Morning Report

Dunedin and Invercargill hospitals would have been turning patients away from their intensive care units by the end of this month, if the worst case scenario for Covid-19 had played out.

Modeling done around the start of the lockdown for the Southern DHB shows a worst case scenario of 56 intensive care patients.

That's 24 more than its maximum if using every coronavirus emergency measure.

The region had a high rate of the disease early on and was home to two of the first clusters.

Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming told health correspondent Rowan Quinn it shows how devastating the virus could have been.

The Greens will only give limited support to plans to fast-track consents for 'shovel ready', large scale building projects, over concerns the public is losing its say.

New legislation would remove the ability of the public and councils to have input, and hand this power to a small panels of experts - but only for two years.

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson told RNZ political reporter Jo Moir they've already negotiated improvements to the bill, but want to hear from the public before committing support past the first reading.

Top stories this morning... The Green Party places a caveat on its backing shovel-ready projects. Wellington's billion-dollar Transmission Gully highway faces huge delays Hospitals are being told to consider putting off surgery for older or obese patients. We cross to Canada where nearly two weeks after its deadliest mass shooting, assault-style firearms are to be banned.

It's Friday so we cross the ditch to Canberra to talk to our correspondent Kerry-Anne Walsh.

Hundreds of unwanted pets are getting the chance to find new homes under level 3 lockdown, with the SPCA now offering "contactless adoptions".

The SPCA currently has 2,411 animals in foster homes nationwide, including cats, dogs, goats, guinea pigs, horses, fowl, and even rodents, as well as others still in its shelters.

RNZ's Ruth Hill reports.

As New Zealand's elite sports teams and athletes grapple with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, concern is also surfacing at the community level of the sports sector.

A significant financial hit is already being felt by grass-roots sporting organisations, who help form the fabric of so many communties across the country.

Clay Wilson reports on how Covid-19 is impacting community sport in New Zealand, and how the sector plans to get through it.

Outbreaks of dysentry, dengue fever and malaria have been reported in parts of Vanuatu devastated by Cyclone Harold.

The cases are in the country's north, where entire villages were flattened by winds in excess of 200km/h.

The news also comes as Pacific governments announced an array of stimulus measures this week, as global and local lockdowns due to Covid-19 decimates tourism industries.

For more on what's been going on in the region this week, Gyles Beckford speaks to RNZ Pacific's Jamie Tahana.

Life in lockdown has led many Kiwi to take to the internet for inspiration about keeping active while stuck at home.

Older New Zealanders, however, are less likely to access these resources, and in some cases may not find a "20 Minute Ab Workout" particularly useful.

So a group of researchers and physiotherapists have designed a programme specifically for seniors that will be broadcast on TV starting this weekend.

Denise Taylor is a professor of physiotherapy and the Director of the Health and Rehabilitation Research Institute at AUT.

She speaks to Corin Dann.

With the lockdown in place and few flights running, aviation security officers have been redeployed to help the police patrol supermarkets and do quarantine and isolation checks.

Officers from airports in Dunedin, Queenstown, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, have been helping out since last month.

Karen Urwin, senior manager of operations for AvSec, speaks to Corin Dann.

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.