Morning Report

Top stories this morning... New Zealand wakes to the first day of lockdown, cities and towns are quiet as people stay home. Hospitals are confident they are ready to cope with a rise in coronavirus cases Commissioner Mike Bush will be with us to tell us how the lockdown will be policed. and Prince Charles is diagnosed with the virus, it is reported he has mild symptoms.

Being isolated in our homes is something most of us are going to have to get used for the next four weeks or longer.

Some people have a head start, having arrived in New Zealand after the Government imposed a 14-day self-isolation requirement on Monday last week.

One of them is RNZ journalist Max Towle, who returned from Vancouver just a few hours after the new rules took effect.

He speaks to Susie Ferguson.

The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympics Games are being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The delay, the first ever in peacetime. was agreed between the Japanese Prime Minister and the head of the International Olympic Committee.

The Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita made the announcement.

Corin Dann speaks to International Olympic Committee member Richard Pound.

Two German tourists in New Zealand are relieved they will be able to head home, after the German government announced it will evacuate nearly 80,000 of its citizens stranded abroad.

Susi Vormwald and her friend Alina Stamm have been in New Zealand for two weeks, for what was supposed to be an eight week tour of the country in a campervan.

They have been told they will be able to leave on a plane chartered by the German government, but are waiting to hear when that will happen.

Susi spoke to RNZ foreign producer Annabel Reid about how they're feeling.

A brief update of movements in the financial sector.

Business NZ says the government's financial scheme will lift the weight off the shoulders of many small businesses.

A six-month mortgage holiday and helping banks make credit available are just some of the moves aimed at helping those affected by Covid-19.

Business NZ's chief executive is Kirk Hope.

He speaks to Susie Ferguson.

New Zealand is going into lockdown tonight to flatten the curve of Covid-19 transmission.

At the moment New Zealand has 155 cases and probable of the new coronavirus, and 12 people have recovered.

Dr Siouxsie Wiles is a microbiologist from Auckland University.

She speaks to Corin Dann.

The Covid-19 contact tracing system is coming under increased pressure and scrutiny.

The Health Ministry says tracing is vital but admits its new national tracing centre is locked into using only its own phone system at the moment.

The ministry says as of 3pm yesterday, 840 close contacts have been identified; 69 in the past 24 hours.

It says as of last night it had about 100 nurses in its contact tracing national team, though numbers changed frequently as case numbers kept rising.

This comes as an Auckland high school says 800 girls are considered the close contacts of the four virus cases it has.

Phil Pennington reports.

The country will be in lockdown from midnight for at least the next four weeks.

Councils will still be providing essential services.

Lianne Dalziel is the mayor of Christchurch, Phil Goff is the mayor of Auckland and Andy Foster is the mayor of Wellington.

The New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive Kereyn Smith says kiwi athletes are largely relieved by the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to next year.