Wellington, 17 March 2020: We welcome the Government’s measures to tackle Covid-19 in New Zealand. In particular, we welcome the recently announced travel restrictions, the increased health funding and the support to business.

We believe there is still a chance that New Zealand will avoid the fate of Europe and stamp out the pandemic on our shores before it is too late.

We therefore applaud the Government to increase testing for the coronavirus as they today announced they would. We need much broader testing to know which measures are needed.

We encourage New Zealand employers to send staff to home offices where possible. Only people working in jobs that cannot be done from home should still be in their normal places of work.

New Zealand must avoid a repeat of the European experience. We have a small window and a slim chance to stamp out the virus in New Zealand before it is too late.

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