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Heartland Championship

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98-649: The Heartland Championship is an annual round-robin rugby union competition in men's domestic New Zealand rugby . First played in 1976 , it is the third highest level of competition in New Zealand alongside the Ranfurly Shield . It is organised by New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and since 2021, it has been known as the Bunnings Heartland Championship after Bunnings , its naming rights sponsor. A concurrent women's tournament

196-463: A bye . The schedule can therefore be computed as though the dummy were an ordinary player, either fixed or rotating. Instead of rotating one position, any number relatively prime to ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} will generate a complete schedule. The upper and lower rows can indicate home/away in sports, white/black in chess , etc.; to ensure fairness, this must alternate between rounds since competitor 1

294-860: A $ 30 million deficit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The organisation had also tried to apply for the Government's wage subsidy scheme but was told that it was not eligible for it despite a 40% drop in income. On 27 August, Pasifika GP Network member Api Talemaitoga announced that the Government's Testing Strategy Group would seek to ensure that members of the Māori and Pasifika communities would have fair access to testing. These measures include offering free testing, mobile testing centres and clinicians who could translate. Health authorities have also sought to reassure members of these communities that they would not lose their jobs due to contracting COVID-19. Following

392-522: A 56-year-old woman tested positive for the coronavirus strain that is thought to have originated in South Africa . On 14 February, three community transmission cases were reported within a family in Papatoetoe , Auckland. Apart from some community cases, most recorded cases in New Zealand occurred at the border prior to August 2021. By 30 July 2021, the total number of cases had reached 2,870;

490-464: A bye. If the number is even, an added player (ω) becomes the opponent. For an even number n {\displaystyle n} or an odd number n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} of competitors, Schurig builds a table with n / 2 {\displaystyle n/2} vertical rows and n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} horizontal rows. Then he populates it starting from

588-489: A certain number of wins or losses. The term round-robin is derived from the French term ruban ('ribbon'). Over time, the term became idiomized to robin . In a single round-robin schedule, each participant plays every other participant once. If each participant plays all others twice, this is frequently called a double round-robin . The term is rarely used when all participants play one another more than twice, and

686-411: A competitor to play the strongest opponents in a round robin in quick succession while others play them intermittently with weaker opposition. This asymmetry means that playing the same opponents is not necessarily completely equitable. There is also no scheduled showcase final match unless (by coincidence) two competitors meet in the last match of the tournament, with the result of that match determining

784-477: A competitor's chance of ultimate victory. Final records of participants are more accurate, in the sense that they represent the results over a longer period against the same opposition. The system is also better for ranking all participants, not just determining the winner. This is helpful to determine the final rank of all competitors, from strongest to weakest, for purposes of qualification for another stage or competition as well as for prize money. In team sports,

882-421: A doctor. The following day, the shop worker issued a statement criticising health officials who interviewed her for not providing a Chinese language translator, causing misinformation about her prior whereabouts, actions, and contacts. As a result of this miscommunication, her employer and their families had received abusive online messages. On 2 November 2021, Far North District Mayor John Carter supported

980-489: A lower-placed qualifier is perceived to be easier than for a higher-placed one). Four pairs in the 2012 Olympics Women's doubles badminton , having qualified for the next round, were ejected from the competition for attempting to lose in the round robin stage to avoid compatriots and better ranked opponents. The round robin stage at the Olympics was a new introduction, and these potential problems were readily known prior to

1078-593: A monoclonal antibody. From September 2021, the Ministry of Health began allocating funding to district health boards to the Support in Isolation/Quarantine (SIQ) programme with the goal of establishing local quarantine facilities to accommodate those who could not isolate at home in " community-based bubbles." The SIQ programme was established in response to rising community cases and plans to reopen

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1176-437: A round in which players meets each other. For example, player 7 plays against player 11 in round 4. If a player meets itself, then this shows a bye or a game against player n. All games in a round constitutes a diagonal in the table. The above schedule can also be represented by a graph, as shown below: Both the graph and the schedule were reported by Édouard Lucas in as a recreational mathematics puzzle. Lucas, who describes

1274-497: A round, a non-leftmost position (not including 1 {\displaystyle 1} ) can only be taken by competitors of a fixed distance. In round 1 {\displaystyle 1} of the example, in the second position competitor 2 {\displaystyle 2} plays against 13 {\displaystyle 13} , their distance is 2 {\displaystyle 2} . In round 2 {\displaystyle 2} , this position

1372-540: A schedule where player 14 has a fixed position, and all other players are rotated counterclockwise n 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {n}{2}}} positions. This schedule is easily generated manually. To construct the next round, the last player, number 8 in the first round, moves to the head of the table, followed by player 9 against player 7, player 10 against 6, until player 1 against player 2. Arithmetically, this equates to adding n 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {n}{2}}} to

1470-437: A scientist at ESR, said that while he was reasonably confident the sequencing had provided a good picture of what was happening across the country, there was still a slight chance that there was something in the community not identified. Specific sequencing of the genomes of the air crew member would show whether it was linked to a New Zealand genome, or related to information from sequencing overseas, making it "more likely that it

1568-489: A statement by Prof. Azra Ghani from MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis , Imperial College London , a World Health Organization collaborating centre . Notes: On 28 February 2020, New Zealand confirmed its first case, a woman in her 60s who had recently visited Iran The country confirmed its second case on 4 March, a woman who had recently returned from northern Italy . The number of cases continued to rise significantly through March 2020, reaching

1666-619: A straight knockout system. The top one, two, or occasionally three teams in these groups then proceed to a straight knockout stage for the remainder of the tournament. In the circle of death it is possible that no champion emerges from a round-robin tournament, even if there is no draw, but most sports have tie-breaker systems which resolve this. Round-robins can suffer from being too long compared to other tournament types, and with later scheduled games potentially not having any substantial meaning. They may also require tie-breaking procedures. Swiss system tournaments attempt to combine elements of

1764-526: A table. In France this is called the Carousel -Berger system (Système Rutch-Berger). The schedule can also be used for "asynchronous" round-robin tournaments where all games take place at different times (for example, because there is only one venue). The games are played from left to right in each round, and from the first round to the last. When the number of competitors is even, this schedule performs well with respect to quality and fairness measures such as

1862-458: A total of 647 (600 confirmed and 47 probable) and 74 recoveries by 31 March. On 29 March, New Zealand also reported its first coronavirus-related death, a woman in her 70s from the West Coast region . On 5 April 2020, the first ethnicity statistics were released; indicating that 74% of those who had contracted COVID-19 were Pākehā , 8.3% Asian, 7.6% Māori, and 3.3% Pasifika. By 31 July,

1960-416: A tournament of 16 teams can be completed in just 4 rounds (i.e. 15 matches) in a knockout format; a double elimination tournament format requires 30 (or 31) matches, but a round-robin would require 15 rounds (i.e. 120 matches) to finish if each competitor faces each other once. Other issues stem from the difference between the theoretical fairness of the round robin format and practice in a real event. Since

2058-571: A variety of tiebreaker criteria. Frequently, pool stages within a wider tournament are conducted on a round-robin basis. Examples with single round-robin scheduling include the FIFA World Cup , UEFA European Football Championship , and UEFA Cup (2004–2009) in football, Super Rugby ( rugby union ) in the Southern Hemisphere during its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14 (but not in its later 15- and 18-team formats),

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2156-613: Is a simple algorithm to create a schedule for a round-robin tournament. All competitors are assigned to numbers, and then paired in the first round: Next, one of the competitors in the first or last column of the table is fixed (number one in this example) and the others rotated clockwise one position: This is repeated until when the next iteration would lead back to the initial pairings: With an even number n {\displaystyle n} of competitors this algorithm realizes every possible combination of them (equivalently, that all pairs realized are pairwise different). First,

2254-564: Is also held, the Farah Palmer Cup . Following the 2005 season the league was restructured into a two-tier competition. The Heartland Championship would include semi-professional and amateur players, and consist of the bottom twelve populated and performing regional teams. For sponsorship reasons it was rebranded as the AA Rewards Heartland Championship. The remaining teams would continue to exist in

2352-435: Is always on the first row. If, say, competitors 3 and 8 were unable to fulfil their fixture in the third round, it would need to be rescheduled outside the other rounds, since both competitors would already be facing other opponents in those rounds. More complex scheduling constraints may require more complex algorithms. This schedule is applied in chess and draughts tournaments of rapid games, where players physically move round

2450-691: Is even, then in each of ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} rounds, n 2 {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\frac {n}{2}}\end{matrix}}} games can be run concurrently, provided there exist sufficient resources (e.g. courts for a tennis tournament). If n {\displaystyle n} is odd, there will be n {\displaystyle n} rounds, each with n − 1 2 {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\frac {n-1}{2}}\end{matrix}}} games, and one competitor having no game in that round. The circle method

2548-472: Is held annually, and starts in August. Rugby teams from 12 provincial unions compete. Points are earned during the competition based on the following schedule: Prior to the 2011 Competition, the tournament was conducted in three rounds. This was similar to the structure of the 2006 Air New Zealand Cup , but that competition collapsed its first two phases into one effective in 2007 . At the start of Round One,

2646-1054: Is held by competitors 14 {\displaystyle 14} and 12 {\displaystyle 12} , also having distance 2 {\displaystyle 2} , etc. Similarly, the next position ( 3 {\displaystyle 3} against 12 {\displaystyle 12} in round 1 {\displaystyle 1} , 2 {\displaystyle 2} against 11 {\displaystyle 11} in round 2 {\displaystyle 2} , etc.) can only hold distance- 4 {\displaystyle 4} competitors. For every k < n 2 {\displaystyle k<{\frac {n}{2}}} , there are exactly n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} pairs of distance k {\displaystyle k} . There are n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} rounds and they all realize one distance- k {\displaystyle k} pair at

2744-504: Is never used when one participant plays others an unequal number of times, as is the case in almost all of the major North American professional sports leagues. In the United Kingdom , a round-robin tournament has been called an American tournament in sports such as tennis or billiards which usually have single-elimination (or "knockout") tournaments, although this is now rarely done. A round-robin tournament with four players

2842-413: Is sometimes called "quad" or "foursome". In sports with a large number of competitive matches per season, double round-robins are common. Most association football leagues in the world are organized on a double round-robin basis, in which every team plays all others in its league once at home and once away. This system is also used in qualification for major tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and

2940-408: Is the fairest way to determine the champion from among a known and fixed number of contestants. Each contestant, whether player or team, has equal chances against all other opponents because there is no prior seeding of contestants that will preclude a match between any given pair. The element of luck is seen to be reduced as compared to a knockout system since one or two bad performances need not ruin

3038-519: Is what we call a travel-related infection, where we might start to look more in detail at the airports, or the airlines involved with the movements of a certain person." Geoghegan stressed the importance of genome sequencing in cases such as returning air crew, which was later used to demonstrate a case of in-flight transmission. On 20 March, the Auckland Council closed all public libraries, swimming pools, and recreational centres, including

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3136-574: The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy . In a more extreme example, the KBO League in baseball plays a 16-fold round robin, with each of the 10 teams playing each other 16 times for a total of 144 games per team. LIDOM (Baseball Winter League in the Dominican Republic) plays an 18-fold round robin as a semi final tournament between four classified teams. Group tournaments rankings usually go by number of matches won and drawn, with any of

3234-881: The Auckland Art Gallery and the New Zealand Maritime Museum . On 21 March, several local body councils in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Lower Hutt and Porirua announced the closures of public facilities including swimming pools, libraries, recreation centres, community centres, art galleries, and museums. On 24 March, the Auckland Council announced they were closing their campgrounds and Canterbury Regional Council announced that they would also close New Zealand Motor Caravan Association camping grounds within 48 hours. Auckland Council announced on 14 April that it

3332-656: The Cricket World Cup along with Indian Premier League , major Twenty-20 Cricket tournament, and many American football college conferences , such as the Conference USA (which currently has 9 members). The group phases of the UEFA club competitions and Copa Libertadores are contested as a double round-robin, as are most basketball leagues outside the United States, including the regular season of

3430-793: The Delta community outbreak in mid–August 2021, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) expressed concerned about the mental and physical health of nurses, midwives, and healthcare assistants; insufficient PPE supplies and a lack of mask fit-testing. In mid-September 2021, the NZNO challenged the Auckland District Health Board 's "free-for-all" visitor policy through the Employment Relations Authority. The NZNO argued that

3528-536: The EuroLeague (as well as its former Top 16 phase); the United Football League has used a double round-robin for both its 2009 and 2010 seasons. Season ending tennis tournaments also use a round robin format prior to the semi on stages. The champion in a round-robin tournament is the contestant that wins the most games, except when draws are possible. In theory, a round-robin tournament

3626-692: The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ), Catholic bishops, and Bishop Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church . Following criticism, the Government raised the limit on religious services from ten to 100 persons, allowing many faith communities to resume mass gatherings. In September 2020, Christian leaders Pacific Response Coordination Team chairman Pakilau Manase Lua and Wesleyan Methodist minister Frank Ritchie expressed concern about misinformation relating to COVID-19 circulating among New Zealand congregants attending churches with links to conservative evangelical and Pentecostal churches in

3724-591: The Institute of Medical Laboratory Science , the national representative body for laboratory workers, reported that many workers were burnt out from operating under poor conditions for the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers complained about insufficient office and recreation space due to extra testing machinery within their laboratories. In mid-May 2022, 10,000 allied health workers went on strike across New Zealand following failed negotiations with DHBs over pay and working conditions. The PSA's strike action

3822-664: The Meads Cup , while the bottom three teams enter the Lochore Cup . Round two saw each team in both the Meads and Lochore Cups playing the three teams that it did not play during Round One. The three teams with the most competition points in Round One would play two home fixtures and one away, while the other three teams would play one home fixture and two away. All competition points from Round One carried over to Round Two, and

3920-475: The New Zealand economy , representatives of the business sector continued to feature in media reporting: lobbying against perceived discrepancies in various industries, publicising habitual evaluations such as business-confidence indicators and economic outlooks, and itching for an early return to "business as usual" . On 17 September 2020, New Zealand economy officially entered into a recession, with

4018-549: The Public Service Association (PSA) voted to reject a pay offer from the district health boards and to strike twice in March 2022. The workers have demanded higher pay, equal treatment with other health professions, and safe staffing and retention. Union spokesperson Will Matthews stated that the planned strikes came after 15 months of failed negotiations with the district health boards. In mid-February 2022,

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4116-731: The Ranfurly Shield . The Osborne Taonga was designed and created by Otaki-based Kaiwhakaairo (carver) and artist Jason Hina ( Ngā Rauru Kiitahi , Te Atihaunui ā Pāpārangi, Ngāti Apa , Ngāpuhi , Ngāti Kauwhata and Ngāti Raukawa ) and fellow carver Bill Doyle, who created the Tū Kotahi Aotearoa trophy. Since 2022, the Heartland Championship Player of the Year award has been awarded a medal named after former All Blacks captain Ian Kirkpatrick . Winners of

4214-512: The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant based on contact tracing, testing and self-isolation. On 3 February, the Government also launched a five-stage plan to reopen New Zealand's borders throughout 2022. On 23 March, the Government eased several "traffic light" restrictions including limits on public gatherings, vaccine pass requirements, vaccine mandates for most occupations, and NZ COVID Tracer QR code scanning requirements. In May 2022,

4312-650: The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus ( SARS-CoV-2 ) was the cause of a respiratory illness ( coronavirus disease 2019 , or COVID-19), found in a cluster of people in Wuhan , Hubei , People's Republic of China , which had been reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003 , but the transmission has reportedly been significantly greater, according to

4410-510: The managed isolation system . In August 2021, New Zealand entered nationwide lockdown due to a case of community transmission in Auckland of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant , with subsequent community cases in Auckland and Wellington. Due to rising cases nationwide, the Government abandoned its elimination strategy while accelerating the country's vaccination rollout . Auckland remained in a form of lockdown until 3 December 2021 when

4508-470: The 12 teams would split into seeded pools of six teams each, Pool A and Pool B. Seedings were also based on positions in the previous year's competition. During Round One, each team would play the other teams in its pool once. All teams would have either two or three home fixtures, with the three highest seeds in each pool at the start of the season receiving the extra home fixture. All teams would advance to Round Two. The top three teams in each pool advance to

4606-550: The Act's provisions for seven-day isolation periods, mask use and border entry requirements until Parliament passed newer, general pandemic legislation. The Government also revoked the Epidemic Notice, signalling a shift from emergency management to long-term management of COVID-19. In addition, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed that the Government would hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry into its response to

4704-599: The Auckland February cluster, the Government placed an Alert Level 3 lockdown on Auckland and an Alert Level 2 lockdown over the rest of the country commencing 28 February 2021 for the next seven days. Following a new community outbreak in Auckland in August 2021, the NZ Government reinstated Alert Level 4 restrictions on 17 August 2021. Due to rising cases in Auckland and parts of the North Island,

4802-399: The August 2021 outbreak in Auckland, the number of both community and border cases in New Zealand rose substantially, reaching a total of 14,118 cases by 31 December 2021. The total number of recoveries also reached to 12,870 while the death toll rose to 51. On 29 December 2021, British musician Robert Etheridge (Dimension) was identified as the country's first Omicron case. In early 2022,

4900-433: The COVID-19 pandemic. During the further outbreak of COVID-19 cases in Auckland in August 2020, genome sequencing was noted as a "new tool" in the Government's strategy to manage the pandemic. Ashley Bloomfield said "we are also doing genome sequencing on all those who have tested positive and our recent cases and current cases in managed isolation and quarantine ". A phylodynamics specialist said that compared to

4998-485: The Government abandoned its elimination strategy while accelerating the country's vaccination rollout . The "alert level system" was subsequently replaced by the COVID-19 Protection Framework ("traffic light system"), which came into force on 3 December 2021. In addition, the Government launched a COVID-19 vaccination pass system, which came into effect on 16 November 2021. On 23 November,

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5096-671: The Government also accelerated the reopening of the border for various work, visitor and student visa classes. In mid September 2022, the Government abolished the "traffic light system," ending most remaining COVID-19 mask, vaccine, and close contact isolation mandates and restrictions. In mid October 2022, the Government scrapped several of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 's provisions including its powers to implement lockdowns, managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ), border closures, vaccine passes and mandates. The Government however opted to retain

5194-466: The Government passed the COVID-19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Act 2021 , which provided a legal framework for the "traffic light system" and vaccine mandates for certain occupations. On 17 January 2022, the Government launched its vaccination rollout for children aged between five and 12 years. In late January, the Government also launched a three-stage plan to combat the spread of

5292-436: The Government passed the controversial COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 which empowered law enforcement to enter homes and other premises without a warrant in order to enforce lockdown restrictions. On 11 August 2020, the Government reinstated lockdown restrictions following a second outbreak of community transmissions in Auckland. Due to the reduction in community transmissions, lockdown restrictions in Auckland and

5390-416: The Government placed an Alert Level 3 lockdown on Auckland and an Alert Level 2 lockdown over the rest of the country until 17 February. On 17 February, Auckland's lockdown was lowered to Alert Level 2 while the rest of the country reverted to Alert Level 1. On 22 February, the Government announced that Auckland would revert to Alert Level 1 on 22 February. Following new community cases that were connected to

5488-572: The Government's decision to impose a Level 3 lockdown in the northern part of the Northland Region following two undetected cases. He urged people to get tested and vaccinated. On 19 March, the medical recruitment company MedWorld appealed for retired and part-time doctors to assist efforts by the health sector and Government to combat the spread of COVID-19. On 10 June, St John New Zealand , which provides ambulance and first aid services, announced that it would be laying off staff due to

5586-737: The Health Board's policy of allowing two visitors during the Delta outbreak posed a health risk to patients and staff. In October 2021, Pharmac negotiated an agreement with supplier Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) to purchase the experimental antiviral pill molnupiravir . If approved by Medsafe , Pharmac will be supplied with 60,000 courses of the pill, which would be used to treat New Zealanders with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms. In November, Pharmac secured 500 doses of baricitinib , an oral tablet that improves outcomes for hospitalised patients and purchased Ronapreve (also known as Regeneron),

5684-951: The Health Ministry allocated NZ$ 120,000 to the Wairarapa District Health Board to establish local SIQ facilities. In addition, other district health boards including the Taranaki District Health Board , the Auckland District Health Board , the Southern District Health Board , and the Whanganui District Health Board have made preparations to establish their own SIQ facilities at various repurposed hotels and holiday parks. On 17 February 2022, laboratory workers, contact tracers and other critical health staff affiliated with

5782-549: The Lochore Cup. The Meads and Lochore Cup winners are both determined in four-team single-elimination tournaments. The semifinal matchups are seeded 1-4 and 2-3, with the higher seed receiving home field advantage. The highest surviving seed hosts each Cup final. The Heartland Championship is contested by the following teams: Prior to 2006, East Coast, North Otago, Poverty Bay and Whanganui competed in Division Two of

5880-617: The Medal are: Each year, a New Zealand Heartland XV is selected to recognise the top performing players in the Championship. The team selected plays various fixtures and in some years goes on an overseas tour. Round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn. A round-robin contrasts with an elimination tournament , wherein participants are eliminated after

5978-730: The NPC, alongside Counties-Manukau, Hawke's Bay, Manawatu, Nelson Bays and Marlborough (all promoted to the Air New Zealand Cup, Nelson Bays and Marlborough merging to form Tasman). The remaining teams competed in Division Three of the NPC. No Heartland Championship was held in 2020 due to COVID-19 . In 2021, a new challenge trophy for the Heartland Championship teams was announced, named after 16-test All Black Bill Osborne . It would follow similar rules to

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6076-551: The Pasifika community that the Government would not use any information collected during testing for immigration purposes. Collins urged Pacific community leaders, church leaders and health professionals to encourage overstayers to get tested for COVID-19 without fear of repercussions. On 12 November, Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff and local health authorities have urged people in the Auckland CBD area to work from home after

6174-446: The algorithm obviously realizes every pair of competitors if one of them equals 1 {\displaystyle 1} (the non-moving competitor). Next, for pairs of non- 1 {\displaystyle 1} competitors, let their distance be the number k < n 2 {\displaystyle k<{\frac {n}{2}}} of times the rotation has to be carried out in order that one competitor arrives at

6272-540: The amount of rest between games. On the other hand, when the number of competitors is odd, it does not perform so well and a different schedule is superior with respect to these measures. Alternatively Berger tables, named after the Austrian chess master Johann Berger , are widely used in the planning of tournaments. Berger published the pairing tables in his two Schach-Jahrbücher (Chess Annals), with due reference to its inventor Richard Schurig. This constitutes

6370-545: The border in 2022. New Zealand has announced a progressive reopening of its borders as it begins to ease some of the world's most stringent Covid regulations. Vaccinated Australian nationals will be able to return home on 27 February without having to go through the state's required hotel quarantine. Jabbed nationals from other countries will be allowed in starting 13 March, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. People will still be required to self-isolate for 10 days, but they will be able to do so at home. In mid October 2021,

6468-435: The championship. A notable instance of such an event was the 1950 FIFA World Cup match between Uruguay and Brazil . Further issues arise where a round-robin is used as a qualifying round within a larger tournament. A competitor already qualified for the next stage before its last game may either not try hard (in order to conserve resources for the next phase) or even deliberately lose (if the scheduled next-phase opponent for

6566-688: The community, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern closed the country's borders to non-citizens and non-residents on 19 March 2020. On 21 March, the Government introduced a four-tier alert level system, which placed much of the country's population and economy into lockdown from 25 March. Due to the success of the Government's elimination strategy in reducing the spread of COVID-19, lockdown restrictions on mobility, social gatherings and economic activities were progressively lifted on 28 April, 11 May, 25 May, and 8 June. The lifting of Alert Level 1 restrictions on 8 June eliminated social distancing and lockdown restrictions but retained border restrictions. On 13 May,

6664-522: The competition points earned in both rounds determined the teams that advanced to the semifinals of each Cup in Round Three. The top four teams in the Meads and Lochore Cup competitions at the end of Round Two advanced to the semifinals. This round sees the 12 teams playing 8 games each. 1st to 4th on the ladder at the end of the 8 weeks will play off for the Meads Cup, while 5th to 8th play off for

6762-581: The continental tournaments (e.g. UEFA European Championship , CONCACAF Gold Cup , AFC Asian Cup , CONMEBOL Copa América and CAF Cup of Nations ). There are also round-robin cricket , bridge , chess , draughts , go , ice hockey , curling , and Scrabble tournaments. The World Chess Championship decided in 2005 and in 2007 on an eight-player double round-robin tournament where each player faces every other player once as white and once as black. There has been several major international cricket tournaments held in this format including ICC events, including

6860-541: The country's gross domestic product contracting by 12.2% in the June quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The retail, accommodation, hospitality, and transportation sectors were adversely affected by the international travel ban and a strict nationwide lockdown. The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial impact on New Zealand society, with significant implications for education, faith communities, holidays, Māori , mass gatherings, sports and recreational activities. Reports about

6958-484: The discovery of a community transmission case who worked at the A-Z Collections shop on Auckland's High St in the city centre. Goff also criticised the store's owner for allegedly telling the employee to come to work while she was awaiting test results for her COVID-19 test. The store owner disputed Goff's account, explaining that the employee had called on Tuesday to say she had a sore throat and would be visiting

7056-528: The disease in New Zealand was reported on 28 February 2020. The country recorded over 2,274,370 cases (2,217,047 confirmed and 57,323 probable ). Over 3,000 people died as a result of the pandemic, with cases recorded in all twenty district health board (DHB) areas. The pandemic first peaked in early April 2020, with 89 new cases recorded per day and 929 active cases. Cases peaked again in October 2021 with 134 new cases reported on 22 October. In response to

7154-519: The effects of COVID-19. On 10 July, the Auckland Council announced that it was going to eliminate 500 permanent jobs as a result of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. On 27 August, Auckland councillor Efeso Collins called for the Government to grant an amnesty to people who had overstayed their visas in order to encourage members of the Pasifika community to come forward for COVID-19 tests. The Health Minister Chris Hipkins has reassured

7252-556: The entry of COVID-19 into New Zealand, several faith communities announced that they would be suspending or reducing public gatherings in responds to the Government's ban on gatherings with more than 100 people. Due to the closure of butcheries under Alert Level 4, members of the Muslim community faced difficulty accessing halal food. When the lockdown level was first lowered to Alert Level 2 on 14 May, religious gatherings were initially limited to ten persons, which drew criticism from

7350-763: The first outbreak in late February 2020, the New Zealand Government closed the country's borders and imposed lockdown restrictions. A four-tier alert level system was introduced on 21 March 2020 to manage the outbreak within New Zealand. After a two-month nationwide lockdown , from 26 March to 27 May 2020, regionalised alert level changes were also used; the Auckland Region entered lockdown twice, in August–September 2020 and February–March 2021. The country then went for several months without any community transmission, with all cases restricted to

7448-434: The first outbreak when only 25 people out of approximately 1000 were sequenced, "mapping the genetic sequences of the virus from confirmed COVID-19 cases in a bid to track its spread – is now an integral part of New Zealand's coronavirus response. It is providing greater certainty in identifying clusters and helps focus the investigations of contact tracers ." Bloomfield said that sequencing will provide information about how

7546-403: The method as simple and ingenious , attributes the solution to Felix Walecki, a teacher at Lycée Condorcet . Lucas also included an alternative solution by means of a sliding puzzle . To easily remember this method, the following mnemonic can be used. Starting from the first round, the next round is constructed: and then, If the number of players is odd, the player in the first venue gets

7644-473: The national death toll had reached 24 with the death of former Cook Islands Prime Minister Joe Williams . Apart from some community cases, most cases reported in New Zealand during the second half of 2020 were reported at the border. By 31 December 2020, there were a total of 2,162 cases; 2,082 recoveries, and 25 deaths in New Zealand. On 25 January 2021, New Zealand identified its first community spread case of COVID-19 since November 2020 on Sunday after

7742-563: The new COVID-19 Protection Framework ("traffic light system") came into effect. Between February and May 2022, the Government gradually eased border restrictions, public gathering limits, and vaccine mandate requirements. In September 2022, the Government ended the COVID-19 Protection Framework, lifting the remaining vaccine mandates and mask requirements. On 15 August 2023, the New Zealand Government lifted all remaining COVID-19 restrictions. On 12 January 2020,

7840-887: The newly reformed professional competition known as the National Provincial Championship . Twenty-nine teams have competed since the inception of the competitions second division in 1976. Hawke's Bay and Taranaki are historically the most successful unions with seven titles each and Whanganui is the most successful team during the modern-era, having won six from eleven finals. Sixteen other teams have won titles from both periods: South Canterbury (6), Southland (5), Mid Canterbury (4), North Otago (3), Bay of Plenty (2), Marlborough (2), Nelson Bays (2), Northland (2), Thames Valley (2), Waikato (2), Wairarapa Bush (2), Central Vikings (1), Counties Manukau (1) East Coast (1), King Country (1) and North Harbour (1). The Heartland Championship

7938-765: The outbreak started and Jemma Geoghegan , a senior lecturer in viral evolution at the University of Otago who was working on genome sequencing with the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), told Radio New Zealand : By comparing the genomes of the new cases to those from the isolation facilities as well as the global population and the other cases in New Zealand, we can begin to understand how long that chain of transmission potentially is, and likely estimate when that virus emerged and first arrived into New Zealand. When an Air New Zealand crew member tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2020, Joel de Ligt,

8036-496: The position the other had. In the example given ( n = 14 {\displaystyle n=14} ), 2 {\displaystyle 2} has distance 1 {\displaystyle 1} to 3 {\displaystyle 3} and to 14 {\displaystyle 14} and it has distance 6 {\displaystyle 6} to 8 {\displaystyle 8} and to 9 {\displaystyle 9} . In

8134-400: The previous row, with the exception of player n {\displaystyle n} . When the result of the addition is greater than ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} , then subtract ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} from the sum. This schedule can also be represented as a (n-1, n-1) table, expressing

8232-652: The recent introduction of rapid antigen testing (RATS) for public usage. The New Zealand Government responded to the global COVID-19 pandemic by establishing a National Health Coordination Centre (NHCC). In early February 2020, the Government barred entry to most travellers from China in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic that originated Wuhan . In addition, the Government sponsored several repatriation flights for returning citizens, residents, and their family members, beginning with Wuhan in February 2020. In response to rising cases from overseas travel and within

8330-604: The rest of New Zealand were progressively eliminated on 30 August, 23 September, and 7 October 2020. In early November, the Government required travellers entering New Zealand to book a place in managed isolation prior to travelling to the country. In mid-December 2020, the Government announced plans to establish travel bubbles with the Cook Islands and Australia in 2021. Following a community outbreak in South Auckland 's Papatoetoe suburb on 14 February 2021,

8428-406: The round-robin and elimination formats, to provide a worthy champion using fewer rounds than a round-robin, while allowing draws and losses. The main disadvantage of a round robin tournament is the time needed to complete it. Unlike a knockout tournament where half of the participants are eliminated after each round, a round robin requires one round less than the number of participants. For instance,

8526-525: The round-robin major league champions are generally regarded as the "best" team in the land, rather than the cup winners, whose tournaments usually follow a single-elimination format. Moreover, in tournaments such as the FIFA or ICC World Cups, a first round stage consisting of a number of mini round robins between groups of 4 teams guards against the possibility of a team travelling possibly thousands of miles only to be eliminated after just one poor performance in

8624-408: The same position. Clearly, these pairs are pairwise different. The conclusion is that every distance- k {\displaystyle k} pair is realized. This holds for every k {\displaystyle k} , hence, every pair is realized. If there are an odd number of competitors, a dummy competitor can be added, whose scheduled opponent in a given round does not play and has

8722-590: The spread of COVID-19 led to a high demand for face masks and hand sanitisers. Following the spread of COVID-19 at several schools, the Government closed all schools, early childhood centres and universities on 23 March 2020 as part of the implementation of a nationwide lockdown. In addition, on 13 May, the end-of-year high school National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) external exams were postponed to mid November 2020. Several universities drew criticism for continuing to charge rent to students who had returned home to their families. In response to

8820-608: The teams. This famously happened during the 1994 FIFA World Cup Group E , where all four teams finished with a record of one win, one draw, and one loss. This phenomenon is analogous to the Condorcet paradox in voting theory. If n {\displaystyle n} is the number of competitors, a pure round robin tournament requires n 2 ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\frac {n}{2}}\end{matrix}}(n-1)} games. If n {\displaystyle n}

8918-514: The top left corner by repeating the sequence of numbers from 1 up to n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} . Here is an example table for 7 or 8 competitors: COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand was part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ( SARS-CoV-2 ). The first case of

9016-414: The total number of cases had reached 1,560, the total number of recovered had risen to 1,518, while the death toll had risen to 22. Following 102 days of no community transmissions, four such cases were reported in Auckland on 11 August 2020, putting the city back into lockdown. According to 1News , Pacific Islanders made up 75% of the cases in the August community outbreak in Auckland. By 5 September,

9114-441: The total number of recorded cases rose exponentially; rising from 16,416 cases on 31 January to 100,821 on 28 February. In addition, the death toll reached 56 while the total number of recoveries reached 18,332 on 28 February 2022. Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa project leader Dion O'Neale attributed the sharp rise of reported cases in February 2022 to backlogs in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and data processing as well as

9212-401: The total number of recoveries had reached 2,799 while the death toll had reached 26. On 17 August 2021, the Ministry of Health announced one new community case of COVID-19 in Auckland. In response, the Government moved the country into Alert Level 4 effective 11.59pm 17 August 2021. By 19 August the number of community cases had reached 21, with most being from the Delta variant . Following

9310-435: The tournament; changes were made prior to the next Olympics to prevent a repeat of these events. Another disadvantage, especially in smaller round-robins, is the "circle of death", where teams cannot be separated on a head-to-head record. In a three-team round-robin, where A defeats B, B defeats C, and C defeats A, all three competitors will have a record of one win and one loss, and a tiebreaker will need to be used to separate

9408-451: The victor is gradually arrived at through multiple rounds of play, teams who perform poorly, who might have been quickly eliminated from title contention, are forced to play out their remaining games. Thus games are played late in the competition between competitors with no remaining chance of success. Moreover, some later matches will pair one competitor who has something left to play for against another who does not. It may also be possible for

9506-815: Was applying for special project funding for a number of infrastructure projects that had been suspended due to lockdown. On 15 April, several Otago mayors including mayor of Dunedin Aaron Hawkins , Central Otago District mayor Tim Cadogan, Queenstown Lakes District mayor Jim Boult, Clutha District mayor Bryan Cadogan, Waitaki District mayor Gary Kircher and Otago Regional Council chair Marian Hobbs were donating part of their salaries to local charities to assist with coronavirus pandemic relief efforts. In addition, several Dunedin City Council officials including chief executive Sue Bidrose announced that they were taking pay cuts to help their local communities cope with

9604-737: Was supported by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), the New Zealand Dental Association (NZDA) and the NZ Council of Trade Unions (CTU). In early June 2022, the Dunedin Hospital was closed to visitors following an outbreak of COVID-19 within its wards. Up until March 2020, New Zealand ran a mixed economy – a free market with some state ownership and control . Although somewhat abruptly sidelined from their normal influence within

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