The crowd goes wild: Kiwi fans may be back in sports stadiums by next week
Professional sport in New Zealand could welcome fans back to stadiums as early as next week, while Australian supporters are likely to have to wait a little longer, with both governments set to discuss easing social-distancing restrictions.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will announce next Monday whether the country is ready to bring its alert system down to level 1, which would lift limits on mass gatherings that were imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus.
That would open the door for fans to attend the opening-round matches of New Zealandās Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament starting on June 13, and be a coup for the domestic game which has suffered financially due to the shutdown.
āAt level 1, all current rules on businesses and services are essentially lifted,ā Ardern said on Wednesday. āSports and concert stadiums can be sold out.ā
Ardern said the government was working with stadiums to create a āCOVID codeā to ensure contact tracing was in place in case sports fans tested positive for the coronavirus.
āFor those larger events it is a matter of preparedness for us. We may be confident that weāre an environment where we do not have COVID in circulation,ā she added.
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New Zealand recorded no new cases of coronavirus for a 12th consecutive day on Wednesday and has just one active case.
Australiaās national cabinet will meet on Friday to discuss how to further ease its own social-distancing restrictions, with a return to sporting crowds also on the agenda.
āWeāre going to try and get back to as much normality as we can, and I would join many people in wanting to go and watch a football match,ā deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly said.
āBut we need to do this in a staged fashion.ā
-AAP
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