Morning Report

Jacinda Ardern will announce if we are to head into Alert level 3 from Thursday at the weekly post-Cabinet media conference today.

Central to that decision is the efficiency of contact tracing Covid-19 cases.

The Health Ministry has been consulting with the state spy agency, the GCSB, about how best to trace people as it works to get its Covid-19 systems up to speed.

The contact tracing system is several days away from being at the promised 'gold standard'.

Phil Pennington reports.

News from the business sector, including a market report.

As many as 30,000 people have missed out on operations because of the lockdown.

Public hospitals stopped a lot of their non-life threatening surgery as they prepared for a possible wave of Covid-19 cases - and to restrict contact while at Alert Level 4.

Private hospitals have done very little surgery of any kind.

The president of the Private Surgical Hospitals Association, Richard Whitney, told RNZ health correspondent, Rowan Quinn, the delays have had a big impact.

The Health Ministry has been consulting with the state spy agency, the GCSB, about how best to trace people as it works to get its Covid-19 systems up to speed.

A tech industry leader says it's appropriate for the government to call on its spy agencies for help.

Andrew Weaver of industry group Digital Identity told RNZ reporter Phil Pennington the bureau may be able to help but the ministry should be making it more clear just what sort of help it's looking for.

A brief update from the business sector.

A brief update from the business sector.

Germany will start to ease some of its restrictions on Monday after declaring its coronavirus outbreak "under control".

The health minister Jens Spahn credits this to a lockdown imposed after an early surge in cases.

Mr Spahn says that since 12 April the number of recovered patients had been consistently higher than the number of new infections.

Berlin correspondent Thomas Sparrow speaks to Corin Dann.

Secondary principals are worried that several more weeks of remote learning for senior students will be bad for those from poor families and those studying practical subjects.

Neil Watson from Auckland's Otahuhu College says the school has given its students 300 laptop computers and is hoping for a further 130 from the Education Ministry. 

He told RNZ education correspondent, John Gerritsen, that even with that help, many students will be falling behind.

It's decision day - we'll find out at 4 o'clock if we're heading into alert level 3 later this week, The spy agency, the GCSB, has been called in to advise the Health Ministry on how best to trace covid cases, A machete-wielding man is shot dead by police in Papatoetoe.

While most of us have been queuing, sometimes for hours, to get into the supermarket during the lockdown, one Wellington man hasn't had to go once.

Richard Hovey says he has about six months worth of food stashed at his house, and even still has fresh produce in the fridge.

He didn't panic buy ahead of the level four restrictions like the rest of us, but was prepared to have to weather a severe storm, or a big earthquake.

He spoke to Corin Dann about how his lockdown is going.