Coronavirus

He said there are allegations that bulk of the 23 million kina released by the government for COVID-19 operations, was being used to hire cars and media consultants.

The 23 million Kina released by Treasury for COVID-19 operations, must be prioritized well, to include purchase of medical kits and Personal Protective Equipment.

However, Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey has since raised concerns of alleged misappropriation.

Police Minister Bryan Kramer said they have confirmed that the patient may have contracted the virus at a fundraiser.

During an update on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 8^th of April, Minister Kramer said they have confirmed with both the patient and doctor that it is highly probable that she may have contracted the virus during an event on the 14^th of March.

Jacinda Ardern said the new arrivals will need to go into either quarantine or "managed isolation" at an approved facility for a minimum of 14 days.

"Our borders are our biggest risk," she said.

She said even one person slipping through the cracks and bringing the virus in could see an explosion of cases.

Ardern said everyone arriving will go into a managed facility that is provided by the government."

She said the tighter controls could not have been done in the beginning but "we can and are now".

“There are millions of people around the world stranded by COVID-19 and we are continuing to do our part to help them get home,” Mr Peters said. “Accordingly, Cabinet agreed yesterday that New Zealand would seek reciprocal transit arrangements with a number of countries to enable our citizens to transit each other’s airports.

“One barrier to New Zealanders getting home at present is the transit restrictions imposed by a number of countries. We continue to seek assistance from these countries to enable New Zealanders to transit through their airports in order to come home.

In his update, Health Minister Jelta Wong said preliminary report received has identified 28 close contacts among family members, workmates and health workers, with nine of them as persons under investigation.

Three rapid response teams composed of epidemiologists, doctors, nurses, infection prevention and control specialists, logisticians and other personnel have been deployed to ENB.

Although only a handful of New Zealand's Pacific neighbours were able to do such testing there were plans to change that.

Anyone who's had the Covid-19 test in New Zealand had their results back within a day or two.

For Pacific neighbours, including the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga, that wait for results can take a week or more.

Covid-19 testing requires laboratory facilities which only exist in five Pacific locations, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

As an immediate priority, Forum Foreign Ministers met virtually yesterday to establish a Pacific Humanitarian Pathway on COVID-19, following two weeks of consultation with senior officials, regional agencies and development agencies through the Forum.

Based on the 14-day incubation period of COVID-19, Police Minister Bryan Kramer says: “This suggests that there’s no way he had COVID-19 while he was in Papua New Guinea on his two-week break.”

The 55-year-old East New Briton works with PanAust's Lao-registered company, Phu Bia Mining, on a fly-in-fly-out arrangement.

He arrived in PNG on the 8^th of March for his two-week break, and flew out on the 22^nd of March.

“He developed symptoms on the 3^rd of April, 2020,” Kramer said.

During the COVID-19 update this afternoon, Prime Minister James Marape did not mince words when issuing a warning to especially social media users who were relentless in their attack towards the East New Britain woman and even her province.

“The penalty that comes to those who commit that offence, under the state of emergency period, are higher than normal penalties that are afforded to similar crimes in normal circumstances,” Marape said.

The COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund has been set up to facilitate an unprecedented global response by supporting the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan. As part of the agreement, an initial portion of the money from the Fund – which currently stands at more than $127 million – will flow to UNICEF for its work with vulnerable children and communities all over the world.