Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at parliament on April 2 (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at parliament on April 2 (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

BusinessApril 2, 2020

Covid-19 live updates, April 2: PM says Bauer should have taken up subsidy; GPs worry about testing criteria

Staff writers
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at parliament on April 2 (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at parliament on April 2 (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.

The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here.

6.55pm: The day in sum

  • Director-general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, announced 89 new cases of Covid-19.
  • Bauer Media NZ announced it was closing in response to the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The prime minister said the German-owned company should have signed up for the wage subsidy scheme and remained open.
  • Police commissioner Mike Bush faced questions around the recent returnees from overseas, saying he believed police were texting recent arrivals, who had to give consent to be monitored via location services on their phones.
  • Prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced a leave scheme for essential workers and an exit plan for foreign nationals.
  • Concerns were raised around the safety of video conferencing platform Zoom, which the government has used for cabinet meetings.
  • DHBs and doctors worried about the widening of testing criteria resulting in testing centres being overwhelmed.
  • Wimbledon was cancelled for the first time since World War II.

6.30pm: On The Spinoff today

Heaps of cracking coronavirus-related content, including:

6.10pm: HRC says rights of those being held in quarantine must be respected

The Human Rights Commission has called on the government to respect the rights of those being detained by authorities in its response to Covid-19, including those being quarantined.

“The government has obligations to limit the spread of Covid-19, but restrictions placed on people in detention must be necessary, proportionate and respectful of human dignity,” said chief human rights commissioner Paul Hunt in a media release.

“People being held under the Health Act for quarantine or quarantine-related purposes must be able to communicate with their friends and family. They must also have access to independent medical and legal advice, and other basic needs,” said Hunt. 

Meanwhile, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner is adapting how it monitors the welfare of children and young people in the care of Oranga Tamariki in response to the Covid-19 restrictions. In a media release, children’s commissioner Andrew Becroft said “secure online communication tools like video conferencing” were being used. “These residences present particular challenges in this environment, given children and young people are in close proximity with each other and with adult staff members who have regular contact with the outside world,” said Becroft.

“We’re working with Oranga Tamariki to engage with children and young people who are currently living in these residences as soon as we can, using technology in whatever flexible ways work best for them. We want to find out what forms of virtual monitoring work best from the perspective of children and young people and will learn from their feedback and advice to refine our approach over the coming weeks.”

5.30pm: GPs say assessment centres at risk of being overwhelmed

Royal New Zealand College of Practitioners medical director Bryan Betty has told RNZ the new case definition for Covid-19 puts assessment centres at risk of being overwhelmed. As reported in The Spinoff’s daily updates yesterday, the testing criteria was widened to remove any requirement for a link to overseas or a known case. Betty said he supports wider testing but believes the Ministry of Health should refine the case definition, as many people now believed they had a right to be tested.

Meanwhile, RNZ also reports that health staff and other essential workers say they are increasingly being spat at by angry members of the public while trying to work during the lockdown. Nurses Organisation kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said the union was getting more reports of nurses being spat at by people trying to infect them – or at least frighten them. “This really shows the need for nurses to have enough PPE [personal protective equipment] on hand at all times,” she told RNZ.

5.15pm Suva in lockdown from tomorrow; world soon to have 1 million Covid-19 cases

RNZ journalist Jamie Tahana has tweeted that Fiji capital Suva will be in lockdown from tomorrow after two cases of Covid-19 were confirmed.

Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed deep concern over the rapid escalation in Covid-19 cases around the world, adding that in the next few days, one million cases and 50,000 deaths will be reached.

4.55pm: Funding for GPs, pharmacies announced

The government this afternoon announced a $30 million funding package to support GPs and pharmacies. “We heard sector concerns that they needed support to work differently and sustainably at this very testing time,” said health minister David Clark in a media release. “This support package goes some way towards the immediate needs, but we know there’ll be more to be done.”

The funding consists of $15 million to support general practices “with workload from testing patients and the costs incurred moving to virtual consultations”, and $15 million for community pharmacies, also to recognise workload and the move towards a virtual working environment.

There will be an additional payment to district health boards to to support the running costs of community-based assessment centres (CBACs), and funding will be available to general practices that are part of the CBACs network, said the release.

The announcement came as the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners said GPs were at breaking point, with a survey indicating many had lost their jobs, were struggling to keep businesses afloat, or didn’t know how they could continue under current conditions.

3.30pm: Ardern ‘gutted’ by Bauer Media closure; says company refused to take up wage subsidy scheme

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she’s “extraordinarily disappointed and frankly gutted” to see the closure of Bauer Media, whose titles she described as “a part of New Zealand history”.

“What I want to make really clear is the government sought to assist Bauer – Minister Kris Faafoi spoke to them and asked if they would take up the wage subsidy; they refused.

“This appears to have been a decision made at the same time as Covid-19, not because of it… The wage subsidy could have made a difference to those writers, to those journalists, and we were very keen that Bauer take it up.

“We would have liked Bauer to keep their doors open, keep operating, keep an online offering and move through the other side of Covid-19 once we’re all able to.”

In response to a question from a reporter, she continued, “No one wanted to see the loss of these magazines – these have all been a part of New Zealand history, they’ve been part of people’s lives. 

“Within a couple of days of the New Zealand government announcing the lockdown, Bauer contacted the minister and told him they weren’t interested in subsidies. They didn’t enter a conversation about becoming an essential service, they didn’t seek to continue to operate in lockdown and they didn’t want to use the government support to keep their doors open, so I reject any suggestion that Covid-19 and our response to it has caused them to shut their printing press but I deeply regret that they have. In my view, they should have taken it up and they should have kept going.”

Meanwhile, on safety concerns around the use of the video conferencing platform Zoom (see 8.30am update), Ardern said she would check in with the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). “If the GCSB tells us not to use Zoom, we won’t use Zoom.” She added that cabinet had been cautious around what they’d been discussing in Zoom meetings. 

3.15pm: Essential worker leave scheme announced; new exit plan for foreign nationals

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a new leave scheme for essential workers. At her daily media update, Ardern said the scheme was for essential workers who were “experiencing significant loss of business and similar hardship”. 

“There are people working iin our essential services who are more vulnerable to Covid-19, such as over-70s or those with compromised immunity ,or workers who have vulnerable people at home.

“We need to ensure they have the ability to take leave and are not feeling pressure to come to work if they’re vulnerable, sick or otherwise unable to work.”

The scheme will allows businesses to pay workers who need to take leave at same rate as the wage subsidy scheme: $585.80 per week for full-time and $350 for part-time workers. Ardern said the same conditions as relate to the wage subsidy scheme would apply – the employer should pay the employee’s usual income if it is less than the relevant subsidy, and if the usual wage is more than the subsidy, the employer should attempt to pay at least 80% of that wage. It will come into effect from Monday next week.

Ardern also said that the government had drawn up a “managed exit plan” for foreign nationals to leave New Zealand that would allow them to travel domestically whether by air or land when they have a confirmed or scheduled international flight out of New Zealand. Governments could arrange charter flights to repatriate their citizens as long as they met New Zealand health requirements, she said.

3.00pm: Government launches WhatsApp channel for public

The government has launched a WhatsApp channel “to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against Covid-19”. Accessible via covid19.govt.nz/whatsapp, it will “carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government”, including the latest case information, Covid-19 symptoms, and financial support available.

2.30pm: PM to announce leave scheme for essential workers

Jacinda Ardern is expected to announce a leave scheme for essential workers at her 3pm media update, reports Stuff’s Henry Cooke. “This will be to cover a gap that’s existed for essential workers who are in the high-risk groups and so should stay home,” he writes. “The government has been talking about working out this problem for a few days now.” We’ll bring you all the details as we get them.

1.40pm: Bloomfield on lifting lockdown

Pressed on when we might see the peak number of cases, Bloomfield said: “The more data points we get in terms of the number of cases, especially as our testing increases, the more confident we’ll be in being able to say when the peak might be, but there will always be uncertainty around it. From the start we’ve said it would be at least seven to 10 days after the alert level four came in before we might see a turnaround.”

Alert level four came into action as of the end of Wednesday last week. “We’ve just seen today our biggest number of daily cases so we’re clearly not there yet,” he said.

Could we expect, therefore, an update in a few days on the chances of, or criteria for, lifting the lockdown at the end of the four weeks planned?

“That’s a piece of work that’s happening right across government,” said Bloomfield. “And it may be that Saturday we can update you. In fact I’m going next to a meeting to discuss the first bit of work being done on what are the criteria and how might we know what we should be looking for coming out of our scenario forecasting to help us determine when we might be able to come out of alert level four.”

He added: “Our goal is to get the number of cases right down again. As soon as we can we will want to be able to step down from alert level four to alert level three. It may well be we will not be able to do that in every part of the country at the same time.”

1.20pm: Police monitoring of overseas arrivals

Outgoing police commissioner Mike Bush has also been speaking to media today, about the monitoring system being used by police to keep track of recent arrivals to the country.

Bush said while he didn’t “have a deep understanding of technology”, he believed people were being texted by police, who were asking for consent for monitoring via location services. “They must accept it.”

He added, “We’re working it through with the privacy commissioner as we speak.”

If consent wasn’t granted, they could check on people via phone calls or random visits, all of which police were “ramping up”.

Asked if people who turned on the location services were monitored at all times or needed to text information, Bush said: “That’s a very good question. It would be dangerous for me to answer it in certainty.”

Bush said more police staff had been deployed to the far north in response to Dr Lance O’Sullivan’s report from Kaitāia to “engage, educate and encourage people to do the right thing”.

Regarding crime, he said there had been a significant drop-off in quite a few areas, and there hadn’t been a significant increase in family harm through official reports. “But I am aware through those working on the ground, NGOs in areas like Counties Manukau, that there has been an increase in family violence – it’s an absolute priority for us to attend and respond to these incidents.”

Bush also said there had not been any evidence of opportunistic crime taking place over the period of the lockdown.

He said there had now been a total of “four, possibly five arrests” relating to the lockdown. Most received a warning, but those being prosecuted were being sought on other matters.

1.00pm: 89 new cases, more work needed to determine community transmission

There are 76 new confirmed cases and 13 new probable cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, said Dr Ashley Bloomfield at today’s government update. Ninety-two patients have recovered. Today marks the biggest single increase in new daily cases.

There are 13 people in hospital with Covid-19, including two in ICU. All patients are stable.

Bloomfield said the Ministry of Health is still seeing a strong link to overseas travel, at 51% of cases, as well as links to confirmed cases within New Zealand at 31%. “At the moment, we only categorising a 1% as community transmission, but I do want to point out that a further 17% of cases are still being investigated and we fully expect that many of those will transpire to be community transmission.

“Community transmission is essentially categorisation by exclusion, so we have to exclude any tie to international travel or to an existing probable or confirmed case.”

Over the last seven days, there has been an average of 1835 tests per day.

Bloomfield said he was unable to provide even a ballpark figure on the number of Māori people that had been tested. He said officials were working to confirm the accurate collection of ethnicity data.

He said they were collecting detailed lab testing information from the most affected DHB areas, information which may help decide on future adjustments to the alert level. The implication here is that some parts of the country will exit the lockdown before others.

The current DHBs with the most cases are Southern (particularly around the Queenstown area), Waikato, Auckland and Waitematā, said Bloomfield.

He said 1.8 million face masks had been distributed in the last seven days, and an order of 41 million more will start to arrive from next Monday.

He added that there were 21 million pairs of gloves in stock, and more than a million additional pairs on order, plus 850,000 pairs of safety glasses and 640,000 face shields.

Hospital staff had been working hard over the last couple of weeks to free up capacity, and occupancy rates are currently around 50%, which is much lower than usual.

Addressing concerns that stocks of influenza vaccines weren’t being distributed properly, Bloomfield said “there is still plenty of vaccine out in the sector, but I’m aware of some areas where redistribution needs to happen”. He cited the NZ Defence Force releasing 500 vaccinations to be used by Māori primary health providers as an example.

12.35pm: Border measures defended

The last politician before the scrutiny committee is Jenny Salesa, customs minister. She has defended the approach on border screening and acknowledged that some of the communication has been lacking over, for example, guidance on physical distancing. Asked whether the government could say “with a straight face” that measures had been strong and swift at the border, Salesa said: “Yes … When I look by comparison to our international neighbours, we have by a significant margin acted fast across the board.”

12.25pm: Closure ‘a serious blow to New Zealand journalism and culture’ – Helen Clark

The closure of the magazines represented “a serious blow to New Zealand journalism and culture”, Helen Clark, has told The Spinoff. “I am a long time reader of The Listener, which has a venerable history, and for which one hopes there might be a committed New Zealand buyer.”

In her comments, which you can read in full in our story here, the former prime minister questioned whether the German-based Bauer Media may have been looking for an “excuse … to quit the New Zealand market”, adding that there may need to an extension to the role of New Zealand on Air, or an equivalent agency, “to support quality print journalism and media from New Zealand perspectives. That would not be easy to design, and no doubt the usual derision from the pure market forces lobby would respond, but without such a move New Zealand will struggle to be a supplier of news, opinion and other original media.”

12.05pm: Air NZ slashes routes

As of tomorrow, Air New Zealand’s domestic operations will shrink to a handful of routes, with only five airports in use: Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. It represents a 95% reduction on their normal operations before the Covid-19 crisis, said the airline’s Cam Wallace. With the country in lockdown, demands has dropped by “about 99%”.

The new routes:

Auckland-Christchurch: 3 return services Monday-Friday; 1 return service Saturday & Sunday

Auckland-Wellington: 1 return service seven days a week

Wellington-Christchurch: 2 return services Monday-Friday; 1 return service Saturday & Sunday

Wellington-Nelson: 1 return service Monday-Friday

Christchurch-Dunedin: 1 return service Monday; 1 return service Friday

12.00pm: Bauer not interested in government assistance – minister

We’ve just updated our story on the decision by Bauer to close its New Zealand operations. Kris Faafoi, minister for broadcasting, communications and digital media, has told The Spinoff the publisher had not sought financial assistance from the government: “I need to make clear that in conversations I’ve had with Bauer recently they indicated that they were not interested in looking at what assistance they might be able to call on from the government’s Covid assistance initiatives and that is entirely their commercial decision.

He added: “I note that Bauer is looking for buyers for its New Zealand assets and I don’t want to interfere in that process … I also note that Bauer had indicated for some time that they were facing challenges around viability of their operations here in New Zealand.”

Read more here.

11.50am: Civil Defence minister and head at committee

It’s the turn of Peeni Henare, the minister for Civil Defence, at the special select committee, alongside the Civil Defence director of emergency management, Sarah Stuart Black.

And they kick off with the really important question: How come everyone calls her Norm?

“Sarah Norman was my family name and there were always a lot of Sarahs,” she says. “I think it was the most common name in my year. So for ease, I used Norm. Not always in the public domain, but I’m happy to go with that.”

Quizzed on whether they were scrutinising the advice from public health officials, Stuart Black said the response leadership team was “asking the questions in this complex matrix” of a range of workstreams. They were meeting daily to “test and probe how things are really tracking”, she said.

Nikki Kaye, spokesperson for Civil Defence, said that the testing was a “clear example of failure”, with insufficient testing capacity leading to “in effect, rationing”. That “cuts to the heart of whether Health and Civil Defence have done their job”, said Kaye. Was there sufficient scrutiny and transparency? Stuart Black: “I’m going to leave questions on testing to the director general of health. But I absolutely take your point. I think this is part of this combined approach that does mean we get robustness. The ability to ask questions.”

11.00am: Police commissioner Mike Bush faces questions

Police commissioner Mike Bush says most New Zealanders are complying with the conditions of the ongoing lockdown, and says that not all of the calls coming in from the public of rule-breaking require police attention.

“We know and recognise that what we’re asking New Zealanders to do is challenging,” said Bush, saying the some of the breaches he’s seen have been caused by continued ignorance of the rules, rather than people actively trying to flout them.

He confirmed that police did currently have the powers under legislation to implement the conditions of the lockdown, and that police had been engaging with Crown Law as to how to interpret the rules.

Bush also stressed that staff have been instructed to take a graduated response to offences. He said the use of the significant powers available to police now would be used with discretion, and sparingly, but they would be used if necessary.

“Anyone who persistently fails to comply, and that is a serious breach, will be arrested and prosecuted.”

He said that there would be a “high threshold” for entering homes without a warrant, one of the emergency powers currently available to police.

Bush also addressed concerns from MP Kiritapu Allan that different groups would experience different outcomes based on police discretion. “We track our application of discretion. We’ve moved a very long way, and we’re now in a position to say we apply that discretion evenly,” said Bush. He acknowledged that police had historically not done so. “That’s been a long journey for us,” he said, but today “We maintain an absolute focus on being fair and equal”.

He said the armed response team trial in South Auckland would come to an end, as scheduled, this month.

It’s Mike Bush’s last day as commissioner today. He will be replaced by Andrew Coster. He said the job has become more difficult over time.

“Never in my 42 years in policing have I ever experienced a period like the last 12 months, and we all know what I’m talking about,” said Bush.

10.15am: Civil Defence, policing in focus at Epidemic Response Committee

The Epidemic Response Committee is today focusing on issues of policing and civil defence amid the Level Four restrictions. Watch it live here:

9.20am: Magazine group Bauer NZ closing permanently

Bauer Media NZ is closing its doors permanently, staff have just been told in a company-wide Zoom meeting.

CEO Brendon Hill was emotional as he told staff, according to reports.

The New Zealand wing of the German-owned media company publishes titles including The Listener, North & South, Metro, Kia Ora, Home NZ, Next, Your Home & Garden, NZ Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly and The Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Full story here.

8.45am: Testing capacity concerns

Criteria on testing is being relaxed, in an effort to ensure that community transmission of Covid-19 isn’t taking place in silence. However, because of that some DHBs are worried that they’re about to see a flood of applicants that they don’t have the capacity to deal with. Radio NZ has reported on comments from a few medical professionals, who say the government’s drive to get more testing going doesn’t square with what they’re seeing.

“There’s definitely discrepancies between the prime minister’s message and then the message that we get on the ground,” said one Palmerston North GP.

And an urgent advisory sent out by the MidCentral District Health Board is also raising concerns.

“Our capacity to test is pressured and there are risks that our capacity will be exceeded. That includes the testing centres ability to process requests when the numbers staffing these are limited and cannot be easily expanded through primary care resource alone.”

8.30am: National calls for Zoom replacement as security concerns mount

It has become the defining online platform of the pandemic, but an increasing number of security concerns are being raised around Zoom. Now the National Party’s Gerry Brownlee has joined the chorus, calling on the government to abandon the platform for cabinet meetings.

“Cabinet needs to be able to have robust discussions in a protected environment. It’s where decisions at the highest level are made for New Zealanders.

“It’s unbelievable to think the prime minister was advised there were security issues with the platform and then went ahead with using it anyway.”

A note here – the security classification for cabinet meetings is ‘restricted’ – so it’s still important that such discussions can be kept confidential, but subjects with Top Secret classification are not discussed at cabinet.

7.55am: Sign up for FluTracking now

We published a new piece by Dr Siouxsie Wiles today, about the FluTracking project. You should sign up for it right now, but if you need more convincing, here’s what Dr Wiles says about what it is, and why it matters:

The project aims to track flu and flu-like symptoms across both countries every year. In essence, as the people behind the site explain, it’s about “harnessing the power of the internet and community spirit for monitoring influenza”. It normally starts around April or May when our flu season kicks off. As part of an early warning system for Covid-19, this year the FluTracking project has started early.

The more people do the survey, the better FluTracking will be at tracking the appearance of potential clusters of Covid-19. Last week nearly 30,000 people in New Zealand did the survey. So please sign up.

7.45am: International updates: Spain suffers terrible day, Wimbledon cancelled

Spain suffered 864 deaths related to Covid-19 yesterday, which was their worst of the crisis so far, reports the BBC. It brings the total death toll in the country to more than 9000, though in a small sign for hope, the rate of new infections has been slowing. The latest Johns Hopkins University data shows that more than 870,000 people have been infected worldwide, with more than 43,000 deaths.

US VP Mike Pence has indicated that the country is now on a similar trajectory to that of Italy, a country which has had the worst death toll in the world. In an interview with CNN, Pence blamed both China and the US Centre for Disease Control for the situation – ignoring that his administration slashed funding for the CDC several years ago.

And the tennis tournament Wimbledon has been cancelled for the first time since World War II. It wasn’t scheduled to start until the end of June, but it’s a sign of how far away sports are now having to look into the future about events and competitions going ahead.

7.20am: Updates from today’s edition of The Bulletin:

Wage cuts are coming thick and fast for all sorts of industries right now, but it’s looking particularly bad in construction, where activity has basically stopped. It’s worrying for some of the biggest players too – Stuff’s Anuja Nadkarni reports that some Fletchers staff could be looking at losing a huge share of their income, as part of a 12 week plan to get the company through the uncertain lockdown and post-lockdown period. Fletchers executives are also taking a 15% cut over 12 weeks. The E tū union says the latter pledge is a bit disingenuous, as some staff could end up seeing their income fall by 70%.

Speaking of the construction industry, the government could be about to make a big move into trying to build things. Newsroom’s Dileepa Fonsecka reports that consideration is currently being made by senior ministers to reform Crown Infrastructure Partners so that it’s more like the old Ministry of Works. The aim would be to sidestep financing concerns in the industry to simply charge ahead with projects, to create employment and offset the likely large loss of jobs through other parts of the economy. There were two other measures announced yesterday aimed at bolstering the commercial infrastructure industry – a pledge to pick out some “shovel ready” projects that can start within six months, and advance payments for firms whose NZTA contracts are on hold.

More Reading

Dire predictions are being made about the viability of hospitality businesses after the lockdown ends, reports the NZ Herald’s (paywalled) Aimee Shaw. In tourists hotspots like Wanaka and Rotorua, the fear is that around half of businesses simply won’t be able to reopen, whereas in places like Christchurch and Wellington it will be more like 20-30% – so still pretty bad for an industry where margins can be very thin. A big problem is that the only way through for many will be through significant borrowing, which they’ll then have to spend years paying off – and in those tourist-heavy areas, will there even be customers?

If you’re working from home at the moment, you’ve almost certainly been recently introduced to the joys of Zoom calls. But as the NZ Herald’s (paywalled) Chris Keall reports this morning, there are questions being raised about whether it is secure enough for the meetings of MPs and Cabinet. Zoom claims itself as an end-to-end encrypted service, but according to The Intercept’s reporting, that’s not actually true. The fear of one security expert spoken to by the Herald is that either the PM’s office wasn’t aware of security concerns around Zoom when discussing restricted and sensitive material, or they’ve relaxed their requirements because of the crisis. Incidentally, we’ve just published this guide to internet privacy and security by tech journalist Henry Burrell, which is particularly useful if you’re spending a lot more time online right now.

The stocks of flu vaccines are there, but they’re not getting to the people that need them, reports Newshub’s Michael Morrah. There’s really high demand for vaccines this year (for obvious reasons) and the government has instructed at-risk groups to be proactive about getting their jab. However, access has ended up being difficult for some people, and some are seeing their appointments get cancelled. Many GPs in particular are finding supplies are running short, but the story suggests pharmacies are doing a bit better. Speaking of the flu, Dr Siouxsie Wiles has written about the Flutracking project, and how mass participation in symptom tracking could save lives.

Keep going!
Screen Shot 2020-04-01 at 3.05.27 PM

BusinessApril 1, 2020

Covid-19 live updates, April 1: 61 new cases in NZ; testing criteria change

Staff writers
Screen Shot 2020-04-01 at 3.05.27 PM

For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.

The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here.

6.30pm: The day in sum

  • Shane Jones raised the spectre of a return to the Ministry of Works, as part of the government’s push to find “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects
  • An announcement on the procurement of more ventilators for the nation’s hospitals is “imminent”
  • Work and Income received 75,000 calls in just the last four days, many from the newly unemployed, and is struggling to cope with the load
  • Finance minister Grant Robertson suggested people look at the great depression as a marker for how bad things will get in the NZ economy and defended the decision to let today’s minimum wage increase stand.
  • Sixty-one new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand were announced, bringing the total to 708. Fourteen people are in hospital, with two in ICU but in a stable condition.
  • MediaWorks staff are being asked to take a voluntary 15% pay cut for six months
  • It was announced the Pricewatch email account for reporting potential price gouging received almost 1,000 emails in little over a day.
  • Australian retailer Harvey Norman stopped paying rent on some of its New Zealand locations.

5.40pm: Close to 100,000 people sign petitions calling for housing relief

A total of 95,000 New Zealanders have signed two petitions on housing issues related to the Covid-19 fallout. As of writing, a call for rent and mortgage payments to be suspended that is hosted on the community petition platform Avaaz has attracted 84,614 digital signatures, while a petition on Action Station calling for the same rent and mortgage amnesty, along with other housing relief, has 10,415 signatures. The two petitions will be presented to Green Party co-leader and housing spokesperson Marama Davidson in an online event broadcast on Zoom and Facebook tomorrow night at 7.30pm.

4.25pm: Business details removed from cluster reporting

Today’s Ministry of Health table showing the locations of significant clusters of Covid-19 cases looks a little different than yesterday’s. While the March 31 table included the names of venues, including the Assisi Rest Home in Hamilton, the Redoubt bar in Matamata and the Boomrock wedding venue in Wellington, today’s numbers refer only to ‘a bar’ and ‘a rest home’. The number of clusters has also halved, a result of new Ministry of Health guidelines that localised outbreaks must comprise more than 10 cases to be classified as a ‘cluster’.

Source: Ministry of Health, April 1. * Decrease in case count is due to probable case being downgraded to suspect.

3.15pm: Almost 1,000 reports to email address for reporting possible price gouging

At her daily media briefing, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that MBIE’s Pricewatch email address for the public to report potential price gouging had received 990 emails by 9am this morning. The email address was announced at the PM’s briefing on Monday. The most common complaint was the high price of cauliflower, she said, with some reports of prices of up to $13. Other products to feature included hand sanitiser, bread, meat, face masks and garlic.

The PM poured cold water on optimism over lower numbers of new cases in recent days, saying it was more to do with testing capacity. “While on the face of it that may seem to be a heartening number relative to the figures we’ve had so far, I want to stress that it is too early to assess.” She said part of the reason for the drop was logistical. “We do see a bit of a change over the weekend. Some people’s access to their GPs and therefore testing – even though we have those clinics available – is impacting those numbers over the weekend. We’ve talked to the director-general about what we can do to get consistency, because that’s two days out of seven where we can’t really afford to have those testing numbers fall away.”

She admitted that it wasn’t yet clear how much community transmission was taking place, so testing capacity was being ramped up. “I think we only need to look at some of the clusters we’ve had in our community to see just how quickly Covid-19 could spread if we weren’t at level four.”

In response to a question about the reported privacy risks of Zoom, the software used by parliament to meet during the outbreak, the PM said that it had been decided that some highly sensitive agenda items would not be discussed using the platform.

2.55pm: Harvey Norman stops paying rent on NZ stores

In what is likely a sign of things to come for the commercial property sector, Australian home appliance retailer Harvey Norman has informed landlords around New Zealand that it will cease paying rent on a number of its retail locations, Stuff reports. The rent abatement notice may be a result of Harvey Norman including in their leases a ‘non-access clause’ which allows the tenant to stop paying rent temporarily in the case of an emergency, though neither landlords nor Harvey Norman itself have yet confirmed that this is the case.

1.45pm: Media crisis deepens

Outside some of the state-funded operations, the New Zealand media is in acute crisis mode. The latest headline: MediaWorks staff are being asked to take a voluntary 15% pay cut for six months, reports MediaWatch. It follows NZME, owner of the Herald and NewstalkZB telling staff that redundancies are inevitable and imminent. A number of contributors to the Herald have today been told their contracts are being terminated.

1.35pm: 61 new cases of Covid-19 in NZ

There are 61 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, Dr Caroline McElnay, the director of public health, has just announced at today’s briefing. That’s 47 positive tests and 14 probable cases. The total now stands at 708.

Fourteen people are in hospital, with two in ICU but in stable condition.

Just over half of the cases have a link to overseas travel, with 30% a link to known cases. Confirmed community transmission is only 1% but they continue to look for further examples.

A new case definition will be issued today for diagnosis and testing. As signalled by Ashley Bloomfield yesterday, this means anyone with respiratory symptoms that are “consistent with Covid-19 disease” should be approved for testing. It removes any requirement for a link to overseas or a known case. Clinical discretion remains.

“We do know this will results in more testing being done, which is good, and which we are prepared for,” said McElnay.

The current capacity is 3,700 tests a day; based on the last week the average daily tests completed is 1,843.

There are currently eight testing labs operating, and by the end up the week that will be up to 10.

Yesterday, 418 close contacts were traced.

Sarah Stuart-Black of Civil Defence began her briefing with a “shout out to our sign language interpreters”. This comes after reports yesterday the interpreters had been getting attacked online. She also acknowledged the importance of iwi in the crisis response.

The new case count over the last seven days: 85, 83, 63, 74, 76, 58, 61.

“I think those numbers are encouraging but it’s much too early to say that that actually means,” said McElnay.

The number was expected to continue to rise with more testing.

Challenged on the decline in number of tests over recent days, McElnay said, “We really don’t know whether it’s less people presenting for testing or whether it’s lower disease. We’re seeing a plateauing of the number of tests. It’s much too early to read into those figures.”

She pointed out that weekends often saw a fall-off. “We need to use a longer lens”, she said.

Chris McDowall’s charts visualising Covid-19 in New Zealand will be updated soon. If you haven’t already, check out yesterday’s here. It’s a very eloquent expression of the state of things.

12.45pm: Twyford hints changes coming on butcher openings

Phil Twyford, the minister for economic development, has been taking questions at the scrutiny committee, alongside Paul Stocks from MBIE. After an aphorism heavy opening statement which included quoting Grant Robertson and misquoting former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, Twyford was grilled on the prohibitions on retailers, particularly the banning of bakeries, butchers and green grocers.

“We’ve effectively shut down the economy,” said Twyford. There would of course be inconvenience but it was about the “overriding imperative of stopping the spread of this virus”. The goal was always “reducing contact and movement”. He said they had begun with a “clear principle based approach”, but were retaining a “pragmatic” approach and “accepting submissions and arguments” from those affected, and reviewing daily.

He said there was currently consideration being given to a revising the status of butchers, particularly in relation to issues around availability of halal meat and animal welfare concerns.

And that’s pretty much a wrap for the Epidemic Response Committee today, ably chaired again by Simon Bridges. Tomorrow from 10am, Mike Bush, the commissioner of police, is in the hot seat. He’ll be followed by Peeni Henare and Sarah Stuart-Black, minister and director of Civil Defence.

11.45am: Robertson defends minimum wage stance

The finance minister has completed his appearance before the parliamentary Zoom-committee. It’s been a little more rambunctious than yesterday, with more headache moments with a bunch of people talking simultaneously, an awkward exchange between Grant Robertson and Simon Bridges about who had whose mobile number, and Gerry Brownlee reminding us for better or worse that adversarialism is not dead, accusing Robertson of “an abdication of responsibility” and being “disingenuous” for suggesting that it was not appropriate for the government to instruct local bodies to desist from increasing rates.

Pressed on the wisdom of continuing with a minimum wage increase given the pressure businesses are under, Robertson said business owners were encouraged to apply for the wage subsidy scheme, and that it was a good time for essential workers such as those in supermarkets to get a pay bump. He said: “I have confidence in our business owners that they are prepared for this.”

As of today the adult minimum wage rises by $1.20 an hour to $18.90.

Robertson earlier stressed that those who have applied but not yet heard back should not apply again; a response it coming soon.

10.35am: Stand down Bloomfield stans

Bad news for the Ashley Bloomfield fan club. He won’t be at the daily briefing today, with Dr Caroline McElnay, the director of public health, filling his shoes, alongside Sarah Stuart-Black of Civil Defence. Jacinda Ardern is expected to give her now standard afternoon press conference at 3pm. Check back here for updates.

10.30am: Grant Robertson faces the committee

“A week ago, let’s look at the last recession. A week later, let’s look at the great depression.”

So said finance minister about the rapidly evolving economic crisis developing in New Zealand and around the world. Robertson said that rapid change was why swift efforts had been taken by the government, for example with wage subsidy money being paid out immediately to businesses that applied.

As of yesterday, the wage subsidy scheme had paid out $4.2bn dollars, and Robertson expected that figure to cross $5bn today.

Robertson also looked ahead to the long term, saying we needed to ask questions now about what we make and do in New Zealand to provide economic activity, the strength of institutions, the role of state, and how we trade with the rest of the world.

On forecasts, Robertson confirmed that the country would be moving well beyond the 15-25% range of debt to GDP that is required by the government’s self-imposed Budget Responsibility Rules. He also confirmed the Budget later this year would be markedly different to what had previously been planned. “We are still going ahead with it, but the focus will be different.”

And on likely levels of unemployment, Robertson said it was impossible to predict exactly how high it will get. However, he noted that it was likely to be worse than that of the Global Financial Crisis, where unemployment peaked at 6.7%, and pointed out that bank economists have predicted anywhere between 8%-30% unemployment.

Committee chair Simon Bridges challenged Robertson on this uncertainty, and Robertson said Treasury would have scenarios and forecasts for the public within days. The minister also pointed out that while level four restrictions had an “intense” impact on the economy, lower levels would also have some economic effect, and it remained to be seen whether the country will move out of level four after four weeks.

Secretary of the Treasury Dr Caralee McLiesh offered some initial projections, saying that GDP reductions could be anywhere between 10-17%, and that unemployment could increase from between 5% to well into double-digits.

10.00am: Economic response committee today focusing on the economy

The stripped down version of parliament is sitting again today over Zoom On the agenda today:

  • Finance minister Grant Robertson
  • Secretary of the Treasury Dr Caralee McLiesh
  • Economist Shamubeel Eaqub
  • Economic development minister Phil Twyford
  • MBIE deputy chief executive Paul Stocks

Watch it live here:

Eaqub has been speaking first today, and among the main concerns he raised was the lack of ability for many people right now to work from home. “We must make sure most New Zealanders have access to the internet,” he said, not just now, but into the future, given the lockdown may last for longer than four weeks, or intermittently be brought back over the year.

He also noted that after the lockdown, “we’re likely to see the global backdrop remain uncertain,” and that borders are likely to remain closed for significantly longer. Because of that, he called for a big expansion in the welfare state to compensate.

9.35am: Mike Hosking: “They were going to die anyway.”

New Zealand’s most prominent radio host Mike Hosking has criticised the government’s decision to lock down the country to prevent lives being lost in the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an interview with epidemiologist Simon Thornley, who himself has written along similar lines recently, Hosking declared that because many of those dying had underlying health conditions, “they were going to die anyway. Something was going to get them, it just happens to be this. Or maybe it wasn’t. Or maybe this exacerbates it. Or maybe this complicates it.”

Following the interview, he described a listener question about countries like Italy burying people “by the truckload” as “alarmist,” and compared the death rates from Covid-19 to that of the flu. “We don’t close borders. We don’t land planes. We don’t crash economies.”

It follows dozens of takes from Hosking on Covid-19 over recent weeks, including denouncing the government for overreacting and denouncing the government for under-reacting. One such editorial, titled ‘Mike’s Minute: If we want to beat Covid-19, shut the country down’, was published as recently as Monday last week.

9.25am: Work and Income struggling under immense load

An unprecedented number of calls are currently coming in to Work and Income, and the organisation is struggling to keep up, reports Radio NZ. 75,000 calls have been made in just the last four days, many from people who are newly unemployed, or are seeking food grants while the cupboards are bare. Beneficiary advocates have been warning for several weeks that this sort of wave has been on the way. The Māngere Budgeting Services Trust is also sounding dire warnings about their empty shelves, and an increasing number of people knocking on their door for help, reports Newshub.

8.40am: Running the numbers on the ‘stay home’ message

You’d have to be living under a rock to not realise that the general public can help prevent a Covid-19 outbreak from spreading by staying home. To show how hard that message is being pushed, Stuff started doing a count. They calculated that since March 25, PM Jacinda Ardern has said “stay home” on TV no fewer than 32 times. Those numbers are sure to grow in the coming days.

8.15am: RNZ reports ventilator procurement announcement imminent

RNZ’s Phil Pennington has interviewed Dr Andrew Stapleton on Morning Report, and flagged a breakthrough in the search for more ventilators. The machines are crucial to treatment of the most acutely affected Covid-19 patients, and Stapleton, who has been tasked with acquiring more units, appeared to suggest he had been successful. “I can tell you there’s going to be an announcement on that fairly shortly,” he told Pennington. “I’m as pleased as I have been for quite some time.” Pennington also reported that nurses have been trained to operate the ventilators, in anticipation of further Covid-19 spread, though also noted that the nurse’s union was concerned about the extra load on its members, and had requested extra overtime pay.

7.45am: Shane Jones raises spectre of a return to the Ministry of Works

In an interview with Mike Hosking on ZB, infrastructure minister Shane Jones has complained that “the bureaucracy has developed a system of contractualism”. He claimed to have encountered it in trying to move major projects forward, and wondered aloud about whether New Zealand needed to return to “something akin to the Ministry of Works” in order to advance the government’s planned ‘nation-building’ programme. Jones and Twyford are currently returning to the public eye for the first time since the virus locked New Zealand down, to talk about their desire for “shovel-ready projects” as part of the massive stimulus the economy will require in coming years.

In a later interview, immigration minister Iain Lees-Galloway clarified the government’s position on paying benefits to those here on work visas who become unemployed through the crisis. “We do have the option of paying benefits to those on visas,” he said, “but we have not yet triggered that option.” Hosking signed off the interview in what has fast become the customary current style, by asking Lees-Galloway whether he had Covid-19.

7.20am: The Bulletin’s wrap-up of all New Zealand’s key stories

Taken from The Bulletin, our essential daily 7am news roundup – sign up for that or The Spinoff’s other newsletters here

The government’s approach to fighting the Covid-19 outbreak has faced a robust bout of scrutiny, both from MPs and experts. It only took one sitting day for the new Epidemic Response Committee to show how valuable it will be for measuring the plans being put forward, and holding those making the decisions to account. 

The key evidence on the day came from Sir David Skegg, an Otago University professor of public health. With the clarification that the government’s overall goal is to eliminate Covid-19, Skegg told the committee that there needed to be a much greater focus on expanding the testing and tracing regime, and compulsory quarantine for everyone coming into the country, reports the NZ Herald. “A lockdown on its own is not enough. It’s like pressing the pause button,” he said. “We all know how costly this lockdown will be in human and economic terms. It’s a terrible waste if we don’t pull out all the stops now to maximise our chance to eliminate Covid-19.” 

Skegg’s perspective is that testing has to date been too focused on those with overseas connections, and that previous loosening of the health ministry’s criteria hadn’t reached the clinicians who make the final decisions on whether to test. That view was backed up by Primary Health Organisation clinical board member Dr Garsing Wong, who told Newshub’s Michael Morrah that the criteria should have been widened a long time ago. He also argued that because of previous testing criteria, the actual number of infections is likely higher than the number of confirmed cases.

It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of tests are still coming back negative – a full 97% in fact, even with the tight criteria focusing on the most likely cases. Director general Dr Ashley Bloomfield also stressed that capacity was being increased all the time, and that capacity concerns weren’t a factor in clinician decisions on whether to order a test. PM Jacinda Ardern confirmed later in the afternoon that testing criteria will be changed so that much more take place. During the committee meeting, health minister Dr David Clark also pointed out that contact tracing was being scaled up, and the workforce of Healthline has doubled since the start of the year. Cumulatively, you can look at all of that and say the government and public service is being responsive when legitimate concerns are raised.

There will be plenty more work for the committee to get into, as it takes over a large part of parliament’s role during the lockdown period. Among those appearing today will be finance minister Grant Robertson, key figures at MBIE and Treasury, economist Shamubeel Eaqub, and economic development minister Phil Twyford. The latter’s time will likely partly be taken up with discussion of ‘shovel-ready’ infrastructure projects to get underway as an economic stimulus – and on that point, there was an interesting article from the NZ Herald’s (paywalled) Hamish Rutherford arguing for some of the opposition’s senior MPs to be given a much bigger role in managing such projects, given the government has a poor record to date on infrastructure delivery. 

To finish this section with an aside: I mused a year or so ago about how valuable it would be to have select committee meetings be broadcast as a matter of course. The work of MPs involved in yesterday’s Epidemic Response Committee totally reinforces that opinion. In contrast to the often crass stupidity and pointlessness of Question Time, the committee showed MPs as intelligent people, calling on experts and building up evidence, so that the government might make the best possible decisions. Long may that constructive approach continue. 

Just quickly, a message from our editor Toby Manhire:

“Here at The Spinoff, members’ support is more important than ever as the Covid-19 crisis lays waste to large chunks of our commercial work. It’s a tight time for everyone, of course, but if you’re able to, please consider joining Spinoff Members to help us stay afloat and keep producing work by the likes of Siouxsie Wiles and Toby Morris, whose collaborations have had a real impact in New Zealand and around the world.” 

A second nurse in Queenstown has tested positive for Covid-19, reports Crux. It means a further 38 staff members will also be tested, which means the entire workforce of the hospital over the past fortnight will have been tested. The tests are an attempt to understand how the two nurses came to contract the coronavirus, and to rule out community transmission among the staff. Meanwhile, 58 new cases were announced yesterday, which is a lower number than previous individual days – however, that isn’t any cause for relaxation, because of the long lag time that can occur between infection and symptoms. A reminder, we will be publishing a new set of live infographics each day in the aftermath of the new numbers’ release at 1pm.

The PM has rejected a call to implement a nightly curfew on the nation, reports Newshub. She said given the rules already in place, it wasn’t necessary. Those persistently breaking the requirement to stay at home (outside of essential activity) are already being cautioned, arrested and charged. 

By some metrics, New Zealand’s air quality has improved a lot over the course of the lockdown. One News has reported on NIWA data from Auckland, which shows an almost unprecedented drop in air pollution at sites alongside major roads – and they’re expecting similar results from Wellington and Christchurch. Climate scientists say there could be lessons from this experience about the sort of societal changes that would mitigate our emissions. I’d perhaps slightly temper going too far with optimism there – after all, while some are skipping the commute to work from home, others are skipping the commute because they’re not able to work at all. 

6.55am: Siouxsie and Toby on why bubbles really, really matter

The duo whose work has helped so many of us understand key concepts through the pandemic return, showing how popping bubbles will lock us down for longer, and endanger essential workers.

“For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local.

The reason we are doing this is to stop the spread of Covid-19 and to save thousands of lives. And that is no exaggeration. The Ministry of Health have just released the results of modelling led by Prof Nick Wilson from the University of Otago Wellington.

As Ashley Bloomfield put it yesterday, they “paint a sobering picture of what Covid-19 would look like in NZ if we were not taking a decisive and strict approach to our response”.

The worst-case scenario shows 146,000 people in New Zealand would need to be hospitalised. Over 36,000 would be sick enough to require intensive care. And over 27,000 would be expected to die. To put that in perspective, this death toll would exceed that from the first world war and from the 1918 influenza pandemic.”

6.45am: Auckland at level four

This video of Auckland from the road and the air shows how the city looks stripped of people and cars. It’s quite beautiful and oddly moving, and probably a better way to start your day than going straight into hard news, if I’m honest.

6.35am: Questions over reporting grow in China and the UK

Between ‘the lag‘ and asymptomatic carriers, Covid-19 resists even the most well-intentioned and -resourced attempts to truly know how widespread it is, and how many have had it. But two stories which have broken overnight suggest that differences in the way some countries are reporting their data might be distorting our views of how they’re doing against their outbreaks. The Guardian reports that the UK may have under-reported the number of deaths connected to Covid-19 by 24%. The figure is related to deaths earlier in the epidemic, and came because they occurred either at home, or in care homes. Meanwhile, as growing scrutiny of its stubbornly static figures mounts, China has added 1,541 cases to its tally, after scrutiny of its lack of inclusion of asymptomatic carriers.

For now, China’s official tally of the dead from Covid-19 remains 3,305, meaning that the US marked another bleak milestone overnight, with its current death toll of 3,433 surpassing that of the nation where the virus originated. The New York Times reports that the US is bracing itself for the release of new official models projecting the spread of the virus, which are expected to be deeply troubling, and higher than previous more optimistic scenarios. In a frightening development, Louisiana’s dead leapt from 34 to 185 in just 24 hours, a troubling spike because the state is considered to be weeks behind US epicentre New York on its curve.

Elsewhere Spain recorded a new daily record death toll of 838, bringing its total to 8,269, while Italy remains both in a dire situation and trending the right way, with over 800 deaths but just 1,648 new infections, down from nearly 4,000 the previous day. The World Health Organisation has warned that Asia’s battle against the pandemic is “far from over”, while Iran’s infections reached 44,000, with nearly 3,000 deaths as it remains the worst hit nation outside of Asia, Europe and the US. Africa remains mercifully relatively low in infections, with African Arguments reporting around 5,300 for the continent as a whole, with Egypt, Morocco and South Africa reporting the highest numbers.

Meanwhile Germany is turning its worst-hit region into a giant laboratory to study the virus, reports The Guardian. The district of Heinsberg was chosen because it is considered to be two-and-a-half weeks ahead of the rest of the country. “The ‘Covid-19 case cluster study’, launched on Tuesday morning, will follow 1,000 people who have been chosen because they are representative of the German population as a whole.”

5.45am: Who will lead the world after Covid-19?

Colin James is press gallery royalty, and makes his debut for The Spinoff with an excellent analysis of the likely impact of Covid-19, not just on the world economy, but on the global power structure.

“China’s rigid autocracy stifled talk of an epidemic and arguably turned the epidemic into pandemic. But former United States assistant secretary of state for Asia Kurt Campbell points to Chinese internal lockdowns, followed by material assistance to Italy and other nations to fight Covid-19, as potentially giving Xi an edge to claim leadership in changing global systems and governance to China’s advantage.

Xi wants to restore the China which thought itself the centre of the world – at the very time that Trump’s self-absorption and tantrums have been undermining the United States’ 75-year claim to be global leader (as it was in the fight against Ebola)…

There is no new orthodoxy sitting on a United States shelf as Milton Friedman’s was when the Bretton Woods monetary system collapsed in the early 1970s. But Xi would claim there is one on his shelf. That doesn’t mean China’s distorted capitalism is the next orthodoxy. But it does underline that the 500-year ascendancy, then dominance, of ‘western’ thinking, from humanism to neoliberalism, is under challenge.”

Read the full story on The Spinoff

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