Fewer new cases but Govt still mulls move
No guarantees locked-down NZ about to shift to different level
New cases of Covid-19 are back to single digits for the first time since the first days of the virus’ arrival on New Zealand’s shores.
Despite the promising figures, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government had not decided if the country would come out of level
4 lockdown next week. “There is still more work for us to do,” he said.
And he warned that level 3 was not “markedly different” to level 4.
“[Level 3] is not a return to preCovid-19 days. We are some time away from that.”
But some things will return to normal in the near future.
The Business Committee — MPs in charge of making decisions on many aspects of the proceedings of Parliament — has agreed Parliament will sit again on April 28. It is likely the first priority will be passing further Covid19 legislation.
There were just eight new cases of Covid-19 yesterday — six probable and two confirmed. The last time there was that number of new cases was a month ago today.
The total number of tests continues to climb — 4241 were done on Thursday, for a total of more than
74,000 to date.
And the Government will spend $276 million on additional support for the health service. This includes $200m towards buying personal protective equipment (PPE).
Some $26m will be spent on keeping Covid-19 at bay in rest homes and Pharmac gets $35m to buy more essential medicine.
Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay confirmed yesterday two more people had died from Covid-19, taking the total to 11.
A man in his 90s who died at Waikato Hospital had been a part of the Matamata cluster. A woman in her
80s, who died at the Burwood Hospital in Christchurch, was the seventh person in the Rosewood Rest Home cluster to die.
“The fact we knew we would lose some New Zealanders to Covid-19 doesn’t lessen the shock and sadness each time it happens,” Robertson said.
He added that the deaths were a “sombre reminder that we need to continue to stay home to save lives and break the chain of transmission”.
Although the number of new cases has been dropping, the deaths may still rise.
McElnay said there were still confirmed and probable cases in the Rosewood cluster.
“This is a group who have been frail and vulnerable from the outset,” she said.
There are now a total of 1409 Covid-19 cases in New Zealand; 816 people have so far recovered.
Robertson said the fact there were only eight new cases was an “encouraging sign that level 4 is doing its job. But I don’t think we should be getting ahead of ourselves”.
The Government had two or three more days of data to go through before the Cabinet could decide about coming out of level 4.
Just days ago, the UK Government extended its lockdown by three weeks. Others have made similar decisions, including France, Australia, India and Japan.
Robertson noted those governments’ decisions should not serve as a signal that the New Zealand Cabinet would make the same decision on Monday: “This is a long game — a marathon, not a short sprint.”
He said there were things the Government needed to be sure of before restrictions were eased.
“One of those is that we genuinely are breaking the chain of community transmission.”
Work was still some being done on getting to the bottom of some new cases, and was needed on contact tracing, as well as making sure the
[Level 3] is not a return to pre-Covid-19 days. We are some time away from that.
Grant Robertson
health system had all it required.
One of the contact-tracing initiatives could be via a “CovidCard” — whereby everyone in New Zealand would be issued a Blue tooth-enabled card to help in tracing. Asked about the card, Robertson said work was being done on various initiatives.
“I’m aware that there is work going on in a card-type approach.”
But he said the Government needed to assess all options and figure out which was best to get the maximum amount of contact tracing done.
“The Ministry of Health is working very closely with a number of different people and we will have more to say about that as we come to making a decision on how we can use it.”
Robertson confirmed that, to date, $9.9 billion had been paid through the wage subsidy, covering 1.6 million workers. In comparison, there were roughly 23,000 new people on the Jobseeker benefit.
“I think it’s worth acknowledging again what the wage subsidy is doing to protect jobs and help businesses and workers stay connected through the lockdown,” he said.