A boost for people in the arts sector affected by COVID-19.
The Arts Council of New Zealand has established a multi-million dollar emergency response package to support artists, groups and organisations.
Creative New Zealand is initially investing $4.5 million to kick start the package.
Arts Council chair Michael Moynahan says people will be able to apply for funding this week.
He says the fund is designed for larger organisations who can't put on events, and individuals who have seen their income drop significantly.
Flicks editor Steve Newall joined Andrew Dickens to discuss all the ways that New Zealand artists are coping with the outbreak and cancellations.

Oat bread rolls (makes 12)
Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
400ml warm water
2 tsp dried yeast
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp poppy seeds
2 tsp sesame seeds
100g wholemeal flour
500g strong flour
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp oats to garnish
Place warm water in a small bowl and sprinkle over yeast. Stir in sugar and leave to ferment for about 15 minutes. Mix together poppy, sesame (set aside a bit of mix for garnish). Combine flours, seeds and salt in a mixer bowl. Pour oil into fermented yeast and add to flour mixture. Knead with dough hook for 4 minutes. Place dough in a clean bowl and cover with a damp, clean tea towel. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size.
Knock dough back and divide into 12 equal sized pieces. Form into balls, lay out on a baking tray and rest for 10 minutes. To make eggwash, whisk together egg and milk. Brush rolls with eggwash, sprinkle with reserved seeds and oats, and bake for 30 minutes.

Oat bread rolls (makes 12)
Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
400ml warm water
2 tsp dried yeast
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp poppy seeds
2 tsp sesame seeds
100g wholemeal flour
500g strong flour
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
2 tbsp oats to garnish
Place warm water in a small bowl and sprinkle over yeast. Stir in sugar and leave to ferment for about 15 minutes. Mix together poppy, sesame (set aside a bit of mix for garnish). Combine flours, seeds and salt in a mixer bowl. Pour oil into fermented yeast and add to flour mixture. Knead with dough hook for 4 minutes. Place dough in a clean bowl and cover with a damp, clean tea towel. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size.
Knock dough back and divide into 12 equal sized pieces. Form into balls, lay out on a baking tray and rest for 10 minutes. To make eggwash, whisk together egg and milk. Brush rolls with eggwash, sprinkle with reserved seeds and oats, and bake for 30 minutes.

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is recommending self-isolation for anyone with a serious underlying respiratory condition.
It comes after another 13 people tested positive to Covid-19 in this country.
That brings the total number of cases to 52 - with another four probable cases.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says two of the cases had not travelled overseas - so they're investigating the possibility of community transmission,  something they've been preparing for.
He says it's now more important than ever to continue tracing individuals who have been in contact with them, to contain further spread.
Dr James Fingleton is a respiratory physician and on the Science Advisory Board for the Foundation.  He joined Andrew Dickens to discuss why those with health conditions should be staying at home.
LISTEN ABOVE

The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is recommending self-isolation for anyone with a serious underlying respiratory condition.
It comes after another 13 people tested positive to Covid-19 in this country.
That brings the total number of cases to 52 - with another four probable cases.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says two of the cases had not travelled overseas - so they're investigating the possibility of community transmission,  something they've been preparing for.
He says it's now more important than ever to continue tracing individuals who have been in contact with them, to contain further spread.
Dr James Fingleton is a respiratory physician and on the Science Advisory Board for the Foundation.  He joined Andrew Dickens to discuss why those with health conditions should be staying at home.
LISTEN ABOVE

The Government has earmarked more than $56 million to support Māori businesses feeling the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bulk of that funding, some $30 million, has been made available for targeted health funding for Māori.
A further $10 million is for whanau Māori community outreach and $15 million will go towards Whānau Ora to reach into Māori communities.
And $1 million has been made available to provide Māori businesses with advice and planning tools to tackle the economic impact of Covid-19.
Associate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare said many elements of the Government's $12.1 billion economic support package, announced last week, would help many Māori across the country.
"But as Māori Ministers we know there are specific challenges for Māori that require a specific response," he said.
"We know that we need to help our people and provide targeted support to Māori businesses and help our vulnerable Māori communities.
Henare said many Māori can't solely rely on them engaging with the health system.
Instead, he said: "We must engage with our people, in their neighbourhoods, communities and homes".
The $30 million in targeted funding would go towards Māori health providers, Whānau Ora agencies and iwi.The money would be spent on providing financial support for Māori provider networks to enable them to meet increased demand, as well as backfilling any additional workforce.
Guidelines to help Māori prepare for self-isolation, particularly when self-isolating as part of a large family group, will be developed and Community Based Assessment Centres will be set up in Māori communities.
"We are also redirecting an extra $15 million to Whānau Ora commissioning agencies.
They can reach into our communities and help our most vulnerable whanau," Henare said.
Meanwhile, Employment Minister Willie Jackson has asked officials to change some of the terms of the Government's employment and skills programme, He Poutama Rangatahi, to help with the Covid-19 response.
"I have asked officials to vary the contracts for these programmes, to enable over 2000 young people to work alongside Māori health providers and Whānau Ora Navigators, to deliver important community and health services to Māori, particularly our kuia, kaumatua and those already isolated," Jackson said.
Henare says this tailored package will provide the additional help needed to support Māori communities and businesses through COVID-19.
"Times like these can be incredibly stressful so it's important that we make manaakitanga and kōtahitanga the centre of our response.

The Government has earmarked more than $56 million to support Māori businesses feeling the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bulk of that funding, some $30 million, has been made available for targeted health funding for Māori.
A further $10 million is for whanau Māori community outreach and $15 million will go towards Whānau Ora to reach into Māori communities.
And $1 million has been made available to provide Māori businesses with advice and planning tools to tackle the economic impact of Covid-19.
Associate Health and Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare said many elements of the Government's $12.1 billion economic support package, announced last week, would help many Māori across the country.
"But as Māori Ministers we know there are specific challenges for Māori that require a specific response," he said.
"We know that we need to help our people and provide targeted support to Māori businesses and help our vulnerable Māori communities.
Henare said many Māori can't solely rely on them engaging with the health system.
Instead, he said: "We must engage with our people, in their neighbourhoods, communities and homes".
The $30 million in targeted funding would go towards Māori health providers, Whānau Ora agencies and iwi.The money would be spent on providing financial support for Māori provider networks to enable them to meet increased demand, as well as backfilling any additional workforce.
Guidelines to help Māori prepare for self-isolation, particularly when self-isolating as part of a large family group, will be developed and Community Based Assessment Centres will be set up in Māori communities.
"We are also redirecting an extra $15 million to Whānau Ora commissioning agencies.
They can reach into our communities and help our most vulnerable whanau," Henare said.
Meanwhile, Employment Minister Willie Jackson has asked officials to change some of the terms of the Government's employment and skills programme, He Poutama Rangatahi, to help with the Covid-19 response.
"I have asked officials to vary the contracts for these programmes, to enable over 2000 young people to work alongside Māori health providers and Whānau Ora Navigators, to deliver important community and health services to Māori, particularly our kuia, kaumatua and those already isolated," Jackson said.
Henare says this tailored package will provide the additional help needed to support Māori communities and businesses through COVID-19.
"Times like these can be incredibly stressful so it's important that we make manaakitanga and kōtahitanga the centre of our response.

I want to talk about testing for Covid 19.
On Friday the Health Minister was asked how many testing kits New Zealand had.  He couldn’t give an answer.
A while later the Prime Minister was asked the same question.  She said that we have 30,000 swabs and the capacity to process 1500 tests a day.  She was then pressed about the number of kits in the country. She repeated the number of swabs and the testing capacity.
A number of commentators took from that answer that our government is useless.  How can you have confidence in a Health Minister or Prime Minister who have no idea of how many kits we have.  One commentator went as far as to call the Prime Minister a liar.
Let me tell you about Covid testing.
First you take a swab.  These swabs are bought from overseas.  We have 30,000.
The sample is sent to a lab where it goes through a copyrighted process perfected in Germany.
The sample is pipetted into a number of reagents or chemicals, again sourced from overseas.  The process extracts RNA out of the virus.  Then using a piece of machinery that switched temperature rapidly the RNA is converted into DNA.  Then through more processes the lab technician can determine if the DNA belongs to Covid or the flu or something else.
My point is that there is no kit as such.  It’s not like a pregnancy testing kit where you pee on a stick, though Boris Johnson claims UK scientists are developing a one stop testing kit that searches for specific antibodies.  The so called kit is a chain of processes, chemicals, equipment and humans that finds a result. That kit also does multiple tests.
So the Prime Ministers answer is completely correct.  It’s all about capacity and not the number of so called “kit”
To call a government incompetent, useless and lying, because of a question that is unanswerable because it’s been framed badly is, in my opinion, irresponsible and is frankly panic mongering.
We need to hold the government to account with rigour, but also with accuracy.
So to capacity for testing.
Firstly we have imported 30,000 swabs.  We have been testing at 1500 a day, that was confirmed yesterday by Ashley Bloomfield. That means we have 20 days testing capacity.  Do we have more swabs on order? When will the first tranche run out?
What are our supplies of reagents like?  How long will they last? The interesting thing about the Covid reagents is that many of them are also used in flu testing, so will we end out robbing Peter to pay Paul.  When rationing of tests comes in will we be reducing flu tests or Covid tests first.  What has priority?
What about all the other tests these technicians do?
There are many questions about testing but how many kits are there is not one of them.
Finally, the most important thing about testing are the humans that are doing it.
Has everyone forgotten the threatened lab technician strike from two weeks ago.  Lab technicians claim they’re paid $15,000  less than similarly qualified occupations.  Negotiations on their collective contract have been plodding on for six months and their complaints go back years to previous governments.  As a result many have left the profession. That’s left our labs understaffed.
On Friday a technician who had left the profession for greener pastures told me that the remaining technicians are currently working double shifts.  They are already exhausted and they’re still being paid less than they’re worth. What are health authorities doing to ensure we have the staff to keep the testing going.
To these technicians, I say thank you very much.
So here we are in the middle of a health crisis.
Our healthcare professions including GPs, lab technicians, emergency medical specialists and anaesthetists have remained on Immigrations NZ’s skills shortage list for years.
Our public health service has just been through a stocktake which found 11,000 facilities are judged to be poor...

I want to talk about testing for Covid 19.
On Friday the Health Minister was asked how many testing kits New Zealand had.  He couldn’t give an answer.
A while later the Prime Minister was asked the same question.  She said that we have 30,000 swabs and the capacity to process 1500 tests a day.  She was then pressed about the number of kits in the country. She repeated the number of swabs and the testing capacity.
A number of commentators took from that answer that our government is useless.  How can you have confidence in a Health Minister or Prime Minister who have no idea of how many kits we have.  One commentator went as far as to call the Prime Minister a liar.
Let me tell you about Covid testing.
First you take a swab.  These swabs are bought from overseas.  We have 30,000.
The sample is sent to a lab where it goes through a copyrighted process perfected in Germany.
The sample is pipetted into a number of reagents or chemicals, again sourced from overseas.  The process extracts RNA out of the virus.  Then using a piece of machinery that switched temperature rapidly the RNA is converted into DNA.  Then through more processes the lab technician can determine if the DNA belongs to Covid or the flu or something else.
My point is that there is no kit as such.  It’s not like a pregnancy testing kit where you pee on a stick, though Boris Johnson claims UK scientists are developing a one stop testing kit that searches for specific antibodies.  The so called kit is a chain of processes, chemicals, equipment and humans that finds a result. That kit also does multiple tests.
So the Prime Ministers answer is completely correct.  It’s all about capacity and not the number of so called “kit”
To call a government incompetent, useless and lying, because of a question that is unanswerable because it’s been framed badly is, in my opinion, irresponsible and is frankly panic mongering.
We need to hold the government to account with rigour, but also with accuracy.
So to capacity for testing.
Firstly we have imported 30,000 swabs.  We have been testing at 1500 a day, that was confirmed yesterday by Ashley Bloomfield. That means we have 20 days testing capacity.  Do we have more swabs on order? When will the first tranche run out?
What are our supplies of reagents like?  How long will they last? The interesting thing about the Covid reagents is that many of them are also used in flu testing, so will we end out robbing Peter to pay Paul.  When rationing of tests comes in will we be reducing flu tests or Covid tests first.  What has priority?
What about all the other tests these technicians do?
There are many questions about testing but how many kits are there is not one of them.
Finally, the most important thing about testing are the humans that are doing it.
Has everyone forgotten the threatened lab technician strike from two weeks ago.  Lab technicians claim they’re paid $15,000  less than similarly qualified occupations.  Negotiations on their collective contract have been plodding on for six months and their complaints go back years to previous governments.  As a result many have left the profession. That’s left our labs understaffed.
On Friday a technician who had left the profession for greener pastures told me that the remaining technicians are currently working double shifts.  They are already exhausted and they’re still being paid less than they’re worth. What are health authorities doing to ensure we have the staff to keep the testing going.
To these technicians, I say thank you very much.
So here we are in the middle of a health crisis.
Our healthcare professions including GPs, lab technicians, emergency medical specialists and anaesthetists have remained on Immigrations NZ’s skills shortage list for years.
Our public health service has just been through a stocktake which found 11,000 facilities are judged to be poor...

Officials are investigating the first possible community transmission of coronavirus in New Zealand, with the country sitting on alert-level 2 in a new four-tiered warning system.
It comes as many parts of the world move into lockdown - including the UK and large swathes of the United States - and the death toll of the pandemic reaches almost 12,000. There are now almost 300,000 who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 around the world - 90,000 of whom are considered already recovered.
Italy now has more than 53,000 confirmed cases and the world's highest death toll of 4825. It recorded its highest day-to-day jump on Saturday – 793 dead and 6557 cases.
In New Zealand, alert-level 2 means Covid-19 is "contained but risk of community transmission growing" and human contact must be further reduced - over-70s have been told to stay at home and everyone needs to limit domestic travel.
A further 13 positive tests in New Zealand were confirmed on Saturday - the biggest jump in cases in a single day so far - and the country now has 52 cases in total.
Test results are awaited for two possible cases of community transmission – unrelated to overseas travel - in Auckland and Wairarapa.
"At this point, we cannot rule out a risk of community transmission in these cases," Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said yesterday, announcing that the country's Covid-19 tally now sits at 52 confirmed cases.
AP reports that streets, squares and highways are deserted in large parts of the world as curfews and lockdowns multiplied in the face of the rapidly advancing virus that is severely straining many health systems.
Three American states with a combined population of 70 million are moving to restrict residents to their homes to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. California started on Friday and New York and Illinois were to follow this weekend. Connecticut and Oregon were preparing to do the same.
The United Kingdom - including London - is in lockdown and the death toll there has now reached 233, with 53 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours. NHS England said: "Patients were aged between 41 and 94 years old and all had underlying health conditions."
After Italy and China, Spain now has the third-highest number of infections worldwide. On Saturday it reported almost 5000 new cases in the past day, bringing the total to nearly 25,000. The death toll rose to 1326, up from 1002 Friday.
Italy is struggling, with a median age of the overall population at 45.4 last year – greater than anywhere else in Europe. It is also seven years higher than the median age in China and slightly above that of South Korea.
Figures released on Friday showed the age of Italians dying of Covid-19 averaging out at 78.5. Almost 99 per cent of them were also suffering from at least one pre-existing condition or ailment.
Italy's mortality rate among those infected with the virus is thus a relatively high 8.6 per cent.
"Covid-19 fatalities are hitting older age groups hard," University of Oxford professor Jennifer Dowd noted on Twitter. "Countries with older populations will need to take more aggressive protective measures to stay below the threshold of critical cases that outstrip health system capacities."
Alert level three will be initiated in New Zealand if there's a heightened risk that the disease is not contained and could result in school closures, domestic travel restrictions, more public venue closures, and non face-to-face primary care consultations.
The past 24 hours have again seen the pandemic interrupt everyday life on a scale unprecedented in modern history.
All people aged over 70 – more than half a million people - or anyone with compromised immune systems, are now asked to stay at home. Non-essential domestic travel is discouraged.
"It's not about whether or not you're worried about yourself. It's that you should be worried for those around you, so...