Morning Report

Europe's first coronavirus case is now thought to have occurred in December, after a doctor in France re-tested a swab for a patient who had been treated for pneumonia.

Until now, the first three cases had been confirmed on 24 January, but if true, it means the virus was in Europe for a month earlier than was initially thought.

It comes as France looks to begin easing its restrictions from next Monday, after recording its lowest death tolls for weeks.

Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield speaks to Kim Hill.

A draft US government report has projected the number of Covid-19 cases in America will surge to 200,000 per day by 1 June.

The forecasting ends at the beginning of June, but it suggests the numbers will continue to rise from then on. It also predicts 3000 deaths a day.

A separate report from the University of Washington forecasted the country would reach 135,000 deaths per day by early August.

It put the cause down to the easing of restrictions, as a number of states look to relax their stay-at-home orders and allow businesses to re-open by next Monday.

Washington correspondent Simon Marks has more.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa has been surveying tourism businesses about how they are being affected by the drop in business since the borders closed and the lockdown began.

Almost 80 percent of tourism businesses say they are making major adaptations to try to survive the down-turn, but it's likely about half of the almost 400,000 people employed in the industry could lose their jobs.

Will the prospect of a trans-Tasman bubble be enough to keep businesses afloat?

Chief executive of Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chris Roberts speaks to Kim Hill.

There has been criticism of the lack of Māori appearing before the Epidemic Response Committee.

In the six weeks it's been sitting only two Māori organisations, and no iwi, have been invited to speak.  

Labour MP Ruth Dyson - who's on the committee - says the absence of Māori voices is alarmingly obvious, but most of her requests to include them have been denied by the National Party Leader and chair of the committee, Simon Bridges.

Bridges speaks to Gyles Beckford.

Adrian Littlewood is the chief executive of Auckland International Airport. He chaired the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum for five years.

That's the group now overseeing the group of experts who will be drawing up the recommendations for new safe border processing for any trans-Tasman bubble.

He speaks to Morning Report producer Jeremy Wilkinson.

As Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison try to manage expectations of a trans-Tasman travel bubble, Tasmania's Premier and New Zealand's deputy prime minister are already planning new direct flights.

Winston Peters is excited by the idea too, and has heaped praise on Peter Gutwein for thinking outside the box.

RNZ political reporter Jo Moir filed this report on the prospect of a new trans-Tasmanian relationship.

Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says work is underway to update the Government's systems, but it will take a while.

He told Morning Report work is underway to move the system to a less paper-based one and automate some processing.

It comes as the government grants itself sweeping powers to manage visas in a bill that was introduced to parliament this week.

Lees-Galloway says the amendments will mean they can be more flexible and responsive to the challenges posed by Covid-19.

One of the challenges is to quickly manage visa changes for large numbers of migrants who are unable to leave New Zealand due to the pandemic.

The changes will also stop people making visa applications from overseas while border restrictions are in place, and provide a means to refuse entry to people who are deemed to hold a visa.

Restaurants and bars are gearing up with the tech industry to use a multiplicity of Covid-19 contact tracing apps in Level 2.

A software leaders says signs are the Government will be happy without having just one contact tracing app to rule them all.

Phil Pennington reports.

News from the business sector, including a market report.

Government MPs on the Epidemic Response Committee are blaming Simon Bridges for the lack of Māori voices at the committee meetings. 

The committee whose job it is to challenge the government's response to Covid 19, has been criticised by Māori health experts and iwi representatives for leaving them out. 

The MPs say most of their requests to hear from Māori have been ignored by the chair. 

Te Aniwa Hurihanganui has more.