Morning Report

RNZ reporters were out and about - carefully - to see what the public thought of the decision to continue on level four lockdown until after the upcoming holiday weekend.

Most thought the right call was made.

The epidemiologist who audited the country's contact tracing system says New Zealand was not ready for a pandemic like Covid-19.

Ayesha Verrall from the University of Otago found the tracing system was too slow and needs to expand three fold. The ability to trace people who've come into contact with confirmed Covid-19 cases was one of the key considerations when the Cabinet decided yesterday to keep the country in level four lockdown until next week.

Dr Verrall told Morning Report health officials hadn't realised the key role contact tracing plays in fighting Covid-19 until a World Health Organisation report on the Wuhan outbreak was published in February.

News from the business sector, including a market report.

It is now known 19 people have been been killed by a gunman in Nova Scotia in Canada who disguised himself as a police officer.

It's Canada's deadliest mass shooting.

The Canadian police have found 16 crime scenes so far, but warn the death toll could still rise.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, says the shooting spree happened in small towns, where people have deep roots, they know their neighbours and look out for one another.

The 12-hour rampage started late on Saturday and ended when the gunman was killed in a confrontation with police. Canada correspondent Laura McQuillan has been following the story.

Early childhood services want more evidence it will be safe to reopen next week and some are likely to remain closed.

The government says schools and early learning centres will open on 29 April for children who can't learn from home or whose parents are going back to work at Alert Level 3.

Meanwhile, school leaders say they will get on with the job of getting ready to reopen.

Here's RNZ education correspondent, John Gerritsen.

Opposition leader Simon Bridges says the Government's decision to extend lockdown shows it hasn't done the groundwork required to have the country ready.

The national lockdown has been extended until the end of next Monday - at which point the country will shift to Alert Level 3 for at least a fortnight.

Alert Level 4's tough restrictions had initially been set to relax tomorrow night.

At a press conference held after the announcement, Bridges said New Zealand was critical of the government's response.

Bridges says we will no doubt see a rise in mental health problems and stress-related illnesses as a result of the lockdown extension.

He said the cost to businesses by extending the lockdown is more than the Prime Minister is letting on.

News from the rural and farming sector.

A brief update from the business sector.

Italy has recorded its first fall in infection rates since the pandemic began - but its death toll is still edging up with 454 deaths on Monday.

The country has now recorded almost 180,000 cases and more than 23,000 deaths from the coronavirus - the highest toll in Europe.

Rome correspondent Josephine McKenna speaks to Corin Dann.

There are growing indications that President Donald Trump is making plans to advance the argument that China is to blame for the Covid-19 pandemic that has brought devastation to the American economy.

The President used anti-China rhetoric prominently during his 2016 campaign for the White House - at the time, accusing Beijing of deeply-unfair trading practices that were holding the US economy to ransom.

But now, he's got a new message, and as Washington correspondent Simon Marks reports, an army of supporters already giving voice to it.