RNZCGP is calling for more medical students to be trained up as GPs and warns the wider health system will bear the brunt of the pain if people cannot get to a GP in timely fashion.

The various groups says the past two years have been incredibly tough, but this long-awaited news provides them certainty, allows for gradual rebuild of tourism and will save operators from collapse.

It appears not everyone has been taken in by the magic of Methven's Enchanted Forest.

Schools and early childhood centres hope hundreds of thousands of rapid antigen tests (RATs) will keep attendance up and put staff and students at ease.

Police say they have executed search warrants to take back property they allege belongs to a man facing significant drugs charges.

KiwiRail's oldest diesel shunt is rolling full steam ahead into retirement.

Transpower has apologised to customers for the four-hour power cut but says compensation is an issue for people to take up with electricity retailers.

There have been 19,542 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and 24 more deaths reported today.

A 32-year-old Hastings man has been arrested after two elderly women who had won money on gambling machines were followed, attacked and robbed on Monday afternoon.

Northland police have arrested a number of gang members after what they describe as a vicious and cowardly assault on a man in daylight on Kaikohe's main street.

Pharmac has secured an agreement for medicines for treating people with lung cancer, ovarian cancer or severe asthma.

Financial uncertainty has not deterred some West Coast business owners who have taken the plunge and set up shop in the midst of the pandemic.

A group of protesters who had been gathered at the Raglan Airfield since January have left today.

Customs have seized more than 700 kilograms of cocaine in a shipping container, breaking the record for a border seizure that was set just two weeks ago.

A major power outage in the Coromandel region, caused by plastic wrap becoming tangled in a transmission line, has ended after about four hours.

Schools, kura and early learning centres will soon be able to opt-in to receive rapid antigen tests, the government has announced.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Education show 86 percent of schools in the region have reported cases in the past 10 days.

Beneficiaries calling Work and Income for help say they are enduring long waits - often of more than an hour - to talk to someone.