New Zealand retail sector appeals to ease curbs

Wellington, Oct 31 New Zealand's retail trade association on Sunday asked the government to move to Step 2 of the Auckland Roadmap this week, and to get stores in the city and the Waikato region open after nearly 11 weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown.

"While the government ultimately planning to introduce a new Traffic Light system called the COVID Protection Framework, we are still stuck in the old Alert Level system, and at Step 1 of the so-called Auckland Roadmap," Retail NZ's Chief Executive Greg Harford said in a announcement.

He called for the opening of retail sector with necessary safety measures, citing "enormous mental and financial harm being caused by the current lockdown".

"There is real concern that the ongoing lockdown could extend up to Christmas or even into the New Year, which would be simply catastrophic for the survival of businesses and the retention of jobs", Harford said.

Auckland has been in a lockdown since mid-August following an outbreak fuelled by the highly-transmissible Delta variant.

New Zealand recorded 143 new community cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, with 135 in Auckland, six in Waikato and two in Northland, according to the Ministry of Health.

Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, the country's overall infection tally and death toll currently stand at 6,428 and 28 deaths.

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