Businesses call for level 1 timeline
Businesses need more clarity from the Government about what might persuade it to drop the country’s coronavirus alert level down to level 1, BusinessNZ says.
The lobby group said in a statement yesterday that it was concerned large numbers of businesses were ‘‘at risk of closure if restrictions continue at the current level’’.
Chief executive Kirk Hope said it was ‘‘imperative to get more commercial activity happening and more people back at work’’.
Low levels of activity and low demand were hurting businesses and increasing the risk of business failure and job loss, he said.
‘‘Business needs more clarity about the path ahead, including detail on what level 1 restrictions might entail, and on the criteria for moving to level 1.’’
BusinessNZ said it wanted the Government to urgently produce a ‘‘timeline’’ and criteria for easing restrictions.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday that the Government was reviewing the remaining coronavirus restrictions every two weeks.
But there was no timeframe for moving to level 1, as the timing would depend on advice from the director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield, she said.
‘‘I envisage that we will stay in level 2 until the director-general has confidence that we can deescalate further.’’
However, she indicated some restrictions could be eased ahead of that, during level 2.
Cabinet is expected to decide today whether to lift the size of gatherings that are allowed during level 2 at events such as church services. Ardern has also suggested it may be possible to relax social distancing rules on buses and planes so people could travel more.
The best thing the Government could do for the economy was to stay on top of the virus and ‘‘continue our managed deescalation of restrictions when the health data says it is safe to do so’’, she said on Wednesday.
There only needed to be one or two infectious people to go on a ‘‘night out’’ for that case to turn into 90 – going back to pre-lockdown levels, she said.
‘‘No one wants to see that.’’