Police site crashes as Kiwis turn into shutdown snitches

New Zealanders have become so keen to report their neighbours for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules that police said a website dedicated to addressing the issue crashed soon after going live.

The South Pacific nation is in the midst of a four-week Covid19 lockdown, with residents under orders to stay at home or remain at least two metres apart if they must go outside.

Police commissioner Mike Bush said that a police website www.police.govt.nz/105support opened on Sunday afternoon and received such heavy traffic that it temporarily crashed.

“We’ve had 4,200 reports of people believing others weren’t complying,” he told reporters.

“It shows how determined Kiwis are that everyone complies with us.”

Bush said breaches included a party of about 60 people at a backpacker hostel in Queenstown. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern backed the informants and also urged the public to report any price gouging at supermarkets via a dedicated email address.

Convictions over Hong Kong quarantine rules

Hong Kong has handed down its first convictions over violations of strict quarantine rules, with three people jailed over the breaches.

They include a homeless man who was jailed for three months after falsifying a home address to evade the isolation rules following his arrival from mainland China.

A leading expert in the city’s fight against the virus warned that the outbreak there has got “slightly out of control”, as confirmed infections increased threefold to 641 in the past two weeks.

Returning Aussies in quarantine

Thousands of Australians returning from overseas were holed up in hotels for a mandatory 14-day quarantine as the country stepped up measures to slow the spread of the virus.

Some returning travellers have complained about conditions in the five-star hotels, saying their food deliveries had been rejected and they had not received requested medication.

The government also announced it would spend Aus$130 billion (US$80 billion) to supplement workers’ wages over the next six months. –