An intensive care specialist says more spots in MIQ for health workers is a start, but more needs to be done.

The Government says it will now guarantee 300 spots a month in managed isolation for people in the health and disability sectors.

Those groups of workers, who are urgently needed in this country, currently have to compete for scarce MIQ spaces with other travellers.

Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society spokesperson Andrew Stapleton told Morning Report it's a step, but more needs to be done.

"We've been arguing that we need a centralised process that is looking across the whole of the barriers to getting ICU nurses particularly and specialists into the country.

"That requires one agency to take control of this issue to advertise interview, to sort out visas, to get nurses through MIQ."

Stapleton said DHBs now have approval to recruit new nurses, but that means they will all be competing with each other to get new nurses on board.

He said from his point of view, what he cares about is preventable deaths and working on increasing ICU capacity is just as important as vaccination.

"We must vaccinate until the models are showing us that the system can cope with what happens when we open up.

"There's two parts of that, there's the prevention part, that's the vaccination, and then there's the capacity part. I would like to see a lot more emphasis, and money frankly, spent on the capacity part, so that we can open up earlier."

Could forcing supermarkets to charge a fixed profit margin on all goods create fairness for shoppers and suppliers alike?

That's one expert's suggestion for curbing alleged price gouging by the two big chains, which control 95 percent of the market in New Zealand.

RNZ reporter Ruth Hill.

Business is back in Te Tai Tokerau.

But lurching in and out of lockdown has taken its toll.

Sam Olley reports from Whangarei.

The gates to Mount Roskill Grammar will swing open this Friday for students to get their Covid-19 vaccine, ahead of the school reopening.

A pop-up vaccination centre is being set up in the school's carpark, to encourage students and their whanau to get a jab.

Mount Roskill Grammar School associate principal Karen Collins spoke to Susie Ferguson.

The Health Minister is assuring health workers the government is doing what it can to prepare for a rise in Covid-19 patients in hospitals.

An emergency nurse and NZ Nurses Organisation delegate in Auckland says her already stressed colleagues fear hospitals are not ready for a tsunami of cases.

Middlemore Hospital is predicting 20 cases a day through its emergency department by next month.

Little told Morning Report he understands the pressure and anxiety staff are feeling.

"We're at that point now where things are starting to change, people are concerned about that rise in number of cases.

"The whole way that this government has managed the response to Covid, right back to last year, one of the critical issues we've had in our mind is the impact on the health system, and making sure that the decisions we take in what we do minimizes that impact so that we don't see overwhelmed hospitals."

Little said more health workers will arrive from overseas in about a month and more than 120 nurses have been brought to Auckland from other parts of the country since the start of this outbreak.

He said the health system is prepared for a jump.

"The surge capacity is available. We've trained up to nearly 1400 extra nurses to be able to work in an ICU environment under supervision.

"If you have a looked at the numbers now, roughly 760 odd cases. We have 37 people in hospital and at the moment two of those in ICU. So, the need to draw on that surge capacity is not required just at the moment.

But I get the daily report on what is happening in the hospitals, we get the daily report on Covid cases and how many are hospitalised, and we are keeping a very close eye."

An Auckland emergency nurse says she and her colleagues can feel a tsunami of Covid-19 cases coming and the hospitals are not prepared.

The nurse, who is a union delegate at one of the city's hospitals, also says many colleagues go home after work, wondering if they can steel themselves to go back in.

There were 43 people with Covid-19 in hospital yesterday - only one fewer than the highest recorded level back in September.

Middlemore Hospital is expecting to see 20 cases coming through the emergency department a day by next month.

Health correspondent Rowan Quinn reports.

News from the business sector, including a market report.

A 10-point plan from the National Party for opening the country up again includes a boost to wage subsidies, tax cuts for small business, $100 hospitality vouchers and our airports humming once again with fully vaccinated international visitors.

The government says it's already pursuing the plan's good bits, but thinks the timeline of a 1 December starting date isn't so flash.

What do Auckland businesses say about the latest plan for ending lockdown limbo?

Flight Centre managing director David Coombs, and Vivace restaurant co-owner Mandy Lusk spoke to Corin Dann.

An Auckland emergency nurse says many of her colleagues go home after every shift, wondering if they can go back for the next one, as Covid-19 cases rise.

There were 43 people in hospital yesterday - just one short of the record number, and Middlemore hospital is predicting 20 cases a day through its ED by next month.

The nurse is a delegate for the Nurses Organisation and works in one of the city's main hospitals.

She told health correspondent Rowan Quinn not enough has been done to prepare.

The move to reopen schools for senior students at the start of next week poses a significant risk for increasing case numbers, says a government adviser.

Secondary school students in Years 11-13 who live in alert level 3 areas will be able to return to the classroom from next Tuesday.

Dr Dion O'Neale is a physicist and contagion modeller with Te Pūnaha Matatini, a group of experts funded to provide advice on the Covid-19 response.

He says that while reopening for students presents opportunities for some, it risks making things worse for others.

He spoke to Susie Ferguson.