There are nine new coronavirus cases in New Zealand and one additional death. The death brings the total toll to 12 and is of a man in Invercargill who died at home and who was linked to the Bluff wedding cluster.
An Auckland mum has urged calm and deep breaths over the furore online about whether children should be going back to school so quickly during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced yesterday schools and early childhood centres would reopen when the country exits its hardline alert level 4 lockdown next Tuesday and enters alert level 3.
Auckland mum Linda Stewart, with 6-year-old daughter Eliana, has called for calm during the return to school debate after nasty comments online. Photo / Dean Purcell
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However, Ardern urged parents to keep their children at home, saying education facilities were only open to kids who had no one available to care for them during the day.
Most schools said they would meet the Government's timetable to reopen.
But the Early Childhood Council - whose 1300 childcare services have about 65,000 of the 200,000 children enrolled in early childhood education - still recommended its centres to stay closed because of the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Facebook subsequently lit up with ugly back and forth comments, alternately accusing teachers of being scared to do their jobs and parents of unnecessarily putting educators at risk by sending their kids out of their bubbles.
Onehunga mum Linda Stewart decided to wade into the mess by posting a positive message on Facebook in support of both teachers and parents in the hope of spreading calm.
"Both parents and teachers have been copping some pretty unfair comments," she told the Herald.
"They are being said out of anger from people being scared, and I just wanted to try and counteract it and try and bring parents and teachers together."
Many families were doing it tough, but that wasn't a reason to attack teachers, she said.
She hoped everyone would take a moment to put themselves in each other's shoes.
"People are scared, they are afraid for their families and I really wanted to put a positive voice in there and let teachers know that as parents we do support them now the decision has been made for schools to reopen," she said.
"It was really the only thing I could think of that we could do to help just to encourage people to keep their children at home if they can.
"And at the same time I wanted to send a message out to parents that we understand that not everyone is in a position to make those choices."
Stewart also said parents should not be too hard on themselves about the need for children to get a top class academic education during these difficult few weeks.
"Children learn as they go about their daily lives," she said.
This was a time they could also look beyond their books, she said. The current situation could open their young eyes to valuable lessons about the importance of family, community and pulling together.
