21 May 2020

As it happened: Live Covid-19 updates from NZ and around the world

5:47 pm on 21 May 2020

As Covid-19 spreads around the world, it can be daunting keeping up with the information. For RNZ, our responsibility is to give you verified, up to the minute, trustworthy information to help you make decisions about your lives and your health. We'll also be asking questions of officials and decision makers about how they're responding to the virus. Our aim is to keep you informed.

The Director-General of Health says there have been 236,000 registrations of the government's Covid-19 contact tracing app.

At a media briefing this afternoon, Dr Ashley Bloomfield encouraged more New Zealanders to download the app.

"It will help us in our overall efforts to contact you quickly if we need to."

Developer Alan Chew, who contributed to the contract tracing app, said the final version it was insufficient for businesses needs in meeting their contact tracing obligations.

Dr Bloomfield said the government had been working with Google to make sure any bugs were fixed with the app and that issues some people had downloading the app were addressed.

"We did some user testing beforehand, but of course the app wasn't tried on every single model of phone, so we are addressing those issues as they arise."

He reiterated that any personal data entered on the app is only held by the Health Ministry and the person using the app.

See how the rest of the day's Covid-19 news unfolded with RNZ's blog:

  • If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP - don't show up at a medical centre

Read more about the Covid-19 coronavirus:

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