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Covid update: Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield announces 13 new cases, 12 in Auckland community with all linked to previously announced cases

Covid update: Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield announces 13 new cases, 12 in Auckland community with all linked to previously announced cases

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says there are another 12 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the Auckland community. He also says there's one returnee from overseas in managed isolation who has tested positive, giving 13 new cases in total on Sunday.

Bloomfield says all the new community cases are people linked to previously announced cases, and none have left Auckland in recent times. Three people are receiving hospital care, two in Auckland Hospital and one in Middlemore Hospital.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins says there were 23,682 tests processed on Saturday, bring the total to 63,231 over the past three days. 

Bloomfield says New Zealand has now had 1271 Covid cases in total, 69 are active with 49 from the community outbreak.

Hipkins says the Covid app has now been down loaded by 1,374,200 users.

Below is the Ministry of Health's press release.

13 new cases of COVID-19 

16 August 2020

There are 13 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today – 12 in the community and one in managed isolation. 

The case in managed isolation is a child who arrived in New Zealand on August 3 from Afghanistan via Dubai. They have been in managed isolation at the Pullman Hotel and tested negative around day 3 of their stay, then positive around day 12 of their stay. 

They have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility. 

The 12 cases in the community are all Auckland-based and based on current information none has travelled outside of Auckland recently. 

From early investigations all have a connection to the existing outbreak as close contacts of cases already reported. 

There are three people receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19. Two are in Auckland City Hospital on a ward, and one person is in Middlemore on a ward. One is the person who we have previously reported as being in hospital, one has been admitted  overnight from the Auckland quarantine facility, and one person connected to the community outbreak has also been admitted to hospital.

To date, 66 people linked to the cluster have now been moved into the Auckland quarantine facility, including 29 people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The 13 new confirmed cases to report today bring our total number of confirmed cases to 1,271 which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.

The total number of active cases in New Zealand is now 69, of which 49 are from the recent community outbreak, and 20 are imported cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

Of the 49 cases in the community outbreak, 46 are linked to the cluster, and three remain under investigation, but are believed to be linked to the same cluster. 

Our national tracing service has 1,536 close contacts identified; they have contacted 1,322 as at 10am this morning, and they are all self-isolating. We are in the process of contacting the remaining close contacts.

If you are called by one of our contact tracing team please take or return the call.

In addition to Americold and Finance Now and the educational organisations we have also had contact with, we have also been working closely with religious institutions in relation to contact tracing and testing. 

We are aware that one of the positive cases in Tokoroa was present at the Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology – Tokoroa campus on 10 and 11 August.

We have also been working closely with Toi Ohomai to ensure anyone who needs to know about potential exposure has been contacted and given advice. 

Contact tracing is well progressed with this, but if you were also present in the vicinity at this time please also monitor your health and contact Healthline or your GP with any concerns. 

These institutions have all been very helpful in responding to this situation we thank them for their efforts and cooperation. 

We ask all workplaces, churches and other institutions to keep up to date records of their staff, volunteers and members, so we can quickly contact anyone from a particular site as we may need to. 

Testing

We are continuing to see unprecedented testing across the country and our laboratories have responded exceptionally well to meet the demand.

Yesterday our laboratories processed 23,682 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 571,942. 

Because of the high volumes that we are seeing it may take up to 48 hours for swabs to be processed through the labs. All results still need to be reported back through primary care and reported back to the patient which can add to the time for an 
individual to hear their result.

All parts of this process are currently under pressure and delays may be seen at various points. 

Only people who fit the criteria should get tested so that the highest risk swabs are getting processed as quickly as possible. Swabs of close contacts and other high risk people are prioritised and those with positive results are alerted quickly.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer has now recorded 1,374,200 registered users, which is an increase of 71,000 in the previous 24 hours.

There have now been 193,505 QR codes generated – an increase of 7,025 in the past 24 hours.

The number of poster scans has now reached 5,293,568. 

Lastly, on our website we will be describing this outbreak separately to our overall COVID cases – these cases will still be included in the overall totals but this outbreak has distinct characteristics separate to our previous outbreak and we will now be reporting it separately online. 

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

85 Comments

The conspiracy theory that was posted in the comments here on interest.co.nz yesterday was directly addressed today by Chris Hipkins in the 1pm update.

It is completely false, has been investigated and confirmed to be not true. Everyone should stop repeating it, and any other rumours they see on social media.

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Good case study of how easy it is for 'fake news' stemming from social media to dupe certain people.

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I wonder if Winston fell for the same scam e-mail - or a different one ?

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Last week we had firstly National deputy leader Brownlie, secondly NZ First leader Peters, thirdly celebrity influencer Hosking all promoting innuendos, the last two being linked, negative, inflammatory and unwelcome. To date no substance has followed. This is poor form. Not clever putting foot in mouth when there is a virus out on the run.

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Peters was careful to say that the breach he referred to is not the one doing the rounds on social media. He stands by his claim. Only time will tell, but he’s no fool.

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Well he would have to say that. But actually I hope you are right. I respect WP way back for his stands on the BNZ sell out, and the Wine Box scandal.Not so much for such as the Glen “no” sign. Prospects for returning this election look dim. Would not be a fitting end to depart on a flurry of incidents of the latter type.

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I saw the rumor and my first thought was that it was obviously a load of nonsense. Then I thought - I bet Labour will jump on this with a song and dance....and they did as we saw today. I also thought the other night that it was bizzare how Jacinda made the point that not knowing the origin would not impact our ability to eliminate it. Yet the reason for eliminating it comes with the expectation of keep it out in the future. They need to know where this outbreak came from otherwise the elimination strategy is fundamentally flawed. You can't blame people for thinking something fishy is going on. Where there is smoke, there is fire...

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You should of gone with your initial instinct as it was a load of BS. Luckily NZ is not like the USA so the majority of people dismissed the unfounded rumour as the BS it was. Unfortunately NZ still has some who are weak of mind and they took the bait hook, line and sinker.

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You should too. The rumours are unfounded and vile so please stop spreading them. The only thing that matters is finding what the leak was otherwise we are wasting time with elimination. Vile rumours are a distraction which Hipkins was all too keen to participate in. It wouldn't surprise me if the racist rumour was a fabricated distraction given how important it is we find the leak. The fanatical left have taken a pretty evil turn of late.

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"You can't blame people for thinking something fishy is going on.Where there is smoke, there is fire..." Sound familiar?

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Good result.

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Sure is. Fingers crossed Aucklanders are moved back down to L2 sooner than expected.

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Unlikely in my view - but I will be thrilled if we go L2 from the 27th.

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Really I hope so, schools & daycares being shut is killing parents/families. Yet golf clubs are open in Auckland???

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It’s golf, Donny11, but not as we know it. Can only play with one other in your bubble, clubhouses are closed, no cards are issued, anything touchable is taped over, and the actual holes have raised tubes stuck in them. Like walking around waving expensive sticks. But better than sitting at home moping.

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Kids are getting whacked by this. Little thought seems to be given to them.

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Yes Fritz, kids are sure are hard done by today in the Covid lockdown. I'll bet they're not having it as good as those kids during the 19th century industrial revolution in Britain when weakling undernourished kids were kidnapped or handed over by starving parents to work in say the Leeds cotton mills. Very good doco the other week on these unfortunates; they were worked for 16 hours a day, clambering under the steam-powered machinery from the age of 6yrs to retrieve ends of cotton yarn; they were often caught up and mangled by the machinery as is further evidenced by the huge number of broken bones of children buried in Victorian Leeds cemeteries. These British children were treated far worse than any indigenous peoples colonised by the British Empire. This ruthless streak by English (Anglo-Saxon) mill owners in the Industrial Revolution has carried over and would be occurring today were it not for the likes of Labour's Michael Joseph Savage in the 1930s to 1940s.

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That's an extreme comparison and trivialising the issues many families and students are experiencing.

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A bit like trivialising the sickness and death that will result if the virus in not eliminated.

Do you have school aged children Fritz? I do and they know what is going on and wouldn't have it any other way. It's nice to have well rounded children who show logic and compassion.

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Do you have children under 5 Heavy G? I do & all they know is that they have to stay locked in the house all day. They don't know why they can't visit their friends or do activities, they are literally stripping the wallpaper off the walls at the moment. . They arn't really the age where they show logic so can't comment on that. Not trivialising sickness or death, but just asking people not to trivialise the the lockdown either, which is exactly what you are doing. You are basically saying the reason your lockdown is difficult is because you failed to raise your kids right. Which is a logical fallacy IMHO.

Depending on your circumstances the effects of the lock down ranges from minor inconvenience to extreme hardship. You are obviously in the minor inconvenience category however others of us are not. It is hard.

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11, 8 and 4. Of course it is hard but what's the alternative?

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all port staff and vistors to be tested at the port of tauranga, estimated at approx 5000 people but they are not setting up until tomorrow to start
that will slow freight delivery into auckland for the next week.
it is time to set up bubbles at the ports and airport, they should be in level two until a vaccine comes along, no matter if around them is level 1.
its crazy i have to wear a high viz and under go induction for H & S to go on the port but dont need to wear a mask or maintain social distancing when in level 1

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Be a miracle if this is contained -- live in sleepy village -- road goes nowhere dead ends 15 mins from edge of auckland -- been the busiest i have seen traffic in last three months - none of them local ! thank god the local cafe actually closed for the weekend to try and stop these idiots coming out on their tiki tours Total flouting of the rules absolute disgrace

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Yep. Events of this year, here and abroad, have led me to conclude that, on average, about 30% of people cannot be counted on to act rationally in any situation.

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Haha, really? Only this year? I would submit that 30% figure is a little on the low side

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Agreed.

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its getting worse and worse for the government and they need more sellys no more gaps for all the holes that are appearing in the border controls
air nz just confirmed they dont test staff on the daily melbourne flight
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122463766/coronavirus-air-nz-not-requi…

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Re 'unsubstantiated" rumour ex social media - who investigated it, and how did they manage to given that we are told by Bloomfield that the person at the centre of it has been moved to managed isolation? Sunshine and daylight are said to be the best disinfectants and so far these have been in short supply. It is always possible to tell if a politician is lying when you see his mouth moving.

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hipkins said to only believe what they say at the press conference as it was double checked and 100% but
yesterday they said there was a positive case at a school that the school did not know or have a case
they told us border front facing staff were being tested and they were not testing at all unless they showed symptoms
and if we go back
they said that people were tested in the quarantine facilities before being released and they were not
they said plenty of PPE and there was not
they said plenty of Flu shots and there was not
they said the movie people did not come into an area with other guests and there was a guy that went and got his bag in the lobby

either someone is not checking or the story is changing as it goes up the chain, or they need new staff, or they are not always telling us the truth, take your pick. no wonder people are starting to believe rumors with a track record they have up to now
and todays attempt to me was trying to shut down reporters from getting out and about and asking questions to find out what is really going on and reporting what they find not what they are fed at the news conference

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Hipkins is a useless , clueless fool , almost as useless as his predecessor , Clarke .

He is also hopeless at basic arithmetic , as we saw over the election of the speaker , so he was given education to make into a horse's breakfast

And just look what he has done to our education system .

Rushed to get rid of National Standards as a reporting base for our kids progress in the school system, and has replaced it with .............. nothing .

Our youth are sleepwalking through the school system without any tangible measure of their progress .

Now as Health Minister he comes on TV every day at 1pm to give us the latest lies , spin and obfuscation from his Ministry .

I am not impressed

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National Standards were extremely counterproductive - a whole generation of students who seek to get the 'right' answer and completely lacking in independent critical thinking skills - all because some damn fools equated measurement with accountability. Totally missing the point that education is not incalculation.

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Yep I see it in many, although not all, of the students I teach at university.

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The rumour involved the movements of one of the family to be first infected. So I'd imagine the first thing they did was interview them.

Given the nature of the rumour, it'd be pretty easy to decide it was bullshit pretty quickly I should think.

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(Inappropriate comment deleted, Ed).

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They did come out with the truth on Tuesday - that they don't know how the index case caught it.

That was true on Tuesday and is true today. The rumour is irrelevant to that.

Instead we see the story come out on Social Media and the Government is shown to be telling porkies

Um, no, the "story" didn't come out on Social Media, the unsubstantiated rumour came out on Social Media.

The government was not "shown to be telling porkies" based on that unsubstantiated rumour.

Although I now understand that you don't believe a single word of what the government says at the 1pm media briefings, which is rather a large indictment on you, not the government.

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Oops reported by mistake.
Cannot the old system of being able to unreport be reinstated..
Oh and yea the bias is pretty strong in the boatman these days.

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the rumour was way off the mark,
But when you have a minister in cabinet come out and use information not coming through official channels you have to wonder has he lost trust with all the previous bad info?
i myself think he is partly correct in that it came through the border, maybe not through the hotels, maybe through a worker at the airport or port that caught it, and maybe we will never know how or when , but they have already genome tested it to show it come out of australia amongst other countries and victoria are going through there genomes to see if it matches any case there, that interests me as we have a lot of planes and ships coming from melbourne to auckland and a LOT of human contact involved in that process

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Having been interviewed by professionals previously I found it very easy to straight out lie. Especially when the incentive was avoidance of incarceration or as in this case a financial penalty they probably wish to avoid. I knew they had no proof (as in this case) and no way to cross check my statement with a third party (also possible in this case). Where there's smoke there's fire. MPI running around chasing red herrings about infection via frozen/chilled goods packaging (discounted as extremely remote to non-existent chance by epidemiologists world wide) is a pantomime. The manager of the facility in question is on record as saying they haven't received anything from Melbourne so why the focus? More sleight of hand from the master manipulator and her stagehands

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Pretty easy in this case though:
1. Is there even a person in an isolation centre fitting the description of the rumour in the first place?
2. Did the person have any reason to supposedly visit this person in the isolation centre?
3. Does the isolation centre have any record of anyone having broken in, or any unexplained evidence that looked like a break in?
4. Perhaps they have an alibi for when the visit supposedly took place
5. Perhaps they can disprove the other specific allegations about what happened subsequently with bank accounts.

Above all, whatever questioning you may have been subjected to, was likely not going to be followed up with subpoenas to corroborate your story if they felt you were lying.

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All those questions rely on the interviewee being truthful and upfront. As for my experience, subpoenas had already been served and executed. Unfortunately for the establishment we were all already singing off a preordained songsheet that was well rehearsed. I hate to break it to you but the average "PC Plod" investigator ain't no brain surgeon

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Interesting that you're admitting lying to an official investigation.

I'm trying not to go into details of the rumour, but the thing is there are sources of information that can be used to independently validate the person's supposed subsequent actions, and I don't think a privacy commissioner would stand in the way of such data being requested in this case.

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Absolutely I lied! The alternative was 7 years in the "big house". What I'm trying to point out is that most, if not all, the sources of validation are reliant on verbal statements, which be their very nature can't be relied on.

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Gee, so some serious sh!t, eh, Hook. Are you proud to be the crook that got away?

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the genome doesn't match any of those who tested positive in managed isolation - rna doesn't lie

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When this outbreak was first announced it was stated that the person at the centre of the story had been to Taupo and Rotorua. The next day it it was announced that they had also visited other places. The story was coming out in dribs and drabs. The person at the centre was not necessarily telling the whole truth. The reason the " unsubstantiated " rumour has gained such currency is that it is entirely plausible and fits the information we have been given by Hipkins/ Bloomfield. There is only one way these two gentlemen can put the rumour to rest and that is to produce a credible patient zero. Until then the rumour has more substance than anything they have been able to muster.

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The person at the centre was not necessarily telling the whole truth.

Actually the "person at the centre" is not the person who travelled to Rotorua and Tokoroa or the other places, it was other family members who did that.

Likely the reason for dribs and drabs is they may not have recalled everything (being the centre of a nationwide news story is not exactly a walk in the park in terms of stress) straight away, that doesn't mean they were lying or trying to hide things. Similarly the first interviews are likely to have covered broad movements, with more detailed information coming later - such as how initially for their Rotorua movements the only information available was "a couple of restaurants" but no details on which ones they were, because the health team had concluded there were no close contacts at those locations.

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(Inappropriate comment deleted, Ed).

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This has seriously racist undertones, insinuating she is a criminal. This rumor was started in alt-right racist forums to undermine the government. I'm so disappointed in how far it spread. And worried about the spread of misinformation on social media. Even interest.co.nz comments section isn't immune.

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For goodness sake, give the kangaroo court a rest.

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Assuming the MOH information on their website about positive cases in managed isolation is correct. Then there is only one case that could possibly match the rumour and that case seems to have tested positive on day 12. Pretty easy to prove or disprove I would expect.
Assuming that there is no way to avoid testing in managed isolation and you will be found positive if you are.

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We are in lockstep with Melbourne , and I was attacked for pointing out that a few weeks ago Melbourne also had "just 6 cases "

The lockdown is a total disaster , we could never "elminate' the virus

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God you can behave like a drama queen. At least give it some time to see how all this plays out and try to stop being so precious.

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My thoughts exactly

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We aren't in lockstep with Melbourne at all.

It took 5 weeks from Melbourne's first detected cases outside isolation and when they went into a level-3 style lockdown.

We took 21 hours to get to level 3 lockdown (officially - people would have been acting as if it was level 3 pretty much first thing Wednesday morning). We're also doing far more concentrated testing in Auckland than they were immediately after detecting those cases, and presumably our contact tracing is better as well.

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@Boatman
I think you said ‘two weeks ago’ originally, was it on Friday? Melbourne’s ‘second wave’ outbreak began way back, in late May, at the Rydges Hotel. Authorities didn’t really act with any urgency until the second week in July, giving the virus a month or more’s head start. Here, we swung into action as quickly as practically possible.

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they found patient zero, it was the night manager at the rydges
it is a good lesson for us, if a worker at the hotels gets sick dont let them go home, a very good article in the mistakes they made below
Patient zero in Victoria's calamitous second wave of COVID-19 was not a badly behaved security guard but a night duty manager at the Rydges hotel on Swanston Street, one of Melbourne's busiest quarantine hotels.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/patient-zero-for-victoria-s…

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NZ locked down early. Melbourne procrastinated for weeks until their cases started to skyrocket. But I think some people have forgotten what level 3 in NZ means.

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It looks like Genomics is highly beneficial in tracing the source of an outbreak and linking people into clusters when there are multiple possible sources of transmission. Especially in a country that has been COVID free in the community for 100 days. Do all of the cases in the NZ community now have the same genomic version of the virus? Have we genome sequenced all of the positive Covid19 samples in Managed isolation in the past 100 days? If not, why not? Hopefully, if we haven't genome sequenced all positive cases in the last month. That we at least kept the samples so we can now. Then do any of those positive cases in managed isolation within the past month have the same genomic sequence of the Covid19 virus as the cases in the NZ community now? Suggests we could narrow the search pretty fast.

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Have we genome sequenced all of the positive Covid19 samples in Managed isolation in the past 100 days? If not, why not?

No, because not all positive samples have enough RNA present to be able to do genomic analysis on them, unfortunately.

For a government that apparently can't manage to routinely test all MIQ hotel workers, it's highly unlikely they'd be competent enough to say "well your first test didn't produce enough RNA for genomic analysis, we need to get another sample of you for that purpose".

Also if the case came from a worker on the border who hadn't been tested, then there's no reference genomic analysis to compare the community cases to.

The very interesting potential development is there are 2 Americold workers in Melbourne who have COVID-19 and they are having genomic analysis done. That's likely to be the best indicator of a smoking gun that links this to the cool store, if anything will.

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I suppose you would only take all the necessary measures to get the genomic information of the virus from an average of 1 case/person per day in the MIQ's.
or
Test frequently all workers associated with border or MIQ's.
If you were actually interested in quickly tracing an outbreak when it occurred.

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Winston has asked for postponement of the Election next month.
There it goes, now no chance of the September 19 ballot.
Covid 19 vanquishes September 19.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12356939

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Could it be because of his f-up in assuming it came from managed iso and telling that to foreign media. Does nothing for his image as a dottery old man.

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Haha the only FAKE NEWS we are getting is the stage-managed media spin by Government on TV at 1pm every day .

The whole country was held hostage during the first lockdown , with Government systematically destroying our economy and wreaking havoc on our businesses and livelihoods , telling us they would eliminate the virus.

Our reaction to this virus is not rational. Taken from the perspective of the entire population it’s the equivalent of having a dose of chemotherapy every time we get a headache.

Every day at 1pm they told us all the nice things they were doing , but failed to tell us that they were not testing anyone arriving at the airport whatsoever .

And then did conveniently failed to tell us they were doing NO TESTING WHATSOEVER in the quarantine centres .

So how can we now be expected to believe anything they tell us ?

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I think the Government doesn't know everything that is happening and is not thinking ahead. Lack of vision in identifying what if, what could be and what needs to be done. Much of the time they are reacting to developments, instead of anticipating and putting in place actions. Too much of a stress and too little expertise, perhaps ?

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Haha, yeah. Pity they're not subject to the Consumer Guarantees Act or the Fair Trading Act cos we sure have been sold a lemon, and worse yet it looks like the country gets to buy another crop from the same tree

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Says the admitted perjurer - lol.

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I have banned Social Media full of rubbish and the propaganda show at 1 pm daily for the Labour Party
I am sick of "Be Kind" a lot of peoples patience is running out.
Level 2 is joke in Christchurch and as for you Aucklanders skivvying off disobeying rules going surfing seen on beaches, traveling to South Island shame on you.
We are now a divided team of 5 million.

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To be honest pankers I don't think there was ever a "team of 5 million".. it was just a nice soundbite sold by the master of nice soundbites. I really don't give a fat rats about what happens in Auckland. As far as I'm concerned they should be permanently quarantined to their happy little island from the Bombays to Wellsford.

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I find "Be Kind"to be condescending - nice sound bite but I thought being kind was part of being a decent human being and as if we needed to be reminded everyday."Be Safe" would be far better - it reminds people of what they can do to - wear a face mask, hygiene etc.

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And then did conveniently failed to tell us they were doing NO TESTING WHATSOEVER in the quarantine centres .

This is a lie, stop repeating it.

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maybe you should stop the MOH from publishing rumors, they let 2159 people out without testing even though MOH told them to test
The cases of those two women – who were not tested before leaving isolation on a compassionate exemption – drew to our attention a gap in the system between what we expected was happening, and what was happening on the ground.  
We moved quickly to remedy that, and ensure that those leaving managed isolation were tested before returning to the community.  
https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/media-releases/1-new-case-covid-1…

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Agreed Lanthanide. This is obviously a spurious and ridiculous statement. There has been testing.. just not enough or not regularly or frequently enough,, but it is happening. This can and hopefully will be tightened up so that it is both regular and frequent, which appears to be the current drive from Minister Hipkins.

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Go back to Fox news Boatman your posts are now spreading so much dis formation Trump is worried.

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@Boatman
So, you’re saying we didn’t act quickly enough, and shouldn’t have acted at all? Is that possible? Also, people arriving at the airport go into managed isolation in quarantine centres and are tested, twice I think, before getting the all clear. That’s how around 30 cases have been picked up.
I’m not saying it’s a perfect system, by the way, just clearing up the misinformation.

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I would make it a capital offence (like treason) for anyone deliberately breaking quarantine. It's well past time Jacinda and Labour stopped being "nice".

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"Be kind" Streetwise - Stay calm Cindy will stuff up again

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Very serious question - do the government have plans in place if there is a natural disaster such as a large earthquake? Especially if it struck same time that we were in level 2 or 3.
Presumably the rescue effort would be put ahead of the covid risk.

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I wouldn't bet on it -All these people saying Cindy will save us -bollocks if we go in or out of lockdown many times this going to bankrupt the country
Once Labour is back in watch this space , it will be just like the Christchurch Mosk shooting all of those people have been forgotten about .
We must keep Labour honest.

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Yeah I wouldn't bet on it either. They seem to approach most things in an incoherent fashion!
But they should plan for this. We are an earthquake prone country

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We have Mr Hipchins being PM today and Winnie backing up Judith to postpone the election due to no policy's, are we just voting for a nice PM who handled Covid well the first time but the second time failed
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/no-right-time-for-election-amid…

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I've wondered that myself.

Note that plans are worthless, but planning is essential. The nature of the response would depend entirely on the disaster that occurred.

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Pretty clear that Hipkins and Bloomfield and PM were told testing was being done. Ministry of health staff told them. It was not true. Hence whoever said testing was being done should be sacked

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that was like today, he signed the order to make compulsory to make sure they test , started to say that port of tauranga testing was being done to be interrupted to be told sorry its not being done they are starting tomorrow now.
now that delay is understandable as they need time to set it up, get space from the port, roster nurses etc, but whom told him it was already under way, im sure he would have asked .
to me there seems to be a disconnect between advice given by the MOH, politicians making the decision and DHB implementing that plan.
and it always seems to be the local DHB that amends the plan that those above find out about later. ie the testing of quarantine people before they were released, MOH director asked for tests told politicians we are doing tests the local DHB decide some people that showed no symptoms didnt need tests before release.
so they seem constantly to be rewriting the orders and making things compulsory to get them to follow the plan.

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Tad too much flapping and hysteria
People need to remember that 80% of those who get this virus are fine after 2 weeks. Yes a lot are not and some die. But it’s not Ebola and v low % of us under 60 will die of it. Yes it is serious but not the great plague media like to paint it. And no we cannot keep having lockdown til vaccine arrives, if they get one that fixes all strains

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False equivalence. Do we talk about cancer like that? " stop the hysteria about skin cancer because it's not as lethal as bowel cancer"?
I note that if anyone is hysterical in these comments it's the Covid-minimizers. Posting the same tedious agenda day after day.

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