Currently there was a lot of pressure on school boards on whether to reintroduce masks into the classroom, with mixed reactions in some communities, Ireton said.
"I do think if MoE [Ministry of Education] had mandated it again as they had at red, it just takes the pressure off and then the masks exemptions are really easy to deal with to support parents where children don't wear masks at school and you have the majority wearing masks," she said.
If masks had been mandatory earlier in term two, schools could have fared better and not had to struggle with large numbers of student and staff absences, Ireton said.
Verrall said the government had weighed up whether moving to red would make a significant difference, but the move would only have made "an incremental benefit" as most people were being infected in their homes and workplaces.
For the energy supplement, Ireton said all schools were in the same boat of needing to provide proper heating and ventilation for their classrooms.
"We're all ventilating our classrooms as well as heating them, so we all know our energy bills are going to blow out," she said.
Operational funding grants for schools, including grants that assisted with energy costs, hadn't kept pace with inflation so schools were already on the backfoot.
While the supplementary payment would certainly help schools, it wouldn't bring funds up to where they should be currently, she said.
"But I think it will help principals continue to help support ventilation with the heat pumps, or whatever form of heating their school uses, without being as concerned about the bill."
Ireton said the new measures would definitely help teachers and school staff to some degree.
Verrall announced the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) would work with businesses to ensure they were aware of the guidelines for creating safe work environments.
This would include ensuring people did not go to work when they were unwell, encouraging mask use at work, and ensuring there was good ventilation at workplaces.
"Our message to business is simple if you want to reduce the chance of your employees and customers getting sick, follow this public health advice, you're more likely to keep your doors open during winter," Verrall said.
Whanganui Chamber of Commerce chief executive Helen Garner said she hoped Whanganui businesses were already taking Covid-19 seriously and following those guidelines.
"We're seeing the impacts on businesses with people being away, we're seeing businesses compromised, a lot of them are struggling at the moment due to illness, which is compounded by current issues around getting staff in the first place," she said.
The chamber was encouraging its members to keep their workers and customers as safe as they possibly could, not only in the workplace but in the other aspects of their lives.
"There are conversations to be had around more than mask-wearing, RAT testing, how are people looking after themselves? Are they able to look after themselves if they do get infected?"
She said conversations around ventilation were difficult to have during the wet and cold months of winter, but it was a simple thing businesses could do to keep their employees safe.
"Having the heat pump going and having the window open shouldn't be unusual practice these days," she said.
Much of what businesses could do to protect their workers was cheap and easy to do, such as wearing masks, keeping a good distance between workers, practising good hand hygiene and not pressuring workers to come into work if they're unwell, Garner said.
