On the fourth consecutive day without a new coronavirus case, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has revealed his "great hope" about New Zealand's future prospects of dealing with the pandemic. Get all the important news and read the full stories in the links below.
Covid 19 coronavirus: What you need to know about Thursday's big developments
NZ Herald
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• Bars are reopening today, and Bloomfield is advising Kiwis to be safe and have fun - but perhaps to not try any new lockdown dance moves.
Listen live to Newstalk ZB's coronavirus coverage
• If you worked from home during the lockdown, there's a nice little sweetener: you may be able to receive an extra $15 for each week.
• Four weeks' worth of purchases were frozen during level 4, meaning in level 3 there was a surge of deliveries that overwhelmed courier companies across New Zealand. However, CourierPost says a record backlog of parcels from the start of level 3 is likely to start moving by the end of this week.
Business update
• The Prime Minister's powerful Business Advisory Council has delivered her a cutting message that Australia is "co-optimising" the economic consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak better than New Zealand.
• Hard-hit domestic tourism in New Zealand is showing early signs of bouncing back, data released by Airbnb shows.
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• People who are considering taking up a financial relief offer from their insurer need to be wary about the potential fishhooks, the industry regulator is warning.
Around the world
• The World Health Organisation has expressed concern about the rising number of new coronavirus cases in poor countries, even as many rich countries have begun emerging from lockdown. The global health body said that 106,000 new cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours, the most in a single day since the outbreak began.
• Sweden has now overtaken the United Kingdom, Italy and Belgium to have the highest coronavirus per capita death rate in the world, throwing its decision to avoid a strict lockdown into further doubt.
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
The last word
• If anyone had any questions about how difficult rebuilding the economy is going to be, Fletcher Building just provided a clear indication by revealing their plans to lay off 1000 workers, writes Duncan Bridgeman, who argues that the move gives a dose of hard reality to the economic impact of the four-week lockdown between March 26 and April 27.
