Lately for Monday 17 August 2020

Photo: RNZ

10:20 Government wage subsidy schemes help with lockdown

A new nationwide subsidy to cover the period Auckland is in alert level 3 is being rolled out on top of the existing wage subsidy extension as well as access to the sick leave support scheme.

The Finance Minister Grant Robertson says because of the Auckland situation many businesses face massive revenue drops.

Karyn speaks with chief executive of Business NZ, Kirk Hope, about the wage subsidies.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller

10:30 BBC live update: the US Democratic convention, Belarus and Beirut

The BBC's Rob Hugh-Jones speaks with Karyn from London about the US Democratic Convention kicking off this week, as well as an update on the events in Belarus, and the verdict in a trial in Beirut of the assassination of former leader of Lebanon, while the city continues to reel from the massive warehouse explosion earlier this month. 

Photo: AFP

10:45 More than 900-thousand tracing app scans on weekend

New Zealand's Covid tracing app has seen a huge surge in downloads over the past few days with more than 1.37 million people now registered.

Over the weekend the there was approximately 913,000 scans on the app. Dr Andrew Chen joins the show to discuss this uptick and whether it's enough to adequately assist in contract tracing should there be another cluster outbreak.

Photo: 123rf / Elizaveta Galitckaia