Car industry gets ready for level three
The national lockdown brought in by the government to beat the coronavirus pandemic will be lowered to level three at 11.59pm on April 27 – one week from today.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country will then stay at alert level three for two weeks before the decision is reviewed. The time in between – with the nation staying at level four – will enable businesses to get ready for the change.
Ardern says the cabinet wants to “lock in some gains” and give more certainty, although level four had originally been scheduled to lift on Thursday this week. “Ultimately we have taken a balanced approach,” she says.
Any businesses needing to prepare to move into level three can be accessed, she adds, and schools can prepare. April 28 will be a teachers’-only day and April 29 will be the first day of term.
Nine new cases of Covid-19 have so far been reported today, made up of seven new confirmed cases and two new probable cases. The total number of cases now stands at 1,440 – and 974 people have recovered.
New-vehicle industry getting prepared
Distributors of new vehicles and franchised dealerships are getting ready to reopen for business as New Zealand heads towards coronavirus alert level three on April 28.
They are preparing to achieve non-contact operations to operate workshops with required sanitation, distancing and other health requirement, and to retail new vehicles without face-to-face customer contact throughout the sale and delivery process and to ensure vehicles are properly sanitised.
The Motor Industry Association endorses the government’s position that the country needed to shut down to save lives and that moving to level three “remains a necessarily constrained way of operating our businesses”.
“Equally, in terms of imports, the new-vehicle sector is second only to oil in its contribution towards New Zealand’s GDP,” says David Crawford, chief executive. “Getting these businesses operating again in a safe way is vital to allowing New Zealand’s economy to begin to recover.
“While we expect to provide some servicing under alert level three, it may not be possible to respond immediately to all requests. We ask the public to be understanding if a request to service or repair your vehicle during this time is not possible or is deferred. The sooner we can stop the spread of the virus, the sooner New Zealand can fully reopen for business.
“Operating at level three will not be business as usual. It is a careful step towards restarting businesses that have put in place adequate steps to limit the transmission of Covid-19.”
