Covid 19 coronavirus: Plea to Whanganui people - stay home

People are being urged to stay at home to keep the number of Covid-19 cases as low as possible in the Whanganui region.

As New Zealand enters its 11th day of lockdown, incident controller for the Whanganui District Health Board-led Emergency Operations Centre, Stuart Hylton, said people should not be travelling between districts unless they are required to as part of their role in delivering essential services.

"We want to keep the district's number of Covid-19 cases as low as possible and that's why it is important that you only go out when it's essential - for food shopping and health needs, exercise in your neighbourhood and to conduct essential work," he said.

Hylton said the community's support for the current restrictions was encouraging.

"There has also been a real community spirit and collaboration between the emergency management partners and local organisations to keep each other safe and to offer support."

Police area commander for Whanganui-Ruapehu Nigel Allan said police were working hard to support communities by encouraging and educating the public about the restrictions at every opportunity.

"At the same time we remain focused on ensuring that we continue to deliver our core policing services to a very high standard," he said.

Whanganui is being urged to stay home. Photo / Lewis Gardner

"I would absolutely expect that police are more visible in our communities and that what we are doing is delivering on our commitment to ensuring our communities are safe and feel safe."

Ken Mair said Whanganui iwi leaders were also urging people to stay at home.

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"We need to ensure that all the measures put in place to slow the spread of Covid-19 are followed," Mair said.

People should only be using their cars for essential shopping for food or medicine, or for travel to and from work if they are an essential worker. We are reiterating the message that there should be no non-essential travel in and out of Whanganui at this time.

"This will help protect our community from the spread of Covid-19.

The WDHB has seven confirmed Covid-19 cases, with only West Coast and Tairawhiti DHB's having fewer.

Whanganui District Council has restricted access to the Whanganui River Road and Kaiwhaiki Road to residents and essential and emergency services only to further protect the community.

Council chief executive Kym Fell said apart from essential and emergency services, non-residents must not use these roads under any circumstances.

"Please respect these restrictions and adhere to the Government stipulation to cease all non-essential travel. We ask you to stay home and save lives."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website