First Up for Thursday 7 October 2021

5:50 AM.There were 39 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the community yesterday including nine in Waikato. A man in his 50s also died after a 40-day battle with the virus in Middlemore Hospital. Nathan Rarere… Read more Audio

5:44 AM.With vaccine passports set to become a part of everyday life in New Zealand, myriad ethical and legal questions are being raised about when people will be required to prove they've had both Pfizer… Read more Audio

5:35 AM.Yesterday on First Up we heard from several Aucklanders who were hesitant about getting the vaccine, with some of them outright refusing to get it. If we're to be protected from Covid-19 we need… Read more Audio

5:31 AM.Yesterday, early childhood education centres were able to open to children of non-essential workers for the first time in seven weeks. It's part of the Governments three-step roadmap out of lockdown… Read more Audio

5:23 AM.It's that time of the week where we head around the country and talk to our Local Democracy reporters. Susan Botting is LDR correspondent for Northland and she spoke with Nathan Rarere. Audio

5:14 AM.Aucklanders keen to hit the water again can do so ... but some of the normal rules have changed. All sailing and boating activities are go, including fishing, scuba diving and jetskiing - but it is… Read more Audio

5:09 AM.To Europe now where the Catholic Church is continuing to face a reckoning over decades of child sexual abuse.. For more on this, and a bunch of other news from our European cousins, Nathan Rarere was… Read more Audio