Ashburton Guardian, Monday March 16, 2020

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Monday, Mar 16, 2020

Since Sept 27, 1879

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FULL STORY Kate Macdonald, 9, and Tabitha White, 11, had a ball at the Mayfield A& Show on Saturday.

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PHOTO ROBYN HOOD 140320-RH-070

Tighter restrictions hit By Jaime Pitt-MacKay Jaime.p@theguardian.co.nz

The impact of harder travel restrictions in to New Zealand are already starting to bite for local businesses and organisations with all international arrivals bar those from the Pacific Islands having to self isolate for 14 days. For Methven Travel managing director Dave Dynes the announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Saturday afternoon meant 2am phone calls on Sunday as 18 tours were cancelled. “We got major cancellations overnight

following the announcement, there were even phone calls coming through at 2am,” he said. “That is through to the end of March and it is a heap of people, 18 tours in total.” The company also had two buses waiting in Akaroa yesterday morning to pick up cruise ship passengers from a ship which is being held off the coast of New Zealand with at least one suspected case of coronavirus on board. Three passengers on the Golden Princess have been quarantined by the ship’s doctor. One of the three has developed symp-

toms of Covid-19 and is being treated as a suspected case, the Canterbury District Health Board says. “We had two waiting there until 11am and then we just told them to come back,” he said. “My big concern is that we have got really good staff and we need to keep them no matter the cost even if that will mean paying them while not working until it is over.” Dynes said he completely understands why the Government has taken the course of action they have, and congratulated them on it, saying it is a far better option than leaving the borders open and ending

up with thousands of Kiwis getting sick. At this stage no winter bookings have been affected, and he said he hopes the situation has improved in a month and would not impact the winter season. Ashburton was meant to be hosting a conference of mayors and councillors from around the South Island today but that was called off due to Covid-19 fears, said Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown.

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