Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says yesterday’s highest daily death toll from Covid19 so far was a “sad and sobering reminder of the need to stay the course”; and parking fine defaulters are being sent for debt collection by Wellington City Council during the lockdown. But the council says it is willing to be lenient if people facing covid-19-related hardship get in touch.
* The New Zealand Herald
In the New Zealand Herald, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says yesterday’s highest daily death toll from Covid19 so far was a “sad and sobering reminder of the need to stay the course”. Four deaths were reported, three from the Rosewood resthome cluster and a man in his 70s in Wellington.
In other news, parents will be striving for some sort of normalcy when their kids start back at school today but it won’t be as they know it. Classrooms will be on the couch, at the dining room table or, for the lucky ones, at a desk. And the teacher is Suzy Cato the former children’s show host will be zooming into iPads, computer screens and TV screens around the country as part of the Government’s educational service.
In business news, the Government has announced a range of new support measures for small and medium-sized businesses, including a $3.1 billion tax relief package. The tax scheme is “a loss carry-back mechanism” which enables a firm to offset a loss in a particular tax year against a profit in a previous year, and receive a refund of the tax paid in the previous profitable year.
* The Dominion Post
In the Dominion Post, it would be wrong to expect New Zealand’s economy to return to anything like normal for a very long time, economists say. Modelling by the Treasury released yesterday showed that, in a worst-case scenario, unemployment could reach 26 per cent. But state support, and intervention in the economy, could reduce that to 9.5 per cent.
In other news, the father of the groom connected to the Bluff wedding cluster who died of coronavirus has been described as a ‘‘beautiful soul’’. Chrisanthos (Christo) Tzanoudakis, 87, died in Wellington Hospital on April 10, becoming New Zealand’s third death connected with Covid-19 and one of two fatalities in the capital. As of yesterday, nine people had died of the virus.
In business news, parking fine defaulters are being sent for debt collection by Wellington City Council during the lockdown. But the council says it is willing to be lenient if people facing covid-19-related hardship get in touch.
* The Press
In The Press, it was a surgical ward until the level four lockdown restrictions came into play and elective surgeries were cancelled. Now, Ward GG at Christchurch’s Burwood Hospital is an upsetting place for anyone to be, including its experienced nursing staff. Located in the original part of the hospital campus a distance from the rehabilitation wards, this place has had six deaths since April 6 the day 20 elderly dementia patients were moved here from Rosewood Rest Home and Hospital in Linwood.
In other news, New Zealand mountain guide Jane Morris expected to lead an expedition retracing Shackleton’s crossing of South Georgia. Instead, she ended up delivering meals and cups of tea to passengers stuck on board a coronavirus-stricken ship before becoming one of the ‘‘lucky 13’’ to make it home.
In business news, while the coronavirus pandemic has plunged many small businesses into financial turmoil, one of Christchurch’s most popular hospitality attractions is doing all it can to help its tenants survive the alert level 4 lockdown. Tenants at Riverside Market and Riverside Retail Lanes in the central city have been offered rent relief over the next three months in an effort to help them keep their doors open. Tenants’ operating costs have also been cut in half to ease some of the financial pressure caused by the lockdown.
