User:Schwede66/1 pm press conference

The 1 pm press conference, initially known as the 1pm Daily Update, is an almost daily press conference held by the New Zealand Government since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. It is the government's main way of informing both the public and the media about developments in relation to the pandemic. On days where there is no press conference, the Ministry of Health issues a 1pm media release instead. On occasions, the press conference is held at different times, most commonly at 4pm.

Format
The government's daily press conference is usually held at 1pm in the Beehive theatrette. On occasions, when cabinet makes major decisions, the conference is held at 4pm after the cabinet meeting. On rare occasions, press conferences are held at different times, for example a "snap" press conference at 1:30pm on 14 February 2021, followed by another press conference at 7pm that day after a cabinet meeting; this was in response to having detected three positive cases in one household in the community that resulted in an increase in alert levels.

The press conference is generally fronted by a senior member of cabinet alongside a senior civil servant and supported by a sign language interpreter. The most common combination is the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, to speak at the press conference. Ardern is sometimes replace by the minister of health, which was initially David Clark (until July 2020) followed by Chris Hipkins. Following the 2020 general election, the new role of Minister for COVID-19 Response was created and assigned to Hipkins, who continues to be the most common replacement for the prime minister. On occasions, Grant Robertson represents cabinet in his role as deputy prime minister. Officials who stand in for Bloomfield include the police commissioner (Mike Bush until April 2020, followed by Andrew Coster), and Caroline McElnay as director of public health.

History
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, press conferences were given by the Ministry of Health. The first press conference was fronted by Bloomfield and McElnay on 27 January 2020. The next media conferences were held on 31 January, with one in the morning fronted by Bloomfield following the World Health Organization declaring the novel coronavirus a public health emergency, and one in the afternoon fronted by Bloomfield and McElnay for a general update.

Bloomfield gave many further press conferences during February 2020; sometimes he was assisted by other officials: 1 February, 3 February (assisted by McElnay), 4 February (assisted by McElnay), 10 February, 12 February (assisted by Andrew Slater, the CEO of Healthline), 13 February, and 17 February, On 18 February 2020, Bloomfield was for the first time joined by a government minister – health minister Clark. Further press conferences that month were on 19 February (Bloomfield and McElnay), 20 February (Bloomfield), 21 February (Bloomfield), 24 February (Bloomfield and the CEO of the Health Research Council, Sunny Collings), 25 February (Bloomfield and McElnay), 27 February (McElnay), two press conferences on 28 February (both with Bloomfield and health minister Clark, first announcing further international travel restrictions and later that day announcing the first case of COVID-19 in New Zealand), and 29 February (Bloomfield).