Homegrown, CubaDupa await fate
The New Zealand Festival of the Arts has been canned on its final day as coronavirus fear sweeps Wellington with news of the capital’s first case.
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster has confirmed that he may well pre-empt government measures by stopping large-scale gatherings such as CubaDupa and Homegrown.
Yesterday’s open day at Kilbirnie mosque was cancelled due to coronavirus fears. It came as the New Zealand Festival of the Arts cancelled all remaining events yesterday, the last day of its programme. That included the shows Strasbourg 1518, Dimanche, Slapstick, To The Moon, and others.
‘‘Ticketmaster will be in touch with all ticket holders to arrange refunds,’’ it posted on Twitter.
Wellington’s first coronavirus case, and New Zealand’s seventh, was confirmed yesterday. He was a man in his 60s from Australia.
An eighth case – a Danish woman in her 30s who flew into Auckland from Doha, then flew onto Christchurch and drove to Queenstown – was also confirmed.
President of the International Muslim Association of New Zealand Tahir Nawaz said the mosque open day cancellation was partly because of a suspected Wellington case.
Yesterday Foster was meeting with Wellington City Council emergency management staff and event organisers to discuss large public events during the coronavirus pandemic. They included Homegrown next weekend and CubaDupa at the end of March.
‘‘I think the likelihood of those events taking place is lessening by the hour given the seriousness of the coronavirus threat – and I would prefer we make some early decisions to avoid any uncertainty for everyone involved,’’ Foster said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had already signalled there would be steps to rule out large public gatherings but Foster said he would be taking advice on whether to pre-empt that step.
‘‘Unticketed events with large numbers of people gathering in a confined space are particularly challenging because if an event attendee is subsequently found to have Covid -19 it will be impossible to track down all the people who might have come in contact with them.’’
Homegrown director Andrew Tuck said yesterday that he was trying to get more information from the council.