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The Cochrane Primary Care Centre is set to close by January of next year, according to an April 23 media statement from the Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network (PCN). It cited “the changing environment, including the pandemic” as reasons for the closure.
“This is not a decision we wanted to have to make,” reads a quote in the statement from Calgary Foothills PCN executive director Darren Caines.
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“The financial impact of the pandemic combined with the departure of physicians meant the business model was no longer sustainable in Cochrane. We are still working out the details but we wanted to give doctors, staff and patients as much notice as possible.”
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Working from home has let Nina Mercer return to full-time work. she is pictured in her work space with 13-year-old son, MacLean, and the two family dogs, Emmy (left) and Jed.
The pandemic has permanently changed the playing field for workers and their lunch habits, as many Manawatū businesses embrace and retain the work-from-home options that got them through lockdown. A recent survey of Manawatū businesses a year after lockdown, as part of 2degrees’ latest Shaping Business Study, found 77 per cent had staff who worked from home full or part-time. It was a massive change from the pre-Covid days, when 55 per cent of the businesses didn t offer the option at all, which confirmed the early signs of a permanent shift the Central Economic Development Agency noticed last June.
Scenes of joyful tears at the Wellington Airport on day one of the trans-Tasman bubble.
The return of Australian tourists is expected to bring a small but welcome boost for Manawatū tourism operators. The first quarantine-free international passenger flights since the start of the pandemic arrived on Monday, after the trans-Tasman bubble officially opened on Monday. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment statistics show Australian travellers spent $45 million in the wider Manawatū in 2019, and similar spending this year would ease the strain on tourism operators who’ve had to adapt to new markets and lay-off staff during the pandemic. Central Economic Development Agency spokeswoman Janet Reynolds said people visiting friends and family had always been a big part of Manawatū tourism, and with many Australian’s itching to reconnect with Kiwi kin after a year’s separation, the travel bubble was certainly good news for everyone.
Paymark spokesman Paul Brislen said Palmerston North was one of five, out of 17, Paymark regions where Boxing Day spending increased this year – although Auckand spending only increased by 0.7 per cent. Nationally, $62.2m was spent on Boxing Day over the Paymark network, 2.2 per cent less than last year. Brislen said the areas where Boxing Day spending rose in 2020 tended to be places without a big tourism sector, such as Palmerston North. The overall drop in spending could be partially explained by the lack of overseas visitors, after the pandemic ground international travel to a halt, he said. Paymark figures don t capture online spending.