Coronavirus

Covid-19 live updates, May 4: Level two details coming this week; PM to discuss trans-Tasman bubble tomorrow

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For 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 … Read more

Did the Covid-19 crisis bork your attention span? Here’s why

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TL;DR: you probably will read a book again. Maybe even write one. How’s your brain been? Quite shite? Same. Anyway, after many fits and starts and much staring out the window and also rewatching Twilight, here is a Q&A with very patient and busy clinical psychologist Dr Kimberly Falconer. (Falconer, in lockdown with her husband … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, May 3: Two new cases in New Zealand, Bloomfield issues warning

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For 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 … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, May 2: Six new cases; one further death

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For 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 … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, May 1: Three new cases; leaked poll numbers bad for National

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For 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 … Read more

How an army of students is helping to feed vulnerable New Zealanders

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Delivery services for supermarkets across the country are filling up weeks in advance, leaving immunocompromised people without options. Students up and down the country have been stepping up, through the Student Volunteer Army, to help those in need. If anyone had said at this point last year that a smile from a stranger passing on … Read more

The Side Eye: Essential

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Two years ago, Toby Morris met Tasia for the Side Eye comic ‘Empty Shelves’. As New Zealand emerges from the strict Covid-19 lockdown of alert level four he catches up with her again, and finds that while some things have changed, others have not. The Side Eye is a monthly non-fiction comic by Toby Morris, … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 30: Three new cases; mortgage restrictions scrapped

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For 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 … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 29: WHO praises NZ response; commercial rent relief an option

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For 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 … Read more

Siouxsie Wiles: Where did the name ‘Covid-19’ come from?

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In the third in our new video series 60 Seconds with Siouxsie, Dr Wiles explains why we’ve heard so little about Covids 1-18. A short and sweet video made possible by the support of Spinoff members, about the origins of the name “Covid-19”. Contrary to what you might have heard from Trump megaphone Kellyanne Conway, … Read more

Covid-19: It’s back to school in NZ today – but how many children are going?

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Under alert level three, school doors are open to students up to Year 10 who need to attend. Initial signs are that only a trickle are heading through the gates. Five weeks after they closed their doors as New Zealand went into the strict lockdown of alert level four, schools across the country are reopening … Read more

Bursting the bubble fallacy: Lockdown and the problematic concept of ‘home’

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As the past few weeks have starkly revealed, we can’t always conflate the occupants of a single residence into one neat group. Anthropologists Susanna Trnka and Sharyn Graham Davies explain.  On March 23, New Zealanders were presented with a stark and unprecedented demand to get into our “bubbles” within 48 hours and stay there for … Read more

The prevalence puzzle: Siouxsie Wiles on understanding the Covid-19 numbers

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A study in Santa Clara, California, suggested 50 times as many as the confirmed number of cases. Reports from New York headlined 2.7 million people in the state having had coronavirus. Siouxsie Wiles on what we need to know to trust the numbers. A few days ago it was reported that “2.7 million New Yorkers have … Read more

Covid-19: The tough questions on a digital contact-tracing app

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It’s a crucial factor in keeping the spread of the virus under control, but there’s a whole lot more the government needs to consider than what is technically possible, writes Andrew Chen. Now we’ve exited level four, how do we keep the Covid-19 cases down? A critical part of the puzzle is contact tracing. In … Read more

Covid-19 can help us think differently about exponential growth

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As the countless graphs of Covid-19 cases have shown us, what comes up must invariably come down. Justin Connolly asks if we need to think that way about the economy. There have been many funny posts circulating on social media about life in Covid-19 lockdown. One in particular caught my eye because it was funny, … Read more

Siouxsie Wiles & Toby Morris: Welcome to alert level three. Now let’s finish what we started

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After five weeks in the strict Covid-19 lockdown of alert level four, New Zealand today begins a fortnight – at least – in a less stringent version, alert level three. In a message to New Zealanders, Siouxsie Wiles warns this may be the trickiest phase yet. With illustrations and animations by Toby Morris. The Spinoff’s … Read more

The legal basis for the lockdown may not be as solid as we’ve been led to believe

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The seriousness of the restrictions we’re living under deserves a much sounder legislative footing, write law professors Andrew Geddis and Claudia Geiringer.  They should have a clear, certain basis in law and be imposed through a transparent and accountable process. Let’s start with the good stuff. New Zealand’s “go hard, go early” lockdown approach looks … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 28: More heat on David Clark, three new cases reported

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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 three – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here. The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support … Read more

‘It’s bloody eerie for me’: An essay by Tina Shaw, who wrote her own pandemic

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Review copies of Tina Shaw’s pandemic novel Ephemera landed in letterboxes just as the country went into lockdown. Here, she reflects on this strange new reality. These new times have the uncanny feeling of fiction – of science fiction, or post-apocalyptic fiction. In other words, the unreal has become real. I keep thinking of Station … Read more

The relevance of te Tiriti o Waitangi in the Covid-19 era

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Law professor Dr Claire Charters (Te Arawa) lays out Aotearoa’s dual legal systems and the government’s obligations to both in these uncertain times. The Covid-19 era is like a fast-moving picture which perpetually develops and re-develops. The picture adjusts with ever-changing information on the relevant health-science, the impact on the economy, the need for restrictions … Read more

Covid-19 has thrown food insecurity into sharp relief. Let’s use it as an opportunity

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The current crisis has rendered visible challenges that have been simmering in the background long before the country went into lockdown, writes Chris Farrelly of the Auckland City Mission. Covid-19 presents new and unfamiliar territory for many of us in our day-to-day realities. Be it managing childcare in the home office, or adjusting to time … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 27: five new cases of Covid-19; one further death

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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 … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 26: Nine new cases in NZ, McDonalds plans under fire

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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 … Read more

Covid-19 live updates, April 25: Five new cases, one further death in NZ

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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 … Read more

Lockdown letters #30, Fiona Farrell: There is no going back to normal

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Anzac weekend has always been a time for thinking about our country and during this one, in the quiet that has fallen during lockdown, we can contemplate a new kind of New Zealand. Read more from the lockdown letters here. Yesterday I put on a fire, the first one this autumn. Dragged a newspaper from the … Read more

The lockdown sanctuary at Lake Tekapo

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As New Zealanders await the end of alert level four and the chance to escape their homes, some are in such scenic lockdown refuges they won’t want to leave. Every morning, the 11 residents at the Lake Tekapo Holiday Park wake up to silence. It’s dense and thorough – the kind that presses on your … Read more

Hospitality is broken, and the Covid-19 crisis gives us the chance to fix it

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Restaurants were already teetering on the edge. If they’re to survive this, the industry must come together and take one crucial step, writes Sophie Gilmour. We’ve heard about “the good old days” in hospitality – apparently, people wanted to work in the industry because they could make a decent living. Working conditions were great, people … Read more

Siouxsie Wiles: Are disinfectants effective against Covid-19? Yes, but…

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In the third in our new video series 60 Seconds with Siouxsie, Dr Wiles explains why Donald Trump’s latest suggestion is bonkers.  In this video, made possible by the support of Spinoff members, Siouxsie Wiles says the American president’s idea that disinfectant might be able to rid people’s bodies of Covid-19 is wrong and dangerous.   … Read more

Covid-19: New Zealand cases mapped and charted, April 24

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The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts. This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre.  These posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. … Read more