Kāpiti Coast District Council closes facilities

Virginia Fallon Reporter from Kāpiti Observer

The council has closed all customer service centres, libraries and aquatic facilities.
In a press release on Sunday, Mayor K Gurunathan said the council's actions have and will continue to be guided by the latest advice from the Ministry of Health and other Government agencies.
“While there hasn’t been the directive from Government to close our facilities, we, like many other councils around the region feel that it is appropriate, based on the number of elderly people living in our community, to close. We’ve been working closely with our colleagues at Horowhenua, who are also taking the same path.”
The closures would take place from Monday morning until further notice.
“People will still be able to transact with the Council online and communicate with the Council team via email, telephone and Antenno.
This was not an easy decision as we know how vital these services are for our people but the message from our Prime Minister yesterday was clear – we need to do everything in our power to minimise the opportunity for COVID-19 to spread. I want to reiterate that the government guidance is to close public facilities when we get to Level 3 – but that we feel we need to take appropriate steps to protect our community ahead of time.
I also want to assure our community that significant response planning is already well underway with regard to essential services like infrastructure and community welfare. Be confident that we are prepared and ready to response to this rapidly evolving situation.
Finally, I want to again call for patience and kindness. There is only one source of official information and that is central Government via the Ministry of Health and www.covid19.govt.nz....
In the event that there are confirmed cases in our community, these will be publicly notified by health authorities. There is a robust protocol in which health officials ensure the strict isolation of confirmed cases.
Close contacts of any cases will be contacted, provided with advice and put in monitored self-isolation to limit the risk of spread in the community.
I am confident that in the event that cases are confirmed, all the right steps will be undertaken to protect our community – it’s important that we have trust in the official process.
So please keep calm, clean and kind, Kāpiti – we’re all in this together."