How is New Zealand faring during the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic? Newsroom presents a daily visual update on the latest numbers related to the virus here and overseas – and the impact on the economy.
Worldwide cases
Worldwide the pandemic isn’t slowing down. Thousands of new cases are reported every day. It’s expected the actual number of cases and deaths are higher than those reported.
Worldwide deaths
Overseas the death toll in some countries has risen sharply, with the number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 far smaller than the spike seen. This has led to speculation many countries are not capturing all deaths caused by the virus. Newsroom has been supplied weekly death registration data from the Department of Internal Affairs to compare our deaths this year to previous years.
Vaccines and treatments
There are a number of vaccines and treatments being developed and researched. This is done in phases. A preclinical phase uses animals. Phase one clinical trial involve a small group of people to ensure the product is safe and to test if it has the same effect in humans as it did in animals. Phase two tests more people and sometimes different doses. During phase three trials thousands of people are given the product and results followed over an extended amount of time. For treatments phase four trials test long-term safety and identify side effects once a treatment has been available for some time. Many of the treatments being trialled for their effectiveness against Covid-19 are treatments initially developed for other conditions.
New Zealand’s borders
New Zealand’s borders closed to non-New Zealand citizens on March 19. There are limited exceptions to the closure rule, and they can seek approval from Immigration New Zealand.
All arrivals must spend 14 days in quarantine or a managed isolation facility. They must then test negative for Covid-19 before they can go into the community.
As long as some precautions have been taken overseas, New Zealand-based air crew are exempt from quarantine, as are grooms travelling with live horses.
Employment
A 12 week wage subsidy initiated at the beginning of lockdown measures will come to an end in June. A targeted extension is available for businesses who can show a revenue loss of at least 50 per cent for the 30-day period prior to the application date versus the nearest comparable period last year will be eligible for the extension of the scheme.
As well as the jobseeker benefit there’s a new benefit announced. ‘Income relief’ payments of $490 per week will be available for full-time workers who lost their job after March 1 due to Covid-19. Part-time workers will receive $250 per week. It will be available until November. After 12 weeks of income relief payments recipients will be required to apply for the jobseeker benefit if they haven’t found employment.
Economy
Numbers released quarterly show a dive in card transactions and the value and volume of retail trade during the lockdown.
Tourism
Tourism was New Zealand’s largest export industry contributing 21% of foreign exchange earnings. In the year to March 2019 International tourism expenditure was $17.2 billion. Around 229,566 people were directly employed in tourism.
