New Zealand has announced a snap lockdown after a man tested positive for Covid, the first case in six months. The case was detected in Auckland, which will be in lockdown for a week, while the rest of the country will be in lockdown for three days. Authorities say they are working on the assumption that the new case was the Delta variant.
Coromandel, a coastal town where the infected person had visited, will be in lockdown for seven days too. The patient is a 58-year-old man, who is believed to have been infectious since last Thursday. There are at least 23 potential sites of transmission.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the toughest “level 4” rules were required - closing schools, offices and all businesses with only essential services remaining operational.
“I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for this eventuality. Going hard and early has worked for us before,” she said.
New Zealand has been successful in eliminating the virus from within its borders, although its international borders remain largely closed.
However, its vaccination programme has rolled out at a slow pace, with only around 20% of people fully vaccinated and 33% of people having received one dose, according to Our World in Data.
When the UK is racking up 30,00 new cases a day with no lockdown, that sounds like overkill (if you’ll excuse the expression) but New Zealand has been “safe” (and isolated) for 6 months so better “safe” than sorry (look what happened in the UK when BJ left the door to incoming from India open for a fortnight ) …
Well NZ has a population of just under 5million people Omah,
So 1;. ; 5 million sounds to me like they have no problem with covid ?
More to the point is why is their vaccine roll out so slow ??
Maybe they can’t afford the vaccine or are unwilling to pay ??
@Omah well closing the economy down for 6 months is going to cost them plenty ain’t it ??
If they had vaccinated then it wouldn’t be necessary would it ??
Not quite true DM. One of the people (the first one’s wife) is fully vaccinated but can still carry the virus for several days. Even the tourist industry, which has been the hardest hit, agree with this quick action to avoid the even much longer which would be the result of rapid spread. Finding the source is the main aim now. We’ve been vaccinating now for months. I’ve had both mine for over a month and I’m not a "frontline " worker.
there are still those in democracies that do not want to be vaccinated and some still dying because of this decision - this is what democracies are partially about - letting you chose to die if you wish. but availability of vaccines does seem to have been an issue all around the world with the richer nations coming out smelling of roses sometimes.
it does appear though that this particular virus is deadly - has the ability to mutate and come back in a modified form and bite you in the bum. I must admit I too am somewhat surprised how Nz perhaps has let its guard down and got bitten in the bum - in Oz there is much controversy about the competence/incompetence of govt official in terms of securing sufficient vaccines and of course helping our close neighbours in the SP isles
“New Zealand is following up its commitment to equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines by donating enough for 800,000 people through the COVAX Advance Market Commitment. These doses will go to developing countries, with a focus on the Pacific,” said New Zealand’s Associate Health and Foreign Affairs minister Aupito William Sio.
New Zealand’s coronavirus cluster has grown to 10, with genomic sequencing linking it to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, as the country woke up to day one of a snap lockdown stemming from just one case.
The prime minister’s office confirmed three new cases on Wednesday evening.
The Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, told broadcaster RNZ “we’re seeing more cases coming through, I don’t have details of those cases. But yes, I can confirm that we have further positive test results since the press conference today.”
@Ciderman l think you miss my point ciderman?
Which is, NZ Has had the same amount of time as the UK to vaccinate it’s 5million
citizens, and has only managed to do less than half of these??
Whereas, UK has almost completed its whole population, of ± 60 million ??
in theory it should take only 2 months to double jab everybody ??
And the smaller the population is , the easier it should be !!
You are in the position now of HAVING to shut down, because not enough have been vaccinated ??
This is after more than a year has passed since vaccinations COULD have started ??
Only government policy could have caused this imo?
Donkeyman!
Just got back to this DM. Vaccines have been on order since 2021 started but deliveries have been slow and are arriving piecemeal. I guess at the aforementioned 5 million we don’t carry much weight in the world.
New Zealand’s nationwide lockdown is extending until at least the end of the week, as the country battles to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19.
Auckland – the country’s largest city, where the majority of cases are – will remain in lockdown until the end of the month.
“We don’t yet believe we’ve reached the peak of this outbreak or necessarily the edges of it,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said. “The safest option for all of us right now is to hold the course for longer.”
On Monday, New Zealand recorded another 35 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number in its outbreak to 107.
New Zealand has tested about 3% of its population over the past week. Ardern said testing showed estimates of the transmission rate – the average number of people each case passes Covid on to – may be six or higher. “You may recall from previous outbreaks this number needs to be less than one in order for the virus to be stamped out. So we have some way to go yet,” Ardern said.
Of the 107 cases, 99 are in Auckland, and eight are in Wellington. Seventy-two are epidemiologically linked, with the remaining still under investigation, but believed likely to be linked. So far, the outbreak is contained to the North Island cities, but Ardern said the contacts of those infectious were spread around the country.
There’s a lot more info in the article. It does seem that, at the moment, it’s a waiting game. Has the outbreak been contained?
The answer is obvious there appears to be no urgency. NSW was exactly in the same state until this latest outbreak, now we have record vaccination numbers with 6 million people vaccinated with at least one dose.
NSW and Victoria have abandoned the push for zero cases and are going for 80% vaccinated population but have already said that there will be no “Freedom Day” like the UK but there will be a phased removal of restrictions.
The first removal of restrictions in NSW will be announced later this week to take place in September. Whether WA, SA and NT will open their borders this year is quite another matter.
