New Zealand will move to level 3 of lockdown on Monday, April 27 at 11:59pm. Alert level 3 will be held for two weeks and then Cabinet will assess whether to move down another level.
The Government is funding more hotels for the homeless and has issued new guidelines ahead of the move to alert level 3, as nine new cases of coronavirus are confirmed in New Zealand. Get all the important news and read the full stories in the links below.
Key developments in NZ
• The Government is allowing people over 70 the same extra freedoms as everyone else under alert level 3, including driving to a nearby beach or swimming from the shore - even though they are at greater risk of dying from Covid-19. This is a significant change from last month, when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked only the most vulnerable people to stay at home while the country was at alert level 2. New Zealanders are anticipating greater freedoms when the lockdown eases at 11.59pm tomorrow, and new guidelines issued this morning make it clear that level 3 restrictions will be the same across all age groups. There were no new coronavirus-related deaths in New Zealand today, with nine new cases confirmed by the Ministry of Health.
• The Government will spend more than $100 million on housing the homeless in motels until it can put them up in more long-term housing. Since the country has gone into lockdown, the Government has footed the bill for more than 1100 additional motel units for the homeless. The new funding means an extra 500 motel units will be funded, taking the total to 1600.
• Kindergartens will open from Wednesday even if only one child turns up. Several of Auckland's 114 kindies have only one child confirmed to attend but will still open, and surveys also indicate that most early childhood centres will open at alert level 3 this week, despite the Early Childhood Council recommending that centres should stay closed to stop the virus spreading. However, sandpits will stay closed when most childcare centres and schools reopen, due to the practical challenges of cleaning the areas, while some childcare centres are also advising parents to stay in their cars when they drop off their children, until they can see space where they can queue two metres apart from any other families.
Many playgrounds will reopen at level 3 - but sandpits will remain shut. Photo / Mike Scott
Business update
• The Greens are calling for $1 billion to be poured into a conservation package to create "nature-based jobs" to revive the Covid-19-riddled economy. The package, unveiled today, is designed to quickly generate up to 7000 jobs - particularly in hard-hit industries such as tourism, while enhancing the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It comes as the economic impacts of Covid-19 escalate, with massive job losses in tourism-heavy areas such as Queenstown, and responds to Government calls for "shovel-ready" projects to bring the economy back to life.
• The Finance Minister has condemned the owner of a construction firm who is profiting from the wage subsidy scheme and says he has no intention of paying the money back. Grant Robertson said Black Steel owner Tony Black's actions were "out of step with most Kiwi businesses" which are abiding by the wage subsidy rules. So far, more than $10 billion from the scheme has been paid out, benefiting 1.6 million workers. The Government has a team of more than 100 auditors combing through financial returns of businesses which have taken up the scheme, looking for evidence of fraud.
Around the world
• The United Kingdom's coronavirus death toll has reached 20,319, after 813 new deaths were reported in the past 24 hours. Worldwide fatalities have surpassed 200,000, and there are more than 2.8 million cases, suggesting the UK's deaths make up about 10 per cent of the global tally. Home Secretary Priti Patel said "we are not out of danger yet", as she stressed the UK public must continue to follow social distancing rules and not leave home unnecessarily, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been given the green light by doctors to return to his role on Monday after recovering from coronavirus.
• Coronavirus cases are overwhelming hospitals, morgues and cemeteries across Brazil as Latin America's largest nation veers closer to becoming one of the world's pandemic hotspots. Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse, or already too overwhelmed to take any more patients. However, President Jair Bolsonaro has shown no sign of wavering from his insistence that Covid-19 is a relatively minor disease and that broad social-distancing measures are not needed to stop it. So far, the health ministry has confirmed nearly 60,000 Covid-19 cases and more than 4000 deaths.
• New Zealand Football is still hopeful of a decision on the 2023 Women's World Cup hosting rights in June, despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic around the globe. New Zealand's joint bid with Australia is one of four submissions angling for the event, and if successful, would be the biggest football event to come to these shores. NZ Football CEO Andrew Pragnell says delaying the decision would be "a bit unfair".
