Wellington's stay at level 2 has been extended until 11.59pm on Tuesday; the trans-Tasman bubble is under huge pressure and the hospitality sector wants specific support for the latest setback.
Covid-19 NZ: Further alert level extension threat hangs over Wellington stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The first of the crucial day five test results are expected today, after Wellingtonians turned out in their thousands to be swabbed for Covid-19 yesterday.
I still think the government has missed things, he said. They could have actually mandated mask use in all indoor public places. This has worked well in Melbourne recently. Sydney has adopted it and we see here a lack of using this particular tool of mass masking properly.
He said masks were not only effective but also low-cost, adding an extra layer of protection and minimising the chances of expensive lockdowns.
The need to upgrade the New Zealand system was now becoming urgent with the threat posed by the highly transmissible Delta variant, Wilson said. Some of us have been giving that advice for a long time and we ve been arguing that the alert-level system, which worked very well at the start of last year, should have been upgraded with the new evidence, both around the epidemiology and transmission of the pandemic virus, but also about learning from the overseas experience.