Coronavirus

Covid-19 live updates, April 9: Decision on ending lockdown in 11 days; drop in active cases

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For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. 7.00pm: … Read more

Review: The Beths, live (streamed)

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The Beths’ livestreamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, live music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see other Kiwis live streaming for the next week. Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet stuffed with … Read more

Ignore the pandemic productivity guilt trap – it’s bullshit anyway

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It’s OK if you don’t come out of lockdown with abs. We are living through the worst global pandemic since the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the beginning of an economic calamity that has already claimed the jobs of millions of workers the world over. Hospitals are full, schools are closed and many countries are in full lockdown. We’re practising … Read more

New Zealanders deserve proper answers to difficult questions on Covid-19

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The 1pm briefing has become appointment viewing. But it is no substitute for transparent, timely information, even in such extraordinary times, writes Newshub investigations reporter Michael Morrah in this post originally published on Newshub. Like all journalists in New Zealand right now, I’ve been covering stories day after day, all of which relate to our … Read more

The secret to rapidly increasing Covid-19 tests? The pool

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Bulk testing of samples could be the way forward for coronavirus surveillance in New Zealand, reports Mirjam Guesgen. With the number of completed coronavirus tests in New Zealand breaking 4,000 in a day on Tuesday, scientists are looking at more efficient tests to push that number even higher. By testing samples from multiple people all … Read more

A very different kind of Passover, in lockdown New Zealand

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This Passover, we won’t be attending synagogue, we won’t be participating in large raucous dinners and sharing our food with our extended family and friends, we won’t be welcoming strangers into our homes, as Jewish people are instructed to do, writes Juliet Moses. Tonight, on what is hopefully the halfway point of our lockdown period, … Read more

The effects of the Covid-19 recession will hit Māori hardest

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Māori will likely make up the worst unemployment figures in the forthcoming economic recession. Things can’t go back to the way they were, writes Joshua Hitchcock. Our world has changed. While it is too early to know with any certainty what the full impact of this crisis will be on Māori, what we can surmise … Read more

Almost 90% of New Zealanders back Ardern government on Covid-19 – poll

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‘New Zealand leads world in public perception of Covid-19 response,’ says pollster Colmar Brunton. Public support for the official New Zealand response to the Covid-19 outbreak remains high, and well ahead of the world’s richest coutries, new polling suggests. The numbers show New Zealanders’ backing for measures “far outstrips the response in any of the … Read more

Potential Covid-19 shortages highlight our homophobic blood bank policy

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A simple, long overdue change in New Zealand’s policy for blood donations would benefit everyone, writes Dr Oliver Armstrong-Scott. The New Zealand Blood Service recently pleaded for Kiwis to continue donating blood during the Covid-19 lockdown to ensure supplies do not run out. As a medical doctor, I have seen firsthand the absolute necessity of … Read more

How – and when – will New Zealand come out of lockdown?

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Tonight New Zealand marks the halfway point of alert level four. Assuming, that is, it ends on schedule. What will determine the decision to lift the strictest restrictions, and what comes next? Kate Newton of RNZ asks the experts. Covid-19 researchers in New Zealand are optimistic that the level four restrictions could be lifted in … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 8: Support for schools announced; public urged to avoid Easter travel

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For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. On … Read more

Newly arrived refugees in limbo in lockdown New Zealand

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A new life has been put on hold for people in the Auckland resettlement centre, writes Greta Yeoman. For the 135 refugees based at the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre in Auckland, plans to resettle in towns across New Zealand towards the end of April are up in the air with the country four-week-long Covid-19 lockdown … Read more

The new online community exploring the possibilities of a post-Covid world

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Amid the seemingly endless bad news at the moment, a new initiative is trying to get people to think positively. While the world may seem like it’s slowed to a crawl, there are still people out there creating and innovating. The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically altered how we’re living, but aspects of this change could … Read more

Five ways the Covid-19 crisis could change our tax system

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From the reemerging debate around capital gains tax to the increasing reach of tax authorities, Terry Baucher, writing for interest.co.nz, looks at a number of implications the coronavirus pandemic could have on the tax system.  “There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen,” Lenin is said to have remarked, possibly … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 7: Mental health resource Getting Through Together now available

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For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. On … Read more

How to support small local food businesses during the lockdown

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The way we buy our food has changed hugely since the lockdown began. Small New Zealand producers have taken a massive hit, closing stores and struggling with online demand. Here are some ways shoppers can help these businesses. In the first week of lockdown, shoppers panicked. It was a perfectly natural response to the fear … Read more

Why danger pay is not OK

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Our essential workers deserve more than a round of applause, but danger pay is not the answer, writes Kerry Davies from the Public Service Association. Did you shower this morning? Is the kitchen clean? Have you changed your sheets since we went into lockdown? Have you vacuumed? Are you taking that rubbish out? For most … Read more

Easter is a time of reflection and reckoning, especially during lockdown

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Reverend Scottie Reeve on the meaning of Easter during the Covid-19 pandemic, and why we need to embark on a journey of collective repentance.  On Wednesday while I was going for a walk, I came across a friend on the Wellington waterfront. We’ll call him David. David had no idea what was happening at the … Read more

The crowdsourced site to beat the lockdown supermarket queues

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For those keen to avoid the long and awkward queues at supermarkets, there may be a new technological solution. Long supermarket lines have become the bane of the lockdown era, with many people worried that the overcrowding and long wait times may burst their bubbles. Those concerns have prompted a Dunedin-based software engineer to create … Read more

Helping people say goodbye, apart: A funeral director on life under lockdown

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From managing the expectations of friends and whānau to making sure there’s enough PPE, Jihee Junn talks to an Auckland-based funeral director about what their job has been like under Covid-19.  More than 400 people are said to have died during New Zealand’s first week under level four lockdown. Only one had a direct connection … Read more

Siouxsie Wiles & Toby Morris: Should we all be wearing face masks to prevent Covid-19 spread?

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The face mask question is more complicated than it might at first seem, explains Siouxsie Wiles. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 crisis is only possible because of the support of members. If you can, please consider joining Spinoff Members here. Read Toby Morris’s new Side Eye comic, created with Siouxsie Wiles, here. And more of Siouxsie’s … Read more

Covid-19: New Zealand cases mapped and charted, April 6

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The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members These posts collate the most recent statistics and presents them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early afternoon, which describe … Read more

The novel coronavirus: On writing a pandemic, then watching it play out

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Laura Jean McKay is hunkered down in Palmerston North but her much-hyped novel The Animals in That Country is out there in the world – earlier than expected, too, because it’s about a strange new flu. Two women stand close to each other in an aisle labelled CANS. They’re young, with strong pink arms in … Read more

Sorry Trump, there’s little evidence that hydroxychloroquine can treat Covid-19

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Today President Trump again touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19, despite a lack of good evidence that it is safe or effective against the coronavirus. Here’s what we do know about the drug Trump calls a ‘game changer’. On Saturday the US Food and Drug Administration granted authorisation of two antimalarial drugs, hydroxychloroquine … Read more

The Bulletin: Debate on when to leave the lockdown

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Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Debate over leaving lockdown fires up, how the tax system could change after Covid-19, and concerns as cyclone bears down on Vanuatu. Over the last few days, a debate has started to fire up about leaving level four restrictions, and restarting some of the economic activity … Read more

The next big thing in Covid-19 testing could be floating beneath you

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Scientists hope to seek evidence of the coronavirus, or its absence, in wastewater. Mirjam Guesgen explains. The fight against Covid-19 is headed for the sewers, with New Zealand scientists hoping to analyse wastewater samples for signs of the coronavirus. Tests would allow health authorities to see whether New Zealand’s elimination strategy has worked, said Michael … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 6: $5.3bn paid out in wage subsidy scheme, PM says it’s time to ‘double down’ on efforts

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For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The Spinoff Members here. On … Read more

Siouxsie Wiles: On Covid-19, we have to build the plane as we fly it

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Siouxsie Wiles on the vitriolic correspondence she’s received since the Covid-19 outbreak struck, and the realities of communicating evidence. I recently received an email and text from someone telling me they are planning to email my boss, the University of Auckland vice chancellor. They are going to ask for me to “be brought before the … Read more

Lockdown letters #10, Fiona Farrell: On Ardern and kindness

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In our new series The Lockdown Letters, five of New Zealand’s best writers chronicle the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, Fiona Farrell. There’s a sign sticky-taped to the bakery window. Closed Until Further Notice. Stay Safe NZ and Be Kind. We will get through this! We all know where the words come from: Jacinda … Read more