3 (PC3) facilities;
3. services involved in hazard monitoring and resilience;
4. services involved in diagnostics for critical businesses or services like biosecurity or public health;
5. other significant research facilities including animal facilities, clinical trials; and
6. infrastructure that requires constant attention (eg samples, collections and storage facilities) that are important to New Zealand.
4. Utilities and communications of the following kinds or provided by the following entities:
1. The production, supply, sale, distribution or disposal of electricity, gas, water, wastewater (for example, sanitation), waste (for example, rubbish collection and recycling), liquid and solid fuel, telecommunication services, and connectivity devices;
2. news (including news production) and broadcast media, including delivery of daily newspapers and non-daily newspapers for communities that are hard to reach due to physical location and with limited access to digital connectivity, or for non-English-language material audiences;
3. Internet service providers.
5. Emergency services excluding Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
6. Movement required to support and deliver robust managed isolation and quarantine services including movement between ports to managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
7. Electoral Commission.
8. Electoral candidates described in paragraph (a) or (b) of the definition of candidate in section 3(1) of the Electoral Act 1993.
9. National security agencies.

The exemptions in this notice are subject to the following conditions:

1. The exemption will begin at 1.00pm on 18 August 2020 and cease at the end of the Order.
2. Employees must travel directly to and from their place of work.
3. Employees subject to this exemption may only travel out of an alert level 3 area if the following measures are taken to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spread:
1. Record their movements, including the place of work travelled to, to support contact tracing;
2. ensure two metre distancing is maintained from other persons during work activity where practicable;
3. ensure appropriate public health and hygiene measures are taken;
4. where applicable, comply with the Health and Safety plan for the particular work activity.

Dated at Wellington this 18th day of August 2020.

Dr ASHLEY BLOOMFIELD, Director-General of Health.