COVID-19

For three months Spain has been under one of Europe's toughest lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned that hygiene controls must be observed strictly, despite the easing.

Spain's Covid-19 death toll stands at 28,322 - the third-highest in the EU.

The state of emergency was decreed on 14 March, and for several weeks people could not go out to exercise and children were not allowed to leave their homes for any reason.

Mr Trump had boasted earlier this week that almost a million people had requested tickets for the event at Tulsa's Bank of Oklahoma Center.

But the 19,000-seat arena was far from full and plans for him to address an outside "overflow" area were abandoned.

There had been concerns about holding the rally during the pandemic.

Those attending the rally had to sign a waiver protecting the Trump campaign from responsibility for any illness. Hours before the event began, officials said six staff members involved in organising the rally had tested positive.

Of those cases 180 are classified as civilians, and 42 are military service members, including the 22 confirmed by the Department of Defense on Saturday.

The government says there are 44 active cases in Guam while 173 people have been released from isolation and there have been five deaths over the course of the outbreak.

The 22 latest positive results were identified through contact tracing among service members in a unit deployed to the Andersen Air Force Base after an initial spate of cases this week. There are now 35 infected people associated with the base.

Thornhill Contracting South Island manager Alistair Mitchell said he had 21 ni-Vanuatu workers heading home Friday (yesterday) who had been in New Zealand since October 2019.

"When our summer work ran out, we had to re-train them into winter jobs on the vineyard such as pruning," he said.

"The sector relies on the RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) workers to fill the employer gap and we are very grateful for their hard work."

The figure, however, is believed to be higher because of insufficient testing. Only the US has had more infections.

Brazil's health ministry has confirmed 1,032,913 cases but experts say the outbreak is weeks away from its peak.

Poor communities and indigenous people have been particularly badly hit by the pandemic.

IOC President Thomas Bach met his counterpart at FIFA Gianni Infantino in person at the Olympic Museum, which reopened on Tuesday June 9, after a closure forced by the outbreak of COVID-19.

During their meeting, Presidents Bach and Infantino discussed the importance of sport during the coronavirus pandemic, and how the global situation would force sport to adapt in the short and longer term.

Infantino was elected as a member of the IOC during its 135th Session in January.

According to the Vanuatu High Commission in New Zealand, there were 132 passengers on board the special RNZAF B757 repatriation flight from Christchurch.

The repatriation flight was made possible with the support of the New Zealand Government, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Defense Force, Horticulture New Zealand, and the RSE Employers.

Airports Vanuatu Limited facilitated the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) approved flight.

The travelers will be kept in isolation where they will be tested for COVID-19.

In an update on its earnings expectations, the company said the recent move to alert level 1 has enabled the airline to slowly restart the domestic network, however revenue and earnings are significantly lower than expected prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It said it was now expecting an underlying operating loss of $120m.

But there are other significant one-off items which will boost the bottom line result.

The company is estimating re-structuring costs, including redundancies, will be between $140 and $160m

Westpac Bank's regional roundup says all areas of New Zealand are facing a rough recession over the rest of the year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but those that rely most on international tourism, such as Otago, are likely to be particularly hard hit.

Construction activity was expected to continue to slow, while house prices were expected to fall in all parts of the country.

Wellington had the brightest outlook, supported by an increase in government spending on services.

But it's also further highlighted the difficult bind they find themselves in - risk the devastation of the coronavirus or prolong their economic suffering.

Fletcher Melvin, the head of the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce and the Private Sector Taskforce, has been pushing hard for a travel bubble.

When Aotearoa declared zero cases a week ago, he was ecstatic, and so was the government - 87 percent of the country's economy relies on tourism, three quarters of those visitors from New Zealand.