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News Round Up

A summary of major local news stories by Paul Taylor

COVID-19: Southern district almost free of virus

Today (Sunday May 17) the Southern district reported just one active COVID-19 case remaining. Out of the total 216 cases in southern, 213 have now recovered and two are deceased.

Nationwide, New Zealand’s total COVID-19 cases crept up by one to 1,499 as one new case linked to the Rosewood Rest Home cluster in Christchurch was reported today. The new case is a household contact of an earlier case.

An estimated 96 per cent of all confirmed and probable cases have now recovered.

Today there are two people receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19 – one each in Auckland and Middlemore hospitals. Neither of these patients is in ICU.

As there are no additional deaths to report today New Zealand’s total number of deaths remains at 21.

PHOTO: More than 228,000 tests have been completed across the country. Supplied

Ski season get the green light

Ski fields can now say with certainty that they are open for business this winter season.

Industry executives have been working with the government to try to find a way to operate under Level Two conditions.

Negotiations have proved successful with ski fields being granted an exemption to the alert level two 100 person limit.

NZ Ski boss Paul Anderson and Cardrona Alpine Resorts general manager Bridget Legnavsky are celebrating the win.

Under the new exemption, skifields will have no specific limits on the number of people that can be on the slopes at any one time - but there is still a series of guidelines that need to be met.

Skifields are required to manage physical distancing, ensure contract tracing is in place and increase cleaning and sanitation requirements.

Skifield restaurants and hospitality venues are still subject to hospitality requirements.

NZ Ski and Cardrona have both stated the mountains will open for the season under these requirements.

Sport scrambles to remedy confusion

by Diana Cocks

Mixed messages and tighter restrictions imposed by Sport New Zealand have caused confusion and disappointment as some local sporting codes cannot restart under new alert level two restrictions.

Last week Sport NZ released COVID-19 alert level two guidelines which advised gatherings of up to 100 people were permitted. After the prime minister’s announcement last Monday (May 11), the guidelines were revised to gatherings of no more than 10 permitted, including players, coaches and officials.

This means sporting codes which were gearing up to resume playing, such as rugby and hockey, cannot even practice.

“I can only assume someone above Sport New Zealand had a change of heart,” Wanaka-based Sports Central community sports adviser Tiny Carruthers said.

The original announcement caused clubs and coaches to get excited and hurry to prepare to play, he said but the following announcement on May 11 “caused disappointment for many.”

“This is where the confusion has arisen,” he said.

As a consequence, Sport New Zealand and the national sports organisations have been scrambling to get new guidelines agreed on circulated to regional sports organisations (RSOs) and clubs, he said.

This restriction will be reviewed on May 25 but Sport Otago now doesn’t expect organised sport in Otago to resume until June 13.

The new guidelines say: Subject to the range of public health measures, play, active recreation and sport, including contact team sports and physical activities, can resume under level two but only if fewer than 10 people are participating; reliable contact tracing is essential; and hygiene measures, particularly washing and drying of hands, and regular sanitising of equipment and surfaces must be in place.

Sport Otago now has an approved Health and Safety booking template for any sport planning to use council facilities.

“Clubs will be required to fulfil all the obligations around contract tracing, hygiene, etc before they can hire a facility,” Tony said.

A web app from Sporty, named iDMe, has been recommended for contact tracing, he said, to make sure each club knows (or can identify) anyone who is participating in their activity, including players, officials and spectators/supporters, in case someone gets sick.

iDMe provides a touch-free method for recording the attendance of all people at sports games and events which is free to all NZ sports organisations.

iDme lets anyone use their own phone to enter their personal contact information (name, address, email, phone). They only need to do this once. This displays their contact details as a scannable QR Code on their phone.

Meanwhile, most of the QLDC’s sport and recreation facilities reopened on the weekend.