Just stay at home

tossed away the cap on its wage subsidy entirely: all affected firms, charities, NGOs and self-employed people will be able to get over $500 per employee per week.

The Government is set to announce a three-way deal between it, the Reserve Bank and the banks on business loans and residential mortgages in the next couple of days. The shape of that is not yet known but it could be a mortgage holiday, or a repayment holiday etc. Basically, the Reserve Bank has the banks’ back – and in return they will have ours. Much has been learned since the global financial crisis.

The Reserve Bank has started quantitative easing.

Doctors and epidemiological experts I’ve spoken to all think that the shutdown is the right decision. Business is in favour of it, the National Opposition is in favour of it. For such an extreme measure that was literally not even imaginable when we all sat down for dinner on Christmas Day, it has remarkable support.

The public policy challenge posed spread by staying at home and reducing contact. Now is the time to act,’’ she said.

Under level 4, essential businesses – supermarkets, pharmacies, and medical clinics – will continue to operate.

There will be rationing of supplies and buildings will be requisitioned by the Government as needed.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said Cabinet had agreed to raise the wage subsidy scheme by removing the $150,000 cap for businesses – meaning every employee who is unable to work from home and is nonessential will be covered.

These subsidies are paid to employers in order to keep workers on even as they cannot work because of the shutdown.

This will roughly increase the amount spent on the scheme to $9.1 billion.

The Government is negotiating with banks to provide temporary support for mortgage holders and a business by coronavirus has always been how to ease the strain on the hospital system as much as possible, so that people can get hospital treatment as they get sick, rather than the health system being inundated with cases that it cannot keep on top of.

The system will now be given a fighting chance.

Schools and child care will be shut by tomorrow. Rents will be frozen. There will be no public gatherings, no discretionary air travel, no getting closer to a stranger – or even a friend – than at least two metres.

As my colleague Henry Cooke has written, this will be the biggest peacetime intervention the Government has ever made in the economy. Parliament is effectively being shut down indefinitely.

The Government is now expecting to spend $9.3 billion to pay for all of this, but let’s be honest: that figure is a back of the envelope calculation. The Government will borrow heavily to finance this bridging loan to employers and workers with the hope that New finance guarantee scheme.

There would also be a rent freeze, and ‘‘no-cause’’ terminations of tenancy agreements would be ended.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said that only the children of essential workers will attend school today, before schools close for all tomorrow.

The Education Ministry was working hard to ensure students could distance learn, but many children would have limited access to the internet.

The school holidays would be brought forward to be captured by the four-week lockdown, he said.

Hipkins, also leader of the House, said the Government’s legislative program would be on hold with Parliament adjourning after an extraordinary session tomorrow.

Outgoing police commissioner Mike Bush is heading up a command centre dealing with Covid-19.

He said the Defence Force could play a role in enforcing the new rules.

‘‘Hopefully we will never need the Defence Force but you always want to

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Zealand will come out the other end able to keep going with work having mostly nipped the virus in bud. Better to spend $10b or $20b dealing with the crisis – and then recovering – as quickly as possible, than spending years coping with high unemployment and whole swathes of the country in bankruptcy.

For the next four weeks at least the Government wants people to be able to feed themselves, stay at home and not worry about how they are going to make payroll, or pay the mortgage. The level of income support will be a step down for some, but it is designed to be temporary and keep the wolf from the door, nothing else.

Even one week ago this action would have been absurd.

Businesses will go to the wall, jobs will be lost.

The prime minister was right when she said that it is time for each of us to step up to do our bit, and take our responsibilities seriously: It is in times such as these that each of us finds out if we are truly our brothers’ keeper.

Now it’s up to all of us do our part: stay at home, associate only with our family, flatmates, those we live with.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a countrywide lockdown to combat Covid-19. be prepared. They are quite willing to work alongside us while we are out in the communities.’’

‘‘When we start in the communities it is about education and encouragement. We don’t want to get to a place where we have to enforce restrictions but we will, if required.’’

Earlier yesterday, another 36 new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand were confirmed.

New Zealand’s total number confirmed cases is now 102.

‘‘Yesterday’s confirmed number of cases was the highest one-day rise in the number of Covid-19 patients to date.

While almost all of the cases are either recent arrivals from overseas or have had close contact with travellers, two cannot be linked to travel.

This has led to the Health Ministry treating these two cases in Auckland and the Wairarapa as ‘‘community transmission’’ – the first such cases in New Zealand.

‘‘We have a window of opportunity. We can stop the spread by staying at home and reducing contact. ‘‘

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