Jumping into new normal
Ardern to elaborate on how mass gatherings can get green light
Level 2 is bedding in well — with most children back at school and the majority of businesses re-opening — and already people are looking ahead to alert level 1.
With just 15 Covid-19 cases reported in as many days, Kiwis will tomorrow get a better sense of what needs to happen before New Zealand drops to level 1. A critical piece of that is there’s no risk of community transmission, with every single case
being linked to a source. Yesterday marked 46 days since an infection couldn’t be traced. The Government will also launch a digital diary app, which will allow people to record their movements instead of using current contact tracing measures, which mean businesses keep a record of personal information like names, emails and phone numbers.
The discussions came as the number of confirmed and probable cases remained unchanged yesterday — at 1499 — with just two people in hospital. A poll, meanwhile, saw Jacinda Ardern rated as the country’s most popular PM in a century as National plummeted. The Opposition recorded just 30% support while Labour leapt to more than 56 per cent. The results came four months out from the general election and on the back of international acclaim for how well Ardern has handled the Covid-19 crisis.
Tomorrow Kiwis will get a better sense of what needs to happen before New Zealand moves to alert level 1, with just 15 Covid-19 cases reported in as many days.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was last night revealed to be the most popular leader in a century, will set out how the Cabinet will make decisions to further lift restrictions ahead of its meeting on Monday.
A critical piece of that decision is confidence there’s no risk of community transmission, with every single case being linked to a source. Yesterday marked 46 days since an infection could not be traced.
“I remain hopeful that if we all remain on the track that we are, that we continue to see those zero-case days, we will see an increase in the number of mass gatherings we’ll have for New Zealanders as well,” Ardern said.
A poll last night revealed 91.6 per cent of Kiwis supported the lockdown restrictions as Labour’s popularity soared — at the expense of every other party.
In the latest Newshub- Reid Research Poll, Labour came in at 56.5 per cent, while National dropped to 30.6 per cent, the Green Party sank to 5.5 per cent and NZ First slumped to 2.7 per cent.
The numbers show Labour could comfortably govern alone with 72 seats, with the Opposition parties winning a combined 41 seats and the Greens taking seven.
Ardern’s popularity also skyrocketed, with 59.5 per cent rating her as the preferred Prime Minister, while just 4.5 per cent backed National leader Simon Bridges.
But while polling numbers soared and sank, New Zealand again steadily reported another day of zero cases of Covid-19. There were also just 45 active cases, with 96 per cent of the 1499 confirmed and probable cases recovered.
New Zealand’s leading contacttracing expert, Dr Ayesha Verrall of the University of Otago, warned a second wave of the deadly virus could not be ruled out.
With community transmission likely ruled out, the risk was a new intrusion through the border if there were any gaps in the control or a problem with contact isolation, she said.
Now was the time to “check, check and double-check” and ensure New Zealand had a long-term plan for testing and contact tracing.
The warning comes as the Ministry of Health prepares to launch a “digital diary” app to help Kiwis log where they have been without handing over their personal details to businesses.
The app will be launched tomorrow and Ardern promised users’ data will stay with them and won’t be shared with third parties or the Government.
And as most of the now 5 million Kiwis headed back to work and school yesterday, the report card for behaviour at alert level 2 was encouraging.
Since regaining new freedoms on Thursday, there have been 983 reports of breaches, with about 700 relating to businesses and 250 to gatherings, police commissioner
Andrew Coster said.
Police took action on 30 breaches — 29 resulted in warnings and one person was being prosecuted.
Coster said police had a number of complaints about shops not having means to sign in, despite it not being a requirement.
Only hospitality operations, where people sit for up to two hours, need a register of their customers for contact tracing purposes. But all businesses need records of staff each day.
The director general of health Ashley Bloomfield, who will provide ministers with advice, said yesterday a key part of that decision would be confidence there was still no community transmission by knowing the source of every case.
Last night, Bloomfield led New Zealand’s delegation at the virtual World Health Assembly — a job usually reserved for the Health Minister. Instead, David Clark will present the country statement.
New Zealand co-sponsored a resolution on Covid-19 to agree, at the high level, to review the pandemic.
Bloomfield said the intention of the resolution was to see “the right sort of review” was undertaken of the pandemic, the WHO and how member states responded.
“We’re only really at the end of the beginning of this outbreak and there’s still a lot we need to do.”
Ardern said she didn’t think supporting the review would damage New Zealand’s relationship with China and made an effort to make it clear a “large number of countries” were backing it.
“To be clear, what we’re supporting is an independent look at what we can learn from this global pandemic and that includes different countries’ responses as it entered within their borders as well.”
The review, Ardern said, didn’t seek to lay blame but learn from experience.
“I think it’s natural that after such a significant event, we would want to take a look at what we should have all learnt from this experience.”
New Zealand Customs is investigating the Ruby Princess cruise ship to establish whether any offences were committed.
In March, people were allowed off the ship when it berthed in Hawke’s Bay and 16 cases have since been linked to that visit.
Ardern said there was no timeline for the Customs investigation.
We’re only really at the end of the beginning of this outbreak and there’s still a lot we need to do.