Checkpoint for Tuesday 19 October 2021

5:08 PM.It's a record there is no medal for - 94 new cases of Covid Delta in the community.

Eighty-seven of those are in Auckland and seven in Waikato. It is the highest daily case count the country has… Read more Audio

5:10 PM.The peak of Canterbury's social calendar has been scrapped this year - with the Addington Cup Week closed to the public for the first time in more than a century.

It's the latest in a slew of… Read more Video, Audio

5:15 PM.Labour and National have put their differences aside to slash red tape around housing density, with the aim of making it easier and cheaper to build new homes.

New rules will allow up to three… Read more Audio

5:20 PM.An Auckland theatre has drawn the curtains on the 2021 season - saying even level two would be too hard to operate in.

The Basement Theatre in the central city hosts performances from theatre makers… Read more Video, Audio

5:26 PM.As Te Tai Tokerau prepares to move down alert levels, a Whangārei doctor is pleading with people to get vaccinated - saying the effects of not doing so, will be absolutely devastating.

There are… 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=6277785083001 Video, Audio

5:37 PM.All Black hooker Codie Taylor choked back tears at an emotional All Blacks press conference today as he paid tribute to his teammate Sean Wainui.

25-year-old Wainui, who played for the Māori All… Read more Audio

5:41 PM.To Australia, where an urgent search for a missing four-year-old girl feared abducted is being hampered by extreme weather.

Cleo Smith went missing from a campsite in a rural area on the coast of… Read more Video, Audio

5:45 PM.Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare has told many DHBs they need to do better in their vaccine rollout to Māori. 

  Read more Video, Audio

5:55 PM.Health officials are thinking smaller and more nimble as they try to reach the half million people who have not had a first dose of the vaccine.

First were the 'Shot Bro' buses, now vaccine campers… Read more Video, Audio

6:08 PM.Waiheke Local Board Chair Cath Handley told Checkpoint the new Covid-19 case on the island has "upset people here greatly".  Read more Video, Audio

6:15 PM.Christmas is just around the corner, but with Tāmaki Makaurau still in level 3, many are wondering if they should be making any plans at all.

The Prime Minister says Aucklanders should not be… Read more Audio

6:19 PM.Life in Australia is slowly getting back to normal, with more states releasing plans to open up and let people back in.

With high vaccination rates, a national plan and clear targets, states are… Read more Audio

6:23 PM.Ngāti Whātua is defending the management of the border between Te Tai Tokerau and Tāmaki Makaurau.

Northland will drop down to alert level 2 at midnight, following a Covid scare in which a woman who… Read more Audio