Greens table conversion therapy petition despite Government s promise to ban it by 2022 newshub.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newshub.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Watch: Chris Hipkins and Dr Ashley Bloomfield provide a COVID-19 update. Credits: Video - Newshub; Image - Getty.
After a short, sharp lockdown, Auckland is back under alert level 2 while the rest of New Zealand has dropped to alert level 1.
The moves comes despite three new community cases of COVID-19 being reported on Wednesday. All three, however, are connected to the original trio from the weekend and there is no evidence yet - either from community testing or wastewater testing - of any wider parallel transmission.
Of the 31 close contacts of the original cases, 30 have tested negative while the last is one of the three new positive cases. The test results of more than 360 casual-plus contacts - many from Papatoetoe High School - remain outstanding, but 1159 have tested negative. Contact tracing is now underway for the three new cases.
Expert blasts Govt s alert level changes, calls them political theatre Thu, 18 Feb 2021, 8:07AM
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced yesterday Auckland was to drop to alert level 2 after three days at level 3. (Photo / File)
Expert blasts Govt s alert level changes, calls them political theatre Thu, 18 Feb 2021, 8:07AM
A health expert has blasted the Government s alert-level responses of the past week, saying people were becoming confused over an inconsistent approach - and distressed at the political theatre of the Beehive announcements.
Aucklanders are waking up to more freedom today but the source of the latest outbreak, which now involves six confirmed community cases, remains unknown.
Diana Wichtel on the new normal and how it is quickly undone by presidential falsehoods and mutating viruses
19 Feb, 2021 03:00 AM
4 minutes to read
Political theatre or reality? Photo / Getty Images
By: Diana Wichtel It was a weekend of the Big Gay Out, the Americas Cup … We spent time with friends, out and about, scanning and masking as required. We were living, if not the dream, then at least our slightly nervous nearly normal. Then the country was back into degrees of lockdown.
Later that day my mobile suddenly emitted a nerve-shredding eldritch shriek of the sort you might expect if being alerted to a nuclear facility in core meltdown. I swear I levitated half a metre off the couch. Still, effective public health communication, for sure.