First Up for Tuesday 16 February 2021

5:53 AM.We stay with the Covid outbreak now, which has Auckland under an Alert Level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country at level 2. Who better to talk us through developments than microbiologist Dr… Read more Audio

5:48 AM.As of yesterday afternoon, community testing centres had swabbed close to 2300 people in Auckland alone. A pop-up testing centre has been set up at Papatoetoe High School, while New Plymouth - where… Read more Audio

5:36 AM.The first Covid-19 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines have landed. They'll be administered to frontline border workers from this Saturday. Health officials expect all New Zealanders aged over 16 to be… Read more Audio

5:16 AM.The amount of wastewater tests for Covid-19 has increased across Auckland and New Plymouth in response to the discovery of new community cases of the virus. ESR are now testing daily for Covid-19 in… Read more Audio

5:13 AM.A petition started by the Green Party calling for the urgent banning of conversion therapies has reached 80-thousand signatures in just 38 hours. Last night First Up producer Matthew Theunissen spoke… Read more Audio

5:08 AM.To the UK now where Nathan Rarere was joined by our correspondent Henry Riley where the big news is the quarantine hotels which are up and running from today. Audio