Venkat Raman
Auckland, April 30, 2020
Demand for tax concessions and write-offs, postponement of debts, reduced interest rates on loans, relief from rents and a host of other issues are being raised as New Zealand hopes to get down to Alert Level Two after May 11, 2020.
At press time, the New Zealand Parliament was considering a tax package, details of which were not available. We will update the outcome on our website and social media.
The waiting period
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told her daily media conference that people are now enjoying food from takeaway outlets, but reminded the importance of social distancing.
“Please continue to act like you have the virus when you are out and about and if you see breaches, please report them. Now is not the time to loosen up our compliance,” she said.
Ms Ardern constantly expresses her gratitude to New Zealanders for their cooperation in observing the lockdown rules and to those who provided essential services during Alert Level 4 (from March 25 to April 27, 2020) but does not forget to point out the risk of ‘losing it all.’
“Alert Level 3 means we are in the Waiting Room. Whether we will move down to Alert 2 after May 11, 2020 will depend on how safe we are at that time,” she said.
Complaints of non-Compliance
There have been complaints that social distancing was not being practiced at several takeaway places since they opened on April 28.
She said that the government expected high standards to be upheld by takeaway services and enforcement was being taking seriously.
There have been 185 breaches over the past two days, including 81 and 48 new warnings on the second day of Alert Level 3.
Ms Ardern said that a breach reporting tool set up by Police had received 1035 complaints by 530 pm on April 29, with 277 referred to the Compliance Assessment Team.
“Of those, 104 have been tasked with further action by agencies. Some are being followed up by MBIE, police, WorkSafe and MPI, all dependent on the type of breach that may have occurred. A majority of these complaints were about the lack of social distancing, business breaches by patrons or staff, safe operating practices for cafes, recreational activities or in-home gatherings. People should still act like they have Covid when out and about. We are following up complaints from people about others not following the rules,” she said.
Covid-19 Numbers
Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that there were three new cases of Covid-19, the 12th consecutive day of single-digit number.
He said that seven people are in hospital, none in intensive care.
The total number of confirmed and probable cases is respectively 1129 and 347.
