Morning Report

If he ever thought he was in charge, US President Donald Trumps leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, continues to crumble.

Trump has gone on the attack as he defends growing criticism of his handling of the pandemic.

The New York Times yesterday detailed how slow Trump had been to take the threat posed by the virus seriously. He was then involved in a heated exchange with the media at a White House briefing that took 2.5 hours.

The President also falsely claimed that he had total control over states in a crisis situation.

US correspondent Simon Marks speaks to Corin Dann.

Hundreds of rest homes around the country will be scrutinised by health officials, after more deaths of elderly New Zealanders infected with Covid-19 made yesterday the deadliest yet since the pandemic began.

A total of nine people have now died - six of them were being cared for at the Rosewood Rest Home in Christchurch.

Canterbury DHB chief executive David Meates speaks to Susie Ferguson.

Sixty New Zealanders landed in Auckland this morning on a government-assisted charter flight from South America.

Three Australians were also on board.

There are no commercial services operating across the South Pacific between New Zealand and South America.

RNZ reporter Sarah Robson has been following the journey.

The Government is due to make a decision on whether New Zealand can move out of Alert Level 4 next week, and the country will find out exactly what a drop to Level 3 that would entail soon.

But some are arguing to go down even further to Alert Level 2 and bring back normality to the economy as soon as possible.

Could there be some point in the middle?

National Party leader Simon Bridges speaks to Corin Dann.

With less than a week to go before the Government decides if it will end the level four lockdown, District Health Boards are being told to ramp up their testing for Covid-19.

The number of new cases dropped to just 17 yesterday with the Director-General of Health saying the epidemic has passed its peak.

But it's still unclear if community transmission has been quashed and one expert is warning decision makers could be playing Russian roulette with people's lives if surveillance testing and better contact tracing aren't in place soon.

Here's political reporter Charlie Dreaver.

Doctors are concerned that a huge drop in emergency and acute patients at hospitals could be just the beginning of a healthcare "mess" that will need cleaning up when Covid-19 is no longer the only game in town.

The number of patients at emergency departments around the country has halved since the lockdown began and other hospital departments are reporting similar drops.

The health workers who look after those patients fear that lives could be lost through people failing to seek treatment during the pandemic.

Kate Newton reports.

The Government has announced a range of new measures to provide relief for small and medium sized businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It includes $3 billion worth of tax breaks to help businesses that are vulnerable but viable ride out the worst of the crisis.

That's on top of $20 billion in spending which has already been announced by the government.

Minister of Finance Grant Robertson speaks to Susie Ferguson.

News from the business sector, including a market report.

Small businesses will get a $3 billion boost through tax breaks to help them ride out the worst of the impending economic crisis.

There will also be law changes to ease pressure on businesses struggling to pay commercial rents.

The Finance Minister has indicated he will spend whatever's needed to avoid unemployment north of 20 percent - the small business package is the latest in rescue spending now at about $23 billion.

Tomorrow New Zealanders will get a better idea of what kind of activities might be allowed under level three but businesses are already desperate to get back to work.

Here's RNZ political editor, Jane Patterson.

A brief update from the business sector.