Checkpoint for Wednesday 1 April 2020

5:35 PM.As cafes and bakeries close under the Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand there has been huge demand for all types of flour, leaving supermarket shelves bare. 

But there is plenty of grain in New… Read more

5:07 PM.New Zealand's economy is in for a hammering. The Treasury has warned a severe hit is coming, with predictions the unemployment rate could climb well into the double digits.

The bleak predictions come… Read more Video, Audio

5:11 PM.New Zealanders aged 20 to 29 are currently the group which makes up most of the cases of Covid-19. That's 183 out of 708.

The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had a stern message for any in that… Read more Audio

5:12 PM.Southland is top of the unfortunate leaderboard for Covid-19 cases - with a 108 people with the virus, ahead of Auckland's 104.

Meanwhile the Southern DHB is waiting on tests results for 38 staff… Read more Video, Audio

5:19 PM.When the government lifts the restrictions keeping people locked away in isolation, it plans to launch a massive infrastructure investment.

The Covid-19 pandemic could see unemployment rise to as… Read more Audio

5:22 PM.Overseas based retailers are eating the lunch of their local counterparts and continuing to sell non-essential goods online.

New Zealand retailers have been forced to close or get by on selling a few… Read more Audio

5:28 PM.The closure of independent butchers during the Covid-19 lock-down could see pigs being euthanised as numbers swell and farmers are unable to keep and look after surplus stock.

The pork industry is… Read more Audio

5:34 PM.News from the business sector, including a market report. Video, Audio

5:38 PM.Personal protective equipment - or PPE as we now know it - is in high demand around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

But what is it exactly? RNZ reporter Ruth Hill and cameraman Dom Thomas… Read more Video, Audio

5:43 PM.A one-stop shop for Coronavirus testing has been set-up in a shipping container in the Northland town of Kaitaia.

Northland doctor Lance O'Sullivan has been working on the mobile clinic for weeks and… Read more Video, Audio

5:54 PM.Wednesday marks seven days since New Zealand moved into its Level four lockdown and it's been a week like no other.

Life across the country has been turned upside down and it's been challenging to… Read more Video, Audio

6:06 PM.A Christchurch man who has been diagnosed with Covid-19 said it took three attempts to get tested because he had not travelled overseas or knowingly been in contact with an infected person.

Health… Read more Video, Audio

6:13 PM.Health officials failed to tell a disability service it was linked to a cluster of Covid-19 cases before publicly outing it online.

The Ministry of Health yesterday announced 14 significant outbreaks… Read more Audio

6:17 PM.A handful of New Zealanders who were stuck in Peru have managed to get out of the country, but they're pleading with the government for more help to get the dozens of others left behind home.

The… Read more Audio

6:22 PM.With less than a year until the start of the America's Cup, the future of the event is still unclear. Border restrictions, due to the covid-19 coronavirus, mean that teams might find it difficult to… Read more Audio

6:26 PM.What happens to eager hunters during the Covid-19 lockdown when they cannot get out to shoot deer?

They turn to their backyards and set mouse traps of course!

Lydia Batham reports. Read more Video, Audio