Funeral zigzag — 100 to 10 to 50

Govt backtracks on limit to tangi numbers but Bridges says it doesn’t go far enough

The Government’s backtrack on how many people can attend funerals and tangi from today is being welcomed, but the National Party leader says it doesn’t go far enough.

The new limit is now up from 10 people to 50, but Simon Bridges said a 100-person limit would keep it in line with the limit on all indoor and outdoor gatherings at alert level 2.

New Zealanders wake today with their bubbles popped and the dawning of the new safer normal, which includes the reopening of shops, cafes, hairdressers and public parks.

There were no new cases of Covid19 yesterday for the second straight day and the fourth time this month.

With most of the 1497 confirmed and probable cases now recovered, there are only 74 active cases, including two people in hospital.

Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield said New Zealand remained on track for elimination but, with an ongoing risk of a second wave, he urged people to remain vigilant on physical distancing, hand hygiene, and staying home if sick.

“This is a stubborn virus and we don’t want to be going down the path where we see spikes again.”

Meanwhile the Waitemata¯ District Health Board has apologised to its staff — seven now have the virus — who were caring for patients from St Margaret’s rest home.

A review found Waita¯kere Hospital staff nursing Covid-19 patients had to change their personal protective equipment up to eight times a shift, one of several issues that may have led to staff catching the virus.

Today the Government will deliver a Budget that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said will focus on jobs in a Covid-hit world that will see unemployment rise, businesses fail and the Government deep in the red.

It follows yesterday’s drama when political consensus was shattered after Opposition parties voted against Covid legislation for the first time.

National said the Covid-19 Public Health Response Bill was executive overreach, and backed up criticism from the Human Rights Commission that the rushed process was “a great failure of our democratic process”.

The Opposition also criticised the warrantless searches of private property if there was a reasonable belief alert level rules were being broken.

Ardern described the bill, which passed under urgency, as providing more accountability, saying it was needed for enforcing physical distancing and social gathering limits.

Ardern and other ministers spent yesterday morning in virtual meetings with church leaders, iwi and funeral directors to discuss level 2 funeral arrangements, and later Health Minister David Clark announced the change.

Funeral directors can register funerals with the Ministry of Health and declare that health requirements will be met, including physical distancing, hand hygiene and a ban on congregating for food and drink.

Clark refused to say the Government had got it wrong, but Bridges slammed Ardern for “chopping and changing”. “We’ve gone from 100 to 10 to 50. That indicates a lack of a proper basis, or a robust one, for the decision-making.”

He said Ardern had created an expectation that 100-person funerals would be allowed. The 50-person limit was better but still inconsistent.

“You can go to a movie theatre with 99 other people present.”

He said it was still wrong to prevent more than 10 people to gather at a church, which he said was a controlled environment. Cabinet will review the guidance in two weeks.