Checkpoint for Tuesday 24 August 2021

5:10 PM.Covid-19 case numbers are still rising - with 41 new community infections reported today.

That figure is expected to get worse before it gets better. With almost 150 community cases, officials say… Read more Audio

5:11 PM.If you have battled the supermarket queues, you might be wondering why you cannot just go to your local fruit and vege store or the neighbourhood butcher.

It all comes down to an extensive list on… Read more Video, Audio

5:16 PM.The two people believed to be in the Crowne Plaza at the same time as the suspected source case have been tracked down.

Six people passed through the MIQ hotel's atrium when the person from New South… Read more Video, Audio

5:21 PM.A vaccinologist says that children under 12 could be vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as the end of the year.

Vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris told Checkpoint the clinical trials are nearly… Read more Video, Audio

5:27 PM.Pacific community and health leaders say the government's vaccination campaign has not mobilised Pasifika to respond effectively to the Covid-19 rollout.

More than half of the current 148 cases in… Read more Audio

5:33 PM.News from the business sector, including a market report. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6269252295001 Video, Audio

5:36 PM.An Auckland community has offered to hold a funeral for the baby girl whose body was found at a recycling facility last week.

The baby was found in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga last Monday… Read more Audio

5:40 PM.At least 15,000 contacts and more than 400 locations of interest: as covid-19 cases rise, so too do the number of places where Aucklanders may have been exposed to it.

On the list: almost 30… Read more Audio

5:43 PM.In the South Island people are enjoying - in the safety of their bubble - an early arrival of spring.

Lots of people have been out on their state-mandated exercise lapping up some much-needed vitamin… Read more Video, Audio

5:46 PM.Healthcare students are being recruited to help take the pressure of Covid-19 testing stations that have been slammed during this Delta outbreak.

Some people faced waits of up to nine hours with… Read more Video, Audio

5:52 PM.One of Wellington's MIQ facilities has transformed into a dedicated quarantine hotel for those who've tested positive for the virus.

Last night University of Otago epidemiologist Nick Wilson told… Read more Video, Audio

5:57 PM.The All Blacks will head to Australia later in the week for the third Bledisloe match and the Rugby Championship.

They were roundly criticised by Rugby Australia and SANZAR for not getting on their… Read more Audio

6:08 PM.Some businesses are questioning why they cannot do business during the alert level 4 lockdown, when others selling exactly the same stuff have queues of customers down the block.

Supermarkets are… Read more Video, Audio

6:14 PM.Every year more than 25,000 New Zealanders find out they have cancer, so what happens with diagnosis and treatment during a level 4 lockdown?

And for those people who are part-way through their… Read more Video, Audio

6:20 PM.Businesses in the lower south say they need certainty about when they'll be able to re-open.

Some say the certainty of a longer lockdown would even be preferable to the false hope of the drip-fed… Read more Audio

6:25 PM.A 100-year-old was among those vaccinated against Covid-19 on the remote Taranaki-King Country boundary at Mōkau today.

Mere Wihongi's old enough to remember the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic - which… Read more Video, Audio