Coronavirus cases on rise in southern district
A West Otago woman in her 50s, a Dunedin woman in her 30s, a Dunedin woman in her 20s and a Wanaka teenager were on Monday announced as having been diagnosed with COVID-19.
This brings the total cases in the Southern District Health Board district to 13, 12 confirmed and one probable.
The West Otago woman, and Dunedin woman in her 30s, both attended the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown from March 9 to 13.
The Dunedin woman in her 20s has recently returned from travel from US, while the Wanaka teenager has returned after travelling to Europe. Both have been in self-isolation since their return to New Zealand.
All four individuals are mildly unwell and are at home.
Southern DHB is alerting people in a number of locations across New Zealand that they may have come into contact with people who tested positive for Covid-19 this week.
A number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 attended the World Hereford Conference (n Queenstown with post conference tours around the South Island.)
Community Based Assessment Centres are open in Dunedin and Invercargill. A further one is planned for Queenstown.
Southland businesses are having tricky conversations with their staff as the coronavirus restrictions begin to impact on their bottom lines.
Southland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Sheree Carey said more than 30 businesses had rung the chamber to seek help on Monday morning.
About half those businesses were considering laying off casual employees or cutting back their hours.
One business had given a pay cut to all its employees so all of
‘‘Businesses are having tricky conversations with their staff.’’ Sheree Carey
Southland Chamber of Commerce chief executive
them could remain in a job, she said.
‘‘Businesses are having tricky conversations with their staff.’’
She urged all businesses to put plans in place to deal with each of the four alert levels implemented by the Government around the coronavirus outbreak.
Carey said businesses should communicate with their staff as matters progressed and believed the Government’s business package was working well.
She knew of a Southland business that applied for money on Thursday and on Friday night $50,000 was put into its bank account.
‘‘That shows the process is working, it’s really easy.’’
With the Government increasing the risk to Level 3 yesterday, many businesses were trying to determine if they were regarded as an essential business or not.
Mataura Licensing Trust general manager Mark Paterson said it and the Invercargill Licensing Trust have sent emails to Labour-list MP Liz during the four week lockdown.
The rest of New Zealand would still be able to buy alcohol from supermarkets and they did not want Southlanders to be disadvantaged, Paterson said.
The risk would be that people would travel outside of the licensing trust area to buy alcohol in time when we should be limit movements, he said.
Bottle stores under the MLT would remain as late as they legally could or until they ran out of stock, he said.
MLT’s bars, restaurants and liquor stores would be closed from today, he said.
Bottle stores had been busy at pre-Christmas levels and people were buying in quantity, not just one box, Paterson said.