1. Christchurch City Council released financial measures to help communities deal with the epidemic crisis

Christchurch City Council proposed a fiscal stimulus measure in its Draft Annual Plan. According to the Newsline of Christchurch City Council, the financial measure aims to provide a total of 360,000 New Zealand dollars for supporting community groups in sports, arts, society, health, and environment.

The COVID-19 epidemic has affected many traditional sources of funding for community groups. If the city council increases 360,000 New Dollars this time, it will affect the interest rate by 0.07%.

2. New Zealand's last COVID-19 case recovered

The last COVID-19 case in New Zealand has recovered. So far, there have been no new cases for 17 consecutive days. A case is a person in his fifties who is associated with St Margaret’s Hospital and Rest Home.

Professor Michael Baker, a public health expert at the University of Otago, said the last case’s recovery signified the country was getting rid of the epidemic.

3. Christchurch’s public facilities will resume normal work tomorrow

At three o'clock on June 8, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand had entered the level 1 alert, which meant that social life in New Zealand had returned to normal except that the border was still closed.

Therefore, the public facilities of Christchurch Town Hall would resume normal operation the next day. However, contact tracking measures and strict cleaning procedures would remain.

4. WHO urges New Zealand to do more

Dr. Matthew Griffith, head of the Western Pacific Regional Planning of the World Health Organization, told RNZ that New Zealand's response to the COVID-19 epidemic was exemplary. Dr. Griffith said that from the perspective of WHO, New Zealand had avoided the conflicts between economic and public health interests experienced by other countries.

On a larger scale, Dr. Griffith compared New Zealand with South Korea and Japan, both of which have experienced the worst epidemic periods, but new cluster infections have emerged after the reopening of social activities.

He said: "New Zealand can learn a lot from countries such as South Korea and Japan. We should not be complacent and relaxed yet."