Canterbury Mornings

All New Zealand rest homes have moved to alert level 4, meaning strict lockdowns and barring family visitors, an industry chief has just announced.Simon Wallace, Aged Care Association chief executive, said this morning risks were so high in the elderly community that rest homes had gone further than Auckland's level 3 alert status from midday and the rest of New Zealand's level 2 alert."Rest homes are on level 4 lockdown for at least three days. Full lockdown means effectively we are operating at level 4. It means there will be no family visits to their loved ones in a rest home," Wallace said this morning.His sector had been watching Melbourne closely and reacted swiftly to avoid any repetition of that deadly situation."We've seen what's happening in Melbourne where aged care has been affected. More than 100 rest homes in Melbourne have had Covid-19 outbreaks and they didn't move quickly enough. We can't afford to take any risks at all.Asked if the alert level 4 at New Zealand rest homes would continue beyon