Essential services will be ticking over in lockdown

Some Hawke’s Bay stores and services will remain open for the community during lockdown and who some of them are may surprise you.

Businesses such as supermarkets, dairies, service stations and pharmacies are essential.

But there are plenty of others who will still be working to provide the necessities.

Stores such as The Warehouse, Mitre 10 Mega and other nonmainstream supermarkets will remain closed. Some hardware stores will be open only for trade workers who are working through.

This means food, medicine, healthcare, energy, fuel, waste removal, internet and financial support will continue to be available, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said.

Many publicly accessible places have already had restrictions placed on them, with security controlling the number of people gaining access and contact they have.

Drive share services Uber and Ola will continue over the four-week period in the region, assisting with transporting people to health centres and supermarkets.

New Zealand country manager at

Ola, Brian Dewil, said: “Even in these moments of great uncertainty, many thousands of people are continuing to work selflessly to keep everyone safe.

“As a key service to help the community, we’ll continue to operate and it is okay to keep booking rides during the lockdown.”

A Hawke’s Bay construction company is also going to offer its services on call during the lockdown for emergencies.

Wiffbuilt Building Maintenance and Construction owner Steve Wiffen said:

“With everyone stuck at home for most of the day over the month-long period there are bound to be problems coming up, so it’s just a matter of making sure we can help out and solve any issues people might have in that time.

“I have a crew of three guys including a builder, plumber and electrician so we will cover most of the problems people will face.”

He said that they will only help in urgent situations and are also following health and safety procedures in how they deal with jobs and people.

“We have strict cleaning procedures we will proceed with and follow social distancing rules but we will only attend a job in an urgent case, anyway.”