Health Minister Chris Hipkins says today's warning to buy masks is being made as a precaution, and a tracing card being tested will cost about $1 million.
He, and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, today asked for everyone to have masks ready in updated guidance from the Ministry, and said people should prepare to wear them in case New Zealand went to alert level 2 again.
The government also unveiled details of a covid tracing card to be tested in Rotorua.
Hipkins told RNZ's Checkpoint there had been no evidence of any Covid-19 cases outside managed isolation facilities, but it would be wise to keep taking precautions.
He said the country would be put into level 2 - requiring masks around other people and other actions - if there was evidence of cases in the community.
"We want to do everything we can to avoid going to Level 3 or Level 4. I would hope that all political leaders who are being responsible ...could at least unite behind the fact that we need to be prepared for future events, and we don't know what they may be - that's the nature of something like a virus. So we have to be prepared.
"I think the responsible thing for all political leaders to encourage New Zealanders to be vigilant and to be ready."
He rejected the idea that reminding New Zealanders about the threat of the virus was an election campaign strategy for Labour.
"I don't think they need us to remind them. I think anyone who turns on the TV news at night and looks at what's happening ... Covid-19 is rampant around the rest of the world.
"We cannot take six weeks off from our efforts there ... we have to remain vigilant and remain doing our jobs around this right up until election day."
Hipkins would not say whether he agreed with the Director-General's statement that cases of Covid-19 in the community were inevitable.
"I don't have a crystal ball, what I'm saying is we're doing everything we can to stop Covid-19 from coming across the border, to continue to do testing and contact tracing within the community, so that we identify and stamp out any Covid where it may pop up in the community.
Labour Party spokesman for health Chris Hipkins. (File photo). Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
"We'll do everything we can to avoid there being further outbreaks, but we always need to be prepared. Everyone needs to be vigilant; we can't take for granted what we've done over the last six months, we've got to keep working at it."
He said the government was spending about $1 million on the covid card, which was initially tested with the Nelson Marlborough DHB. The next step was testing the tracking device with about 300 people in Rotorua.
"The Covid Card is either a card or a dongle or something that you wear on your person - so most likely you wear it around your neck - and when you come into contact with other people who are wearing one, each of your cards will record that you've been in contact with that person," he said.
"It's a good way of collecting data of who you've been in contact with, without necessarily tracking all of your movements. It means if you need to contact trace who you've been in contact with, if everyone else you've been in contact with is wearing one, then actually you've got quite a good record there."
"We're going to look at how well it works and what the potential is for us to use it if we need to in the future."
He said it was likely it would have to be widely adopted to work well, and the testers were looking at whether those trialling it would keep it on or if there was any 'nuisance' factor that could reduce its use.
"We're looking at the strengths and weaknesses before we make a decision about whether to deploy it more widely," he said.
"All of these things are tools. Our contact tracing still relies on manual contact tracing through call centres and that's always going to be the case - what the Covid Card and what the app do, is provide better data to speed up that process."
Hipkins said the Covid Card and app do not interact, and the testing group was still being chosen.
