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Auckland back in Level 3 lockdown, this time for a week. Rest of New Zealand in L2. Paptoetoe cluster spreads after one person doesn't take their symptoms seriously

Auckland back in Level 3 lockdown, this time for a week. Rest of New Zealand in L2. Paptoetoe cluster spreads after one person doesn't take their symptoms seriously
28th Feb 21, 6:30am by admin

Here is the media Statement from the Ministry of Health:

Alert Levels update

  • From 6am on 28 February Auckland will move to Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to Alert Level 2.
  • You are legally required to wear a face mask or covering on all public transport and flights throughout New Zealand.
  • For more information about Alert Levels, see the Unite Against COVID-19 website.
  • Find out about travel within New Zealand during this period.

Anyone who has cold or flu symptoms, including muscle aches and fatigue, should get a test and stay home until you have a negative test result. Find your local testing facility on the Healthpoint website.

Case numbers

As at 9 am 27 February 2021 there are 66 active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand. See our Current cases page and the latest News and media updates.

Current situation details

As announced by the Director-General of Health this evening, a further person in the household of Case M has returned a positive result.

The latest case, known as Case N, is currently asymptomatic.

The three other members of the household have returned negative tests. All family members are isolating.

Locations of interest

Case M is a student at the Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) and also works part-time, one day a week, at Kerry Logistics (Oceania) Limited. Affected MIT students have been emailed this evening.

A number of locations of interest that Case M visited have now been advised. These include Hunter Plaza, Burger King Highland Park, Your Health Pharmacy, and Pak n Save Manukau. City Fitness in Hunter Plaza, a gym the person attended, has also advised its members by email directly of the time and day of interest.

Details on locations of interest is available on the Ministry’s website and will continue to be updated as they come to hand.

People who were at these locations of interest should isolate for 14 days and if symptoms develop, get tested.

Up-to-date information on testing locations in metro Auckland

Additional community testing centres are available in Auckland this weekend, many with extended hours. These are in Otara, Botany, Pakuranga Heights, Balmoral, Henderson and Northcote.

In East Auckland, a CTC at Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga Heights, will be open from 8am – 4pm Sunday.

The Botany CTC at Golflands will be open from 9am - 5pm Sunday.

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.

244 Comments

by  Sheepish  |  28th Feb 21, 6:57am 1614448646

Surely there is no justification for putting the South Island into level 2.

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by  Thinker  |  28th Feb 21, 7:02am 1614448927

There was so many Super Spreader events on this weekend and people from all over the country would have been at each. I mean imagine how many Aucklanders would have travelled down to Six60 in Hamilton!

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by  Sheepish  |  28th Feb 21, 7:44am 1614451494

If that is the case then the horse could have already bolted, but there is no reason to have the South Island in level 2, until there is proof it is there, going to level 2 still allows for transmission should it be there, just stop flights to the SI from Auckland, and allow traffic from regions other than Auckland plus all freight traffic, that should minimise most of the risk. All Jacinda is doing is stopping every event scheduled down there from going ahead.

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by  thinktank  |  28th Feb 21, 9:45am 1614458749

Such an arrogant and blatantly uneducated response. There were three large festivals on this weekend and this kid has been in the community for over a week - there is a high chance the virus has spread outside Auckland which means it could be anywhere - the whole Country should be in level 3, JA is just trying to minimise the public backlash. To assume the South Island is unaffected just because no one has tested positive is completely arrogant. I bet you haven’t been tested just in case, so how would you or anyone else down there know?

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by  Yvil  |  28th Feb 21, 3:47pm 1614480474

Hamilton is not in the South Island lol

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by  Rob Reid  |  28th Feb 21, 4:12pm 1614481966

Whoa - COVID rage. The New Normal.

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 5:47pm 1614487659

Damn the ruddy Papsmear absconder ... me beer festival next weekend is postponed .... dammit ! ... Covid rage is real when you deny us purists our craft beer ...

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 2:01pm 1614474085

Sam Morgan must be feeling vindicated ... 'cos the Misery of Health showed little interest in his CovidCard ... that wouldve been $ 100 million well spent .... given how much debt the government has racked up since , and how many businesses have been destroyed ... if the founder of TradeMe wasnt worth listening to , who was ....

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by  The Person  |  1st Mar 21, 6:50am 1614534611

Are you saying CoivdCard would have stopped this guy going to the gym?

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by  WellingtonInvestor  |  1st Mar 21, 1:21am 1614514889

What about all the people returning from Auckland to the SI? Or getting out early? No different to some remote parts of the NI being put into level 2. But level 2 is pretty unrestricted. Mainly no large groups of people etc. People should be grateful they live in NZ which hasn't been that affected compare to most other countries.

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by  Squishy  |  28th Feb 21, 7:12am 1614449532

I wondered why there was so much traffic southbound last night, all off to their holiday houses.

Hopefully the vaccine can be rolled out quickly, these events are increasing in frequency and it seems only a matter of time before we have to deal with a far more serious scenario.

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 7:26am 1614450372

Are we going to do the thing where we have a big rush of testing close to potential exposure events and then have people test negative and go back about their lives with a virus that is taking weeks to register in some cases?

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by  Foxglove.  |  28th Feb 21, 7:42am 1614451370

Don’t know if there ever was somewhere, sometime a mawk, but for sure, when I view our present PM on TV, I can straightaway see why we have the word mawkish.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 8:05am 1614452716

Please share your evidence for the virus "taking weeks to register".

If you're talking about the case in January who tested negative on day 12 testing at the Pullman MIQ and subsequently tested positive after leaving, its because they were infected while at the Pullman in their last few days there and this followed the usual "up to 14 days incubation" period (actually 97.5% will test positive at day 11), not because it took weeks longer than usual to incubate. That's why they shut the Pullman down and investigated its air filtration systems, and why they tracked down all other recent releases from the Pullman and had them tested, and IIRC found 3 further cases that way.

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 8:56am 1614455760

We also had cases from India last year where long-tail infection was considered a real possibility as well so this isn't news. There was even discussion of extending MIQ, but it was decided against on the basis that a mega-high (something like 97% of cases) would be picked up by the day 12 test, and the MIQ follow-ups were sufficient to provide the additional certainty.

And that's fine in MIQ, but if you return a negative test when you live in the community because you were tested early, it's not super unreasonable to think people would resume some degree of normality, having already followed instructions and already been tested. And these are kids - they make stupid mistakes, they go places they forget or they shouldn't be and sometimes they'll be reluctant to tell adults who they're meeting up with and why.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:01am 1614459712

We also had cases from India last year where long-tail infection was considered a real possibility

Sequencing of the RNA in that case show the man caught it from another passenger on his flight to NZ.

so this isn't news.

The issue isn't whether it "is news" or not. It's whether you have any evidence to back up your claim that the disease is frequently appearing after 14 days in quarantine.

It isn't and you don't have any evidence to show that it is.

And that's fine in MIQ, but if you return a negative test when you live in the community because you were tested early,

You haven't shown any evidence that people were "tested early". In the Papatoetoe high school case, the student who was infected (case B I believe?) was last at school on Wednesday 10th February. We went onto lockdown on Sunday 14th February and the school students began to be tested on Monday 15th February and later. That is 5 days after their last possible exposure to the infected student, and the advice is for the first test to be done on or about 5 day. No one was tested "too early" as you claim.

The new category of "close plus contacts" (I think the naming is stupid) requires people to isolate for 14 days at home and get tests on day 5 and day 12.

While I generally think your contributions to COVID discussion on interest.co.nz are helpful, a lot of the time you simply aren't across the details of what you're talking about, and start talking about your impression of things as if they're facts, when they aren't facts.

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 10:18am 1614460689

I was not aware of the developments from the case from India. If that's the case then yes, that resolves the only one I am personally aware of where there was a suggestion of long-tailed incubation.

I make no attempts to present myself as an expert, I have literally no training on the subject and I am quite happy to accept when I don't have knowledge or short-comings in my understanding.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:31am 1614461475

That's fine, but too often you use declarative / factual language for things that are your opinions or understandings. It's a way that misinformation spreads, although I'm not suggesting you're doing this deliberately whatsoever.

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 10:54am 1614462841

E: I've decided this was unnecessary - while your point is verging on tone policing, I agree it is valid.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:58am 1614463099

I didn't see your original comment, but yes I am aware I'm verging on tone policing. It's a bit of an awkward conversation to have, and I'm sure that I am not always correct with things I have said about COVID, as well.

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 11:02am 1614463358

No, you were right. My reply was unhelpful and combative. Having taken a moment to think about it, I get out of my tree each election time when all and sundry suddenly become tax or finance experts and I appreciate the stakes are significantly higher at the moment when it comes to a pandemic. I'll try and maintain more of a questioning tone from this point, rather than an assertive one as noted.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 11:13am 1614463980

I'll note that I'm not a medical expert of any sort either, however I've got a science background and have followed COVID news globally and locally very closely.

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 11:42am 1614465751

I've used a stethoscope to find leaks in a Mini's suspension system before, but that's the sum total of my medical knowledge :)

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by  Noncents  |  28th Feb 21, 9:10am 1614456601

Resarch has shown anywhere from 3-30 days for the virus to incubate. By your own stats 97.5% at 11 days.

So what we know is that the initial lockdown a week or two ago was for 3 days. Those that were tested could easily have been negative at the time, but positive now.

MIQ is 14 days for a reason. L3 in Auckland should have been for 14 days.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:37am 1614461850

Resarch has shown anywhere from 3-30 days for the virus to incubate.

Please cite this research.

Those that were tested could easily have been negative at the time, but positive now.

MIQ is 14 days for a reason. L3 in Auckland should have been for 14 days.

The way the government has managed the latest outbreak is by mandating that those people who could have the disease isolate at home for 14 days, ie they go into their own mini level 4 bubbles, thus no need to lock Auckland down.

The problem is people didn't follow the rules, and the government doesn't seem to have proper systems in place to account for this (other than locking an entire city down for long time - using a sledgehammer to crack a nut).

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by  Foxglove.  |  28th Feb 21, 11:54am 1614466476

Lth explains the unfortunate truth of the matter. Has it been forgotten that a staff member at MIQ, trained and equipped, disregarded all of that in pursuit of having it off with an identity in quarantine. So that illustrates the reality of human failure and that reality is more the greater, out there in the community, quite obviously.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 12:26pm 1614468388

Lanthanide....you seem both knowledgeable and interested in the whole covid situation so I would like your opinion on a couple of things. According to the CNN website(as at 27 Feb, after being in receipt of 60K vaccinations for 12 days) NZ has now administered 1000 doses or less than 1% as a percentage of population. We are close to the very bottom of the list.
So first question is how would you rate that performance? Second question is are there any specific reasons why our vaccination program has been so slow, even in comparison to most third world countries, many of which suffer huge financial and logistical hurdles that we do not have to overcome? Third question (which is a little personal but not rude) is are you employed directly or indirectly by the Govt and if so are you in the health or medical sector? (this question is asked to help me assess the possibility of any bias in your response).
I look forward to your reply, which will hopefully give me more insight as to why we seem to be moving so slowly and doing so badly on the vaccination front. With what has now happened it has become clear how important it was to be "at the front of the queue" (as promised) and to be fully ready to vaccinate people as quickly as we possibly could. Thanking you in advance for your advice.

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by  nktokyo  |  28th Feb 21, 7:43am 1614451380

The complete lack of urgency in our vaccine rollout was always going to cause havoc.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 8:04am 1614452651

Not sure what you're expecting the NZ government to do when we don't locally manufacturer any of the vaccines and the countries that do have first dibs, for a product that every country in the world wants to get their hands on, and for which we demonstrably have lesser need.

There is also (still!) no firm evidence that it stops transmission from vaccinated people, only that it stops infection in those who receive the vaccine. It is expected that it will stop transmission, and there is some early study data supporting this, but it has not yet been peer-reviewed and published.

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by  Roger the dodger  |  28th Feb 21, 8:11am 1614453090

They could have started by not promising we will be first in the queue.

Secondly they could have gone hard and early ramping up an NZ vaccine manufacturing capability. We all knew almost a year ago that significant capacity was required.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 8:15am 1614453305

1. And what bad thing has occurred because they made that promise, exactly?

2. No one was certain it would take 1 year to get the vaccine out, or what form it would take. Bill Gates invested 5 billion to build 5 factories for vaccines, in the expectation 4 of them wouldn't be needed because they weren't for the type of vaccine that would ultimately be shown to work.

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by  Roger the dodger  |  28th Feb 21, 8:42am 1614454942

The bad thing that happened was delay. Delay in everything as "the vaccine is just around the corner."

Certainty was not required. Sometimes you need to push ahead without knowing the outcome. Bill Gates understood that on a global scale covid was clearly one of those times. This political "fear of failure" attitude is crippling us.

There are so many examples where innovative thinking and bolder action could help NZ. Covid card? Location tracing in the app? Vaccination around hotspots? Dedicated pandemic organisation to run things?

What can the govt do? A hell of a lot more Lanth, that is very clear.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:08am 1614460115

The bad thing that happened was delay. Delay in everything as "the vaccine is just around the corner."

So you're claiming that the ministry of health delayed doing things because they were told by public PR briefing that "the vaccine is just around the corner", despite the fact that the ministry of health themselves had the internal details of how the procurement process was going?

Certainty was not required.

Uncertainty increases costs and drastically increases the likelihood of wastage.

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by  Roger the dodger  |  28th Feb 21, 12:16pm 1614467817

Yes, but not just the Ministry, we all delayed action. You seem to be saying that Hipkins was correct to over-promise because what he says doesn't matter?

Yes. Waiting to be certain will always appear to be cheaper - to the accountants of the world.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 1:50pm 1614473410

What "delayed action" that we "all" did has had negative impacts? I think you're just saying they shouldn't have made that promise and somehow suggesting that because they did, bad things happened, but you haven't actually identified a single bad thing, just general "delayed actions", but you can't say what they are who did them or how they made things worse.

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by  frazz  |  28th Feb 21, 9:03am 1614456208

NZ received our vaccine same time as Australia.

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by  Tom Valen  |  28th Feb 21, 9:43am 1614458622

We got 26,000 doses didn’t we? Just a token number.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:09am 1614460163

And another 70,000 doses last Monday and are expecting another 450,000 doses by the end of March.

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 10:55pm 1614506151

Bangladesh is ahead of us ... this impoverished dirt poor 3'rd world astonishingly overpopulated country is ahead of us in the queue ...

.. and , given how good their food is , I'm OK with that ... ours' sucks ...

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 2:00pm 1614474057

Frazz....Australia was near last in the world with us in receiving it. Being 30 times bigger than NZ they must be facing far more difficult logistical problems than us yet have administered 25 times more doses than us (according to CNN). That is like Australia beating the ABs 300 points to 10 in a test match. Low population is a poor, irrelevant excuse for piss poor performance.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 12:35pm 1614468955

Lanthanide...I was expecting us to be around the middle of the queue (at worst) for receiving vaccinations and near the front in terms of (speed in) administering it. With the small size of our country, our health system, first world transportation systems and covid budget I cannot accept that we are not administering it faster than most other countries rather than being in the slowest 20 in the world. Please explain why this is the case? We have a right to know the answers to these questions.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 12:42pm 1614469374

Karl surely even you must accept that there is a greater need elsewhere in the world than here. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand something as simple as that. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with the factors you've outlined and everything to do with one simple fact - NEED

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:51pm 1614473510

Hook.... there is an argument for us being near the bottom of the queue due to our need compared to others. TBH I really am unsure where I stand on that side of things. It could be viewed in different ways ie selfishly looking after kiwis first or valuing non kiwi life equally to our own citizens lives. Many other countries pushed to get as many vaccines as fast as possible regardless of their need compared to others.
But as for administering it now that we have it, the figures indicate, our performance in terms of the speed (or lack of) requires a clear and logical explanation. I am only asking for clarification as to why we have been so slow in giving the jabs compared to almost every country in the world? Waiting.

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by  WellingtonInvestor  |  1st Mar 21, 1:29am 1614515369

Australia have CSL who are manufacturing it. I would have thought NZ could have done some sort of ANZAC deal, as this is a war. Goes to show that NZ needs to get into this sort of technology and manufacturing.

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by  karl seastrand  |  1st Mar 21, 10:35am 1614548129

There does not seem to be any issue about getting enough vaccines. We do not even seem capable of administering the ones we have in anything close to a timely manner. In fact according to the CNN vaccine website we are administering the doses at the slowest rate in the world, except a few (mainly dysfunctional third world)countries. We have had months to plan the roll out. Why so slow????

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by  Squishy  |  28th Feb 21, 8:08am 1614452880

No firebreaks if it takes off. Go through the population like a hot knife through butter.

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by  WestieAJ  |  28th Feb 21, 10:05am 1614459909

We recieved 60,000 doses 2 weeks ago. How many administered since then? Stop worrying about the optics of who,what,where and just fing do it. The UK is vaccinatting over 2 million people per week. The NHS publishes weekly stats on vaccinations.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:11am 1614460263

So you think we should just vaccinate anyone who rocks up for an appointment, instead of prioritising border staff? Just so we could administer the vaccine ASAP, who cares if it's actually a sensible use of it?

The UK is also prioritising who gets the vaccine first, you know. They just have a hugely bigger supply of it, because they manufacture it themselves, hence why they can vaccinate people so quickly.

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by  WestieAJ  |  28th Feb 21, 10:25am 1614461122

No you should have a plan of how to vaccinate thousands of people a day. Of course with an order of priority. But they have had months to work this out while they wait for the vaccines to arrive. The medical profession has been putting needles into peoples arms for over a century. It is not rocket science. No need to reinvent the wheel. They should have hit the ground sprinting not crawling on all fours.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:36am 1614461795

No you should have a plan of how to vaccinate thousands of people a day.

We have those plans and the government is working on them. We don't have thousands of vaccines to distribute every day.

They should have hit the ground sprinting not crawling on all fours.

The first 5 days after the vaccines arrived were used for quality control checks and other assurances. You don't want vaccines to turn up in a country, be immediately injected into people without checking and assuring the safety of them first because that'd be a major scandal and then people like you would be demanding the government do a better job because they're not "reinventing the wheel". It's also the first time the processes and procedures were used, so obviously they want to get them right so that subsequent deliveries can be handled more quickly.

The proof is really going to be how fast they get through vaccinations over the next 2 weeks - I would expect that we see some days with at least 1,000 doses administered, potentially many many more.

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by  kpnuts  |  28th Feb 21, 10:48am 1614462518

we have had 10 months to develop both a plan and a priority number -- and lots of international evidence of what that should be - We have also had several years of mass vaccinating with the ordinary Flu Jab - so there is no excuse for not hitting the ground running.

Yes the quality control and safety delay is necessary -- but given teh very small number of vaccines we have - no excuse that we have not already used at least 90% of these -- they are no good stuck in the freezers!

Border workers / MI workers - Frontline Healthcare - Resthomes - over 75's is a no brainer -- after that we could priorities 65+ or serious health especially breathing conditions - or communities most at risk -- but no real excuse not to be goign hell for leather with the first groups

I manage nearly 120 high care beds in Dementia/Mental Health / TBI ( and a load of other services) -- and my nurses could vaccinate the whole lot and our 250 staff tomorrow if we had access to the required number of doses - Its a 2 hr training module - and these nurses have been giving injections for years - We could keep the records and hand it back to MOH with a nice red ribbon on it the following Day --

No reason this could not and should not be happening now for every Dose we already have.

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by  WestieAJ  |  28th Feb 21, 10:57am 1614463034

The vaccines were supplied by Pfizer. A multi billion dollar global pharma company. I am sure they probably have a quality control process. Vaccinations with the same vaccine formula have already been taking place overseas for months. The same farce of having to wait for Medsafe to "approve" the vaccine. Just placating a a few bureaucrats and wasting time. Every vaccinated person is a brick in the wall to stop transmission. Build the wall

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 11:06am 1614463579

he vaccines were supplied by Pfizer. A multi billion dollar global pharma company. I am sure they probably have a quality control process.

Yes, a reasonable approach to take. However, if something *had* gone wrong, are you sure that you would absolve the government of all blame?

And if something *had* gone wrong, what do you think that would do for the uptake of vaccines in NZ? Do you think it would increase or decrease vaccine hesitancy?

The fact is, we don't have COVID rampant in our communities, so we can afford to take things more slowly and ensure we get it right, because in the long run getting 85% of people vaccinated instead of 70% because we avoided early scandals is what matters. Whether we started vaccinating people on 1st February or 11th February or 21st February with a few hundred vaccines is unlikely to make any difference, come October when we've vaccinated 1-2 million.

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by  WestieAJ  |  28th Feb 21, 11:43am 1614465836

The 60000 doses of vaccine we received were just a randomly assigned fraction of the millions of doses that were produced in that Belgian Pfizer factory in one day. Do you think Pfizer would risk sending a bad batch of vaccine anywhere in the world right now? New Zealand's bureaucrats have nothing useful to add here. We either accept that the global drug companies know what they are doing and we take the vaccine . Or we don't and take the consequences.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 11:57am 1614466678

Westie, every country currently using the vaccine has had to go through internal approval processes - it's just how it is. Lanth is right - it requires approval by MedSafe - it's the law. Otherwise we'd have people injecting or drinking a cattle drench (according to fat pat it's good to go) or ingesting Hydroxychloroquine or all manner of other so called cures. We have minor community spread and what we do have is being controlled (so far). There's no rush.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 1:51pm 1614473489

Do you think Pfizer would risk sending a bad batch of vaccine anywhere in the world right now?

You know that once the vaccines leave the factory, they need to be properly stored and transported, right? And that if that failed, the vaccines could be bad, right?

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 12:41pm 1614469270

Lanthanide... sorry you will need to explain that one. We have 60K doses here and have administered 1000. Please explain how if we had 60 MILLION doses how that would have helped us administer more doses than we have. After 12 days we have administered 1000 doses or less than 2% of our current stock. It really does sound like you are making excuses. You are not related to any of these partners in crime are you?

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 12:48pm 1614469711

Karl can you possibly explain what exactly is your fixation on vaccination numbers/rate?? When you get offered the shot take it - until you do follow the public advice. Don't sweat what you can't control - you'll live longer!

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 4:11pm 1614481883

Hook... not sweating it at all. I just find it difficult to accept how inefficient and ineffective the people and the system seem to be. I am not fixated on a quick vaccination as I feel the risk for me (and my family) personally is very low from both a health and financial perspective. However, the people we are entrusting this whole thing to should be completely fixed on vaccinating people safely in the fastest possible time. The fact that Australia (among others) are vaccinating 30 times faster than us is a disgrace. I have asked for reasons why we have been almost the slowest in the world at administering them once received and am yet to receive a reply. If there are things I am unaware of I would like to know what they are. There may be valid reasons but we have the right to know what they are if we are to accept this snail-like vaccination roll out. Open communication.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 4:29pm 1614482953

Karl tbh you do seem to be "sweating it". Things are what they are. Whether you accept or not the pace of rollout, it won't change anything. Whether you know the reasons why or not won't change anything either. If there's 5 million or so people in the country we'll need 10 million doses - 560K doses is a drop in the bucket. Given there's more than 280K border workers, vaccinators and vulnerable people in the country I dare say prioritising who gets it and when is a logistical nightmare. Who knows - maybe the Govt is holding the vaccines in storage until they have enough to do all the above list.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 11:22pm 1614507742

Hook... When we see clear inefficiency in the public service we should call it out. It may not change anything but we as taxpayers pay their wages. To prioritise who gets it and when should have been done at least six months ago. There is no excuse (that I know of) for them not to have done so before vaccines were received. If "Govt are holding vaccines in storage until they get enough....". as you suggest then you are probably right and I should not even bother as they would clearly be beyond redemption and completely incapable of organising anything. Personally I think they are useless and ineffective but not as bad as you suggest, but maybe they are. All we want to know is why the figures show that they have been so slow in administering the vaccines. Is it too much to ask that we are given reasons for the pathetic number of jabs given in the last two weeks? Since nobody has responded providing any justification for the snail-like roll-out surely it must be assumed that disorganisation, inefficiency and possibly lack of caring are the reasons.
You are probably right, they will always be inefficient and will never do a competent job (despite being paid handsomely by us) but we can only try to pressure them and hope it leads to at least some kind of accountability.
Not sweating it in the slightest. Getting covid for me is very very unlikely and I am too healthy too be badly affected by it. Even a long term lockdown would not affect me too much. I just hate people completely taking the piss while pretending to be caring and kind.

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by  Nifty1  |  28th Feb 21, 7:53am 1614452012

Jacindas not happy, be kind now & aroha!!!

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by  Rosenstein  |  28th Feb 21, 8:11am 1614453078

Or its Siberia for you

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by  WestieAJ  |  28th Feb 21, 10:30am 1614461405

Yes a Gulag in Waiouru. Just in time for winter.

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by  kpnuts  |  28th Feb 21, 8:54am 1614455657

but she s not blaming them -- just pointing out if they did what they were told child poverty would be eradicated and hte housing crisis over...

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 12:58pm 1614470316

Nifty... driving into somebodys car is a mistake. Going to the gym on the way home from a covid test (or sleeping with your brothers wife) is not a mistake. It is a grossly selfish, irresponsible and conscious decision made with complete disregard to others. It should be labelled as such and the person concerned should be named and completely shamed regardless of how our PM tries to spin things. A public shaming would go a long way to reducing the chances of a similar incident reoccurring. And if we really want to get tough there must be many laws (relating to endangering public safety etc) that we might need to look at using in order to hand out community service in order to discourage others from acting in such a selfish way in future and as a way for this numbskull to at least partly repay the public for such stupidity. Your right to kindness can be forfeited.

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by  streetwise  |  28th Feb 21, 1:33pm 1614472436

There's no solution to stop Covid spreading in the community......it's like trying to herd cats. And no sooner than someone leaves managed isolation than they embark on a whistle-stop tour of as many destinations as they can. I mean going to a gym!!!

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 4:17pm 1614482273

But you can reduce the odds, which is almost always all you can do with everything in life. When clowns behave like him it makes a mockery of the lifestyle and financial sacrifice so many of us have made through lockdowns. They need to be given the message, loud and clear.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 7:57am 1614452237

Clearly the government hasn't got a handle on people who don't follow the rules. There's also concern that people are going to work because they need the money.

Here's a semblance of an idea, I don't know how realistic it is in practice, but if anyone is told they need to isolate for 14 days because they're a close contact or whatever, then pay them a $500 stipend (or whatever you want to call it) for the 14 days. If they're later found to have breached the rules in some way, take the $500 away. Perhaps structure it so they get the $500 at the end of the 14 days. This gives people a direct incentive to stay home and would help to alleviate people's need to go to work.

The key problem in this case is that apparently case M was supposed to be isolating, but they didn't. Perhaps if there had $500 on the line (and knew about it), they would have.

Paying $500 per family member for ~4000 people told to isolate from the school is cheaper than putting Auckland back into lockdown for 7 days as we are now doing.

Also in the case of the school, we know they didn't bother to visit households until this last Monday for contact tracing purposes. Did they mail out notices telling everyone to isolate at home, and list all the support and benefits available? They have all their addresses, so seems like there's no reason not to. Another step that could have helped people follow the rules.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 8:53am 1614455594

I'm sure you're aware that employers are already supported to pay wages in the event of an isolation requirement. Possibly the wage payment could be made directly via MSD so that casual employees aren't disadvantaged and there's no "gaming" of the system by employers.
If people have a casual attitude to isolation requirements then no amount of "help" will get them to toe the line. Compulsion probably wouldn't work either and possibly isn't legal anyway

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by  GV 27  |  28th Feb 21, 8:57am 1614455856

Take a look at what that *support* is. It's not enough to cover a full 14 day isolation for a shift worker who might have 12 or 13 shifts in that time frame, especially if they have no leave already they can dip into.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 9:19am 1614457169

There's multiple schemes available for employers and others from MSD for employees. If the employee has no sick leave then I guess some union intervention might be needed. No sane employer wants a symptomatic employee on site so I'm sure there would be work arounds. I agree the support isn't large but most employers running a shift system should be financial enough to cover the cost

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by  Nifty1  |  28th Feb 21, 9:37am 1614458277

There's alot of employers who aren't sane and expect their employees to be at work 24/7 regardless of health.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 9:42am 1614458547

That may be so Nifty, but the mention of Covid is usually a game changer

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:13am 1614460427

Yes, I am aware of all of that.

Obviously it's not working or the message isn't getting through. The point of the $500 payments is that it would be on top of all of that, and directly from the government, which they can then use as both a carrot and a stick to get people to comply. They've been very clear that they don't want to punish people who don't follow the rules, because that would encourage others to not own up to mistakes out of fear of being punished. Structuring this as a carrot and a stick lets them give people something to follow the rules, and take it away if they don't.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 10:29am 1614461382

Well if it's in addition to the other support payments it would be a useful encouragement I guess. Logistically it would be difficult to manage. Thing is Lanth, there are always contrarians and fools in any community, so far we've not needed to actually bribe people's compliance - hopefully we don't need to start now, the herd self preservation mentality is still generally the most effective deterrent (usually)

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:40am 1614462043

It's only partly a bribe to get people to comply, it's also recognising that if you can't work for 14 days and your employer is only passing on the minimum COVID wage subsidy to you, then you may be substantially disadvantaged, which then encourages people to break the rules.

What the government needs to do is get the root cause (as best they can) as to why people are breaking the rules, and then come up with mitigations for that. This is an example of a mitigation that might work for a type of root cause.

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by  Nifty1  |  28th Feb 21, 11:45am 1614465926

Root cause is probably their employers telling them they're being weak and they have to work or they'll get fired.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 12:02pm 1614466955

Nifty you may be anti-employer but to date there has not been a single proven case of that happening in a Covid context. The root cause here with case M is more akin to apathy.

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by  Albert2020  |  28th Feb 21, 8:56am 1614455778

And what are they meant to do for money over that 14 day period? You realise most in these lower socioeconomic areas live paycheck to paycheck

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by  Tom Valen  |  28th Feb 21, 9:48am 1614458907

So the government needs to go hard and early on providing support to people that are isolating. And also hard and early on outlining severe punishment for anyone not following the rules. We don’t want a massive outbreak and economic carnage, do we? We were told that Labour are COVID managers par excellence, but actually their management style seems reactive not proactive.

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 10:00am 1614459654

Would economic carnage result in rents and house prices going down?

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 10:11am 1614460277

Probably. Also mass unemployment, spike in crime, a collapse in our dollar, health system implosion, fuel & import prices through the roof... hello 3rd world status.

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 10:38am 1614461930

Excellent. The collapse of the housing ponzi has all that baked in anyway.

Aroha.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:15am 1614460506

The reason they aren't punishing people is because it would encourage others who have messed up to them not do the right thing. If you think "oh, I should have gotten tested 24 hours ago, but I didn't, but now if I get tested today, they'll know I broke the rules and I'll be severely punished. So instead I'll just stay home and not get tested at all".

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 10:18am 1614460685

Exactly. Or worse they'll mingle with friends and colleagues so nothing seems untoward.

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by  Noncents  |  28th Feb 21, 12:39pm 1614469191

I suggested something similar this time last year.

If you are going to need people to isolate, then you need legislation to give them that time at full pay. Anything less than full pay and guess what they will do.

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by  Rosenstein  |  28th Feb 21, 8:14am 1614453243

Absolute control over others. Little bit of benevolent rhetoric, little bit of anger at human transgressions. She would make a great Old testament deity.

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by  Uh Oh  |  28th Feb 21, 8:15am 1614453306

Wow, One person gets COVID, whole city in lockdown

Who's going to pay for this? What is the cost of shutting the largest economic center down per day? How many lockdowns have we had in Auckland now, seems like several..

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 8:51am 1614455485

It's insane. Meanwhile Sweden is doing better than most European countries in terms of excess deaths proving that lockdowns do absolutely nothing but destroy the economy. https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps

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by  False economies  |  28th Feb 21, 9:38am 1614458281

"Lockdowns do absolutely nothing"....
So how did we end up with so few cases over the past year?
You think everybody distancing from each other has no effect on virus transmission? Interesting...

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by  JimboJones  |  28th Feb 21, 9:41am 1614458493

I imagine some right wing trump supporter blog said it was true so it must be.

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 9:57am 1614459471

It's a fact that the virus less dangerous than seasonal flu for most people in terms of infection fatality rate. I think with proper infection control, and with ivermectin and vitamin D3 the risk to the vulnerable population could easily be mitigated to the point where it's "business as usual".

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by  Albert2020  |  28th Feb 21, 10:06am 1614459970

That’s absolute bollocks. The fatality rate is several orders of magnitude higher than influenza.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:16am 1614460576

And:
1. There's no widely available vaccine for COVID like there is the flu
2. People don't have existing resistance to COVID like they do for the flu

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 10:40am 1614462032

A huge number of people have existing resistance that's why they are asymptomatic.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:42am 1614462162

Latest evidence I've seen is it's only around 20% or so. That's much lower than the flu, which is what I am comparing it to.

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 12:04pm 1614467041

That’s absolute bollocks. The fatality rate is several orders of magnitude higher than influenza.
Lets look into that. The IFR of seasonal flu seems to be around 0.002% according to this link, but other sources claim 20x larger at 0.04% but lets go with the low estimate.. According to the American CDC planning scenarios the COVID19 IFR for under 50 year old's (ie most people) is 0.0002 (see this link) which expressed as a percentage is 0.02%. That's a pretty low number but it still appears to be one order of magnitude larger that the flu. So how the CDC get that number? IFR is just the number of people who died from XX divided by the total number who contracted XX. How did they figure out who contracted it? Well they did serology studies, but we know the covid antibodies don't last long therefore they underestimated the denominator, and because anyone who dies with covid is classified as dying from covid they overestimated the numerator. What happens when you make the numerator larger and the denominator smaller....

Another way of looking at it is from the empirical data - the excess deaths from the euromomo website. If you eyeball this seasons excess deaths and compare to the last few years - yeah it's worse but not by orders of magnitude. Look to the data. Therein lies the truth.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 10:16am 1614460566

fat pat - you're taking this piss right?? Ivermectin is an internal parasite (worms) drench for cattle. The manufacturer has categorically stated it is ineffective.. as is Vitamin D3.

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 11:07am 1614463631
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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 11:29am 1614464972

How about YOU do some reading??
https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/antiviral-therapy/iverme…
After reading that, if you want to inject or drink Ivermectin - go for your life. Just don't recommend it for others.
Personally I'll wait for the vaccine, but don't let me hold YOU back

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 12:11pm 1614467470

Yeah I've read that - did you actually look at clinical trial meta analysis data? What the guys at trial site news are saying.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 12:35pm 1614468916

I looked at the huge trial case numbers of 14,000 odd, the 65 or so published trials (28 peer reviewed) and the very small number (comparatively) of supporting scientists (350 or so). I'll go with required trial case numbers in the 100s of 1000s to get approval for the current vaccines.
As I said - if you want to believe drinking a cattle drench & taking Vit.D3 is an effective cure .. knock yourself out. Just don't promote it for others.
Looking at your post above regarding the IFR of Covid it appears you believe this virus is no worse than a bad dose of the 'flu - need I say more??

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 12:52pm 1614469954

You really have to employ every logical fallacy in the book to cast aspersions on that ivermectin data.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 1:18pm 1614471520

Not really. When the manufacturer says "don't use it, it was never designed to be an antiviral agent" that's good enough for me (and obviously all the worlds public health experts and certifiers)
If Ivermectin was a viable cure and conferred immunity against reinfection it would already be in worldwide regular use. That it's not speaks volumes about it's efficacy, regardless of the studies you've referenced.
Also note that in the studies you referenced, the dose rate that affected the virus was up to 100x the safe human exposure level - not much point in being free of Covid but dying of Ivermectin poisoning imv

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by  fat pat  |  28th Feb 21, 3:21pm 1614478873

You're wrong - again. The ivermectin iMASK+ protocol from the FLCCC (see here) calls for 0.2 mg/kg for 5 days for early outpatients. The drug has an excellent therapeutic window and the dosage isn't too dissimilar from what you'd get for a nematode infection.
The reason Merck is taking a gigantic S&it on their own product is because they cant make money from it because it's off-patent. Merck recently acquired OncoImmune for 425 million USD and received 356 million USD from the government to develop a NOVEL treatment. Ivermectin is a thorn in their side because it's efficacy will be hard to beat. Gilead made almost 3 billion dollars from the sale of remdesivir in the first few months of it's release and remdesivir is essentially useless. Governments are in panic mode and will pay anything right now. Read between the lines and see what's going on.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 3:39pm 1614479964

Well buddy - it's a democracy. You read, believe and ingest what you want. If you think it's a giant "big pharma" conspiracy to make billions.. good on you.
"Read between the lines and see what's going on"? - Yeah, I know.. another big brother conspiracy from the illuminati to control the downtrodden masses, this time with a fake virus and expensive vaccines... sigh

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by  Brutus Iscariot  |  28th Feb 21, 3:22pm 1614478974

Check out Florida vs California. One is a micromanaged hellhole with an insane level of restriction, the other gives much more freedom for people to manage their own risk levels. Yet they have both had pretty much the same impacts from covid.

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by  tooting  |  28th Feb 21, 11:32am 1614465154
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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 8:55am 1614455733

Apparently the latest 3 day one was at a cost of 44 mill so this one will be 100 mil +

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by  JimboJones  |  28th Feb 21, 9:39am 1614458388

Peanuts then. $20 each.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 9:53am 1614459209

That was the cost to the Auckland economy only, not the country as a whole.

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by  JimboJones  |  28th Feb 21, 10:04am 1614459843

I doubt level 2 cost much.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 10:13am 1614460397

That was the cost of lvl 3. Lvl 2 is not as disruptive to business, so yes... less costly

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by  False economies  |  28th Feb 21, 9:41am 1614458485

And how much will it save if we manage to contain the outbreak again?

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by  northman46  |  28th Feb 21, 10:34am 1614461691

It's not like NZ cares about productivity. We can make that money back with more house price increases.

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 3:21pm 1614478908

This guy has senior management written all over him. He should be promoted.

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by  Uh Oh  |  1st Mar 21, 8:43am 1614541427

Lol, best comment here....

Who cares about productivity when you can just borrow $100 bil from the RBNZ? and create fiat currency on a whim right?
Side effect - real assets go up in value and wealth gap increases

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by  Jay Lim  |  28th Feb 21, 9:51am 1614459093

This is just not a practical solution. lockdown to make one covid case disappear until the next case shows up.
As seen from many nations, even those people tend to follow the government regulations like Japan or Korea, Covid infection numbers fluctuate.
What makes NZ so special about Covid, we will eventually follow the same footstep, unless we decide to lock our country forever.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 10:03am 1614459794

JL the underlying reason for lockdowns are actually to reduce or eliminate the chance of our hospitals being overcome should the virus escape to become country wide. So far they have been effective. Once the vaccine is administered to 70-80% (at least) of the population there should be less requirement for locking down parts of the country. It would be good if the lockdown areas were more targeted but I guess in Auckland that's pretty impractical

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by  Brutus Iscariot  |  28th Feb 21, 3:05pm 1614477953

Bullshit. That chestnut was roasted a long time ago. It's because we have decided we will do anything at societal level to stop even a single death from covid.

Think of what all the money spent in terms of lockdown payments could have bought in terms of hospital capacity etc.

It's fairies and unicorns that have given us our response, not rational analysis of the health system.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 5:34pm 1614486855

Bullshit. That chestnut was roasted a long time ago.

So you're saying no country in the world has run out of hospital space due to COVID? Doing some very quick googling will tell you that many countries, cities and localities have indeed run out of hospital space due to COVID, and the majority of those places have better levels of hospital care than what NZ can manage.

Think of what all the money spent in terms of lockdown payments could have bought in terms of hospital capacity etc.

In the same timespan in which the money was spent? Hardly any at all. You can't just magic up hospital capacity overnight.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 5:48pm 1614487723

Brutus there wasn't much analysis needed - the White Island event showed up the deficiencies pretty clearly - staffing and capacity. The Hospital system here is already on a shoe string budget - getting rid of half the DHBs (at least) whilst maintaining the overall budget would help immensely. Even if all the Covid response money had been funnelled into the Health system nothing would have changed - we'd still be understaffed, underpaid and under capacity. Even well resourced systems in far richer countries than us have been pushed to breaking point. The response strategy was the only viable option we had.

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by  donny11  |  28th Feb 21, 10:10am 1614460255

Correct Jay, 10 years from now assuming we don't lock down forever or they create a "super vaccine" per capita deaths from COVID19 will about the same in NZ as in the rest of the world. NZ's COVID19 strategy will be considered a popular delusion worthy of its own chapter in McKay extraordinary popular delusions & the madness of crowds. Managing a contagious virus by managing how people socially interact is an absurd proposition.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:17am 1614460657

This is just not a practical solution. lockdown to make one covid case disappear

That's not the point of it at all.

We may, right now, have a dozen cases in the community that we don't know about, because of the actions of case M. If we don't do anything and let those people carry on with their normal lives, we could have 100 cases by Friday and 1000 by the Friday after that.

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by  paashaas  |  28th Feb 21, 8:16am 1614453405

JA :
"people who should have been put in MIQ have not been .. lest I get accused of racism. But I do not want to blame anyone .. because it should by rights be myself."

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:19am 1614460776

Her press conference last night was a masterclass of deflection, exhorting people not to blame others who aren't following the rules, and also saying that it's because people don't follow the rules that this has happened. Ie, her and her government are blameless for this case.

Well, I very much blame them. It was easily foreseeable that people wouldn't follow the rules and obvious that the government didn't do contact tracing well enough to begin with. We got unlucky that the people not following the rules actually seem to have been people who are sick, this time.

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by  middleman1  |  28th Feb 21, 11:08am 1614463699

Lanthanide. Even worse, the princess of hugs thinks we oughtn't to have a punitive attitude towards this POS who knew his mother had contracted C19, had been to the doctor about their own symptoms yet arrogantly and with knowing disregard for the carnage they knew could easily result, exposed multiple others to suffering and death. Because, apparently, 'treating them as a criminal could discourage others from being tested'. And due to their 'youth'...... at age 21!! Her royal kindness rightly gets sniffy when the Baluch woman refuses to be tested in MIQ but a south Aucklander blatantly giving the rest of us the middle finger not only escapes her frowny faced wrath for reckless endangerment on a scale monumentally greater than that of the recalcitrant Aussie but in addition gets the mother of the nation protective cloak treatment by way of a virtue signalling lecture on the correct way we should all be viewing this incident. I'd like to think it is just her feeble naivety because she doesn't understand the need for publicly visible deterrence at at a time of national emergency but suspect she is instead knowingly playing to her political gallery.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 11:19am 1614464361

Ardern is correct that punishing people for failing to follow the rules is not the appropriate response.

Retain punishment for those who deliberately go out of their way to cause harm to others.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:11pm 1614471113

middleman....500 hours of community service to this POS under some law relating to the security of NZ? A deterrent as well as a tiny repayment to society for the damage he has caused. The gym should also cancel his membership (without giving a refund) for being a danger to other members.

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by  nigelh  |  28th Feb 21, 8:26am 1614454007

Ho hum Ho hum. Well meaning. JA is concerned people aren't taking this seriously. Aren't we all. Testing voluntary even if you close+. School requesting test certificate is fine but after the horse has bolted. Can't contact people. Sorry a miserable performance.
Time to bring in a small stick. The carrots, if any, weren't tempting enough.

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by  BadRobot  |  28th Feb 21, 8:29am 1614454151

Talk softly but carry a big stick.

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by  JimboJones  |  28th Feb 21, 9:37am 1614458267

You do know this approach has worked better than that of almost any other country in the world right?

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by  Tom Valen  |  28th Feb 21, 9:55am 1614459319

I only know that we have a very small population by global standards, and we are isolated by thousands of miles of ocean. Our air border should be manageable as we have a small number of international airports. Our land mass is further divided into two islands seperated by water. We have a lot of natural advantages working in our favour.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:12pm 1614471173

Tom... so did George Best.

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by  Zachary Smith  |  28th Feb 21, 8:29am 1614454178

I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to COVID yet yesterday as I did a bit of shopping at Countdown and Mitre 10 I seemed to be the only one wearing a mask. I quite like wearing a mask as I think it could stop me getting colds and flu as well.

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by  Cheetahlegs66  |  28th Feb 21, 9:57am 1614459426

At best it is nominal protection. Virus particles AKA virions are incredibly small and transmission for influenza is mainly by self inoculation ie putting fingers contaminated with virus in your nose, eyes or mouth. Transmission via coughed droplets is secondary. Happy to be corrected, preferably by a virologist or ID Physician

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:47am 1614462464

Virus particles AKA virions are incredibly small

Correct, however they need a medium to travel between people, ie large 'droplets' of saliva or other mucous that generally falls to the ground over a distance of 2M, hence the 2M social distancing rules. These droplets are created from speech and singing, not just coughing and sneezing. Masks block the majority of these droplets and also cause other fine aerosol particles to project upward (eg, around your eyes and up over your head) rather than forwards into other people's faces, and in commercial buildings the ventilation systems will tend to suck up and remove the infectious particles once they're flowing in an upwards direction.

It does mean that in normal society we've all been getting coated in each others 'droplets' all the time - gross!

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by  Zachary Smith  |  28th Feb 21, 10:29am 1614461370

I think talking and singing are major causes.
With a mask and eyewear it discourages the touching of the mouth and nose which I think could be helpful too.

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by  Jay Lim  |  28th Feb 21, 9:25pm 1614500748

Masks provide protection not by completely stopping the virus but by changing people's movement patterns.
With masks on, people significantly reduce their movement—less activity, less chance of spreading the virus.
Also, physical contact and conversation becomes difficult, therefore less time communicating between people

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by  BadRobot  |  28th Feb 21, 8:33am 1614454380

"one person doesn't take their symptoms seriously" - you can't fix stupid (apathy, indifference, she'll be right mate).

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by  Stuart Mason  |  28th Feb 21, 8:38am 1614454704

When you are running a government you have to enforce the rules. Not run the show as though it were a voluntary organisation. NZ found this out a year ago when reversing the absurd initial border rules i.e. isolate at home, which was a high trust model with little or no checks. Why are we still having this conversation?

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by  PonziKiwi  |  28th Feb 21, 8:49am 1614455341

One does get the feeling if it was a lawyer from ponsonby who was case m jacinda would be ravaging the person and the media would be doing whoever it is. But apparently its voluntary now???

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by  JimboJones  |  28th Feb 21, 9:43am 1614458614

The more they hate or enforce penalties on these idiots, the less people will go get tested with symptoms for fear of the consequences. It won’t deter anyone except the reasonable members of society that don’t need to be deterred.
It’s called being pragmatic, it’s what intelligent people are capable of doing, and when Judith Collins says she wants the book thrown at this guy it shows how different things would actually be under national. This guy would have still done everything he did, the only difference is he wouldn’t have been tested, he would have hoped and assumed it was just the flu, we’d all be screwed and he still would have got away with it.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:25am 1614461139

Totally correct, but see my top comment further up in this thread suggesting something the government could try to encourage people to follow the rules.

Also I think a lot of what Judith and others say, particularly around COVID, is just to get idiots in the public who agree with them, and they wouldn't necessarily actually do the things they're proposing if they were in power.

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by  Jay Lim  |  28th Feb 21, 9:59am 1614459567

Let's say overseas tourists landed NZ after 12 hours flight.
You let them stay in their own hotels, and expect to isolate themselves in their hotel for two weeks?

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by  Yvil  |  28th Feb 21, 4:06pm 1614481597

But enforcing the rules is not "being kind" Stuart

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by  NZChinese  |  28th Feb 21, 8:39am 1614454750

Case M could have gone to KFC to work even if we were still in L2. It's almost inevitable.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 10:27am 1614461222

Case M doesn't work in KFC, apparently they work 1 day a week at some airport related business (not clear what that is).

They're a student at Manukau Institute of Technology.

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by  NZChinese  |  28th Feb 21, 12:08pm 1614467289

You are right. It's Case L who worked at Botany KFC. Case M does part-time work at Kerry Logistics in the Airport area.

My point is these confirmed cases could have continued to go to their respective workplace if we were still in an extended L2 (or even L3, considering both food chains and logistics are essential). So I reckon the latest lockdown is inevitable.

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by  PonziKiwi  |  28th Feb 21, 8:46am 1614455172

I just finished a week's leave and I was returning from the Mount last night when my phone went off in my ute.. Then got a covid explanation via audio. So fortune I came last night as my papers were not in order for returning. Anyways the traffic leaving Auckland was huge. I wonder whats the point as thousands leaving to possibly infect elderly populations like my parents at the Mount.

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by  dotti  |  28th Feb 21, 9:04am 1614456254

You'd think we'd have learnt by now - the road blocks should be up at the time of the announcement, not several hours later. People have repeatedly proven their selfishness/stupidity, swanning off to their holiday homes, potentially aiding the spread of the virus.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 9:47am 1614458845

dotti, the "potential risk" never eventuated. All the clusters have been fairly concentrated geographically around infection sources. Let's not go all "chicken little" just yet

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by  Tom Valen  |  28th Feb 21, 9:59am 1614459585

The people pouring out of Auckland are probably wealthy property owners. Jacinda wouldn’t want to upset her core supporters by having them turned around and sent back home. (Or by doing something about housing affordability).

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:17pm 1614471474

Even with a nickname like rigor mortis Mark Richardson probably still managed to get down to Pauanui before 6am this morning.

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by  Yvil  |  28th Feb 21, 4:02pm 1614481376

Love Pauanui

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 4:26pm 1614482775

Yvil...Lovely place. Underground power lines, great beach and beautiful tree lined roads. The original par 3 golf course is great too. My parents had a holiday home there. Short drive from Auckland but it is horribly snobby and full of spoilt teenage brats.

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by  house hunter  |  28th Feb 21, 8:51am 1614455503

Article title appears to have a spelling error: Paptoetoe

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by  JohnTrz  |  28th Feb 21, 9:24am 1614457448

Taptoetoe (with annoyance; tired of lockdowns).

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 9:46am 1614458784

It warms the heart to see young people treating her edicts with the exact same urgency and seriousness that she has shown for the housing disaster.

Indeed Jacinda can shove her lockdowns, masks vaccines, QR codes, tracking app and compliance up her arse so long as her government refuses to take meaningful action on housing.

Aroha.

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by  BadRobot  |  28th Feb 21, 9:43am 1614458635

It comes down to credibility as I've said before. Increasingly the issues in our society are becoming unsolvable without extreme intervention and NZer's are simply not interested in the common good only themselves, and saddest part is that people seem to willingly accept that.

If you can't beat them join them. Outrage porn seems pointless.

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by  Tom Valen  |  28th Feb 21, 10:02am 1614459738

Yes, the media certainly seems to have ‘joined them’. They stopped their daily articles on the poor and downtrodden as soon as Labour formed a government in 2017.

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by  dago  |  28th Feb 21, 10:29am 1614461347

Hang on give the woman some credit, a child could still be missing a toy bunny if not for JA swift intervention

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by  Chessmaster  |  28th Feb 21, 11:41am 1614465691

This article is about level 3 lockdown not housing.

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 3:41pm 1614480076

Nope. It's about Jacinda's dwindling moral authority to command us to do things for the sake of the older generations who have weaponised housing against the young.

The younger generations, who have had their futures stolen and have nothing to fear from this silly wu flu, would be well within their rights to protest by telling her to get stuffed.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 4:01pm 1614481289

You really need to get out more or just get laid. So much angst and tension - I recommend the latter

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 4:10pm 1614481810

The irony of your stupid comment during this silly lockdown isn't lost.

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by  Chessmaster  |  28th Feb 21, 4:25pm 1614482755

Brock, your comments are all about anarchy and collapse of the economic systems so house prices come down. Are you an investor waiting for house prices to collapse? Are you saying that this Flu thing is made up? You lot are why the rest of us hard working law abiding kiwis are suffering. Brock is a very american name, are you a believer in Qanon

To be honest outside of Auckland, it's not that bad. Although I'm very much in love with Auckland, there are many other beautiful cities in NZ where houses are not ridiculously priced. It's not all lost for young people.

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 4:54pm 1614484486

Nope, I'm just a parent that needs to house a young family in this clown show of a country.

I have spent a fair chunk of time overseas and I've seen few things as truly disgusting or reckless as the status quo in New Zealand.

You are absolutely right, intelligent young people should vote with their feet. The grass really is greener elsewhere.

"Brock Landers" is the name of the protagonist in the film "Boogie Nights".

Why would I be a "QAnon Believer"? No I don't think the virus is made up, to the contrary I've had it. I just think the endless lockdowns are a stupid overreaction.

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by  Chessmaster  |  28th Feb 21, 4:48pm 1614484124

Ok, I loved boogie nights, great movie and well acted. We got something in common.

Apologies for my comment earlier. I agree with you, it is very difficult for young families to make it work here. You have my full sympathy. I rented for a long time myself with my young family and was lucky enough to find a house in Auckland.

Unfortunately, Auckland is very desirable to wealthy individuals, returning kiwis and migrants. I hope and wish the best to you and your family.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 5:58pm 1614488289

Brock - two things: no one held a gun to your head and forced you to breed. That you did signals either poor planning or.. poor planning. If you think the grass is actually greener then perhaps you should jump the fence to more productive pastures.
The lockdowns are the only thing NZ can do. It's a proven effective strategy that works well regardless of your opinions of it.

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by  dago  |  28th Feb 21, 7:37pm 1614494270

Ignore the troll

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 2:48pm 1614476901

... it warms my heart that not everyone has swallowed " Jacinda juice " ... that , some are willing to oppose the publics slavish love for her , and call it like it is : one of the most spectacularly inept governments within living memory .... on every front , they repeatedly over promise , tell lies , and fail ... then blame someone else , usually Adrian Orr ...

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 10:15am 1614460548

I am not going to let this annoy me.
Gonna look on the bright side - more time with family etc etc.

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by  dago  |  28th Feb 21, 10:24am 1614461043

The school was reopened very quickly - seems like a MISTAKE. As usual JA is busy calling out NZ citizens instead of reaIlsing she is the PM

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by  boreddad  |  28th Feb 21, 10:39am 1614461948

Poor Grant will have to put off any bold action until about Christmas.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:19pm 1614471543

I noticed you did not stipulate Xmas 2021.

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by  Retail shop  |  28th Feb 21, 10:40am 1614462033

Are the Wiggles still on?

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 10:47am 1614462422

Bring them in and replace the government, they would do a better job!
At least they are organized and know how to make money!!!!

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by  Dave Moderato  |  28th Feb 21, 11:24am 1614464664

Yeah, but they'd still treat us like a pack of kids!

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 11:28am 1614464886

At least that's what we'd expect!!!

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 1:55pm 1614473701

... luckily our hotel staff are very accommodating , and able to find wiggle room ...

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by  dago  |  28th Feb 21, 12:18pm 1614467905

Cap'n Feathersword for PM!

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 2:31pm 1614475866

Dorothy the Dinossur for Housing Minister

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by  dago  |  28th Feb 21, 12:13pm 1614467603

If this outbreak gets out of control and country locks down, Orr might have to lower interest rates further to save us all

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 1:57pm 1614473831

... that'd save the economy ! ... Orr drops the OCR .... we all sit home , and get richer as house prices boom again ... no need to work .... perfect ....

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by  Dale Smith  |  28th Feb 21, 2:19pm 1614475149

JA and GR favourite Wiggles Covid song is 'Hot Potato.'

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 4:17pm 1614482277

Haha

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 5:56pm 1614488176

Another Wiggles classic is " Five Fingered Family " ... d'yer reckon they'll tweak the lyrics for NZ concerts , " Family of Five Million , Fingered " ...

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 6:26pm 1614489975

" The Monkey Dance " ... another Wiggles gem ... which reminds one of Phil Twyford , anytime he comes out in public & fronts the media ..

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by  Uh Oh  |  1st Mar 21, 8:55am 1614542116

Lol oh man, made my morning with these gems... I think we all get the point comparing the govt to toddlers entertainment

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by  kpnuts  |  28th Feb 21, 10:50am 1614462618

One thing that is know -- each of the 11+ incidents since the first lockdown - have come from the border - yes some of it could be unlucky or surface transmission -- but its ALL from the border -- If we cant manage it -- CLOSE IT !

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 3:42pm 1614480176

Open the border and stop wrecking lives with these pointless lockdowns.

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by  dcnbwz  |  1st Mar 21, 5:54am 1614531272

They aren't pointless. It's what's kept nz from being like the rest of the world so far. Stick to science.

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by  Chessmaster  |  28th Feb 21, 11:22am 1614464539

Where is the enforcement action on rule-breakers!!!! What about a $5000 fine same as Australia. Why were the police not checking on these people (as they do in Aust). It will cost us a lot more now to contain this.

Sick of this being kind BS. Trust model is complete BS. Imagine all the poor law abiding citizens who have been exposed as a result of these idiots. Surely there should be some harsh punishment. He went to the gym after a covid test.

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 11:29am 1614464949

Agree. It was friggin irresponsible.
Lay down the law.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 12:10pm 1614467429

Exactly which law are you and chessmaster referring to Fritz? NZ currently doesn't have a "house arrest" type law outside of a lvl 4 situation as far as I'm aware for close or casual contacts of a negative case.

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by  Chessmaster  |  28th Feb 21, 4:30pm 1614483052

If we don't have such laws then this govt exceeds my expectations of being incompetent. Australia has these and m not sure why we don't/won't have something to enforce or punish these idiots as well.

I suppose it's "not kind". These kindness strategy has ffd the whole country.

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 6:49pm 1614491364

... oh , come on .... be kind .... run a hot bath , have a low fat organic cholesterol reduced vegan mandarin ... you'll feel ever so much kinder in the morning ....

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by  Chessmaster  |  28th Feb 21, 7:42pm 1614494579

Haha nice. Just worried it might change my preferences to liking men more than women with that vegan diet. I suppose then I will also be more "woke".

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 9:38pm 1614501494

. . when it comes to veganism , ponder this : cows are vegans ... how well has being vegans served them from an evolutionary perspective , given that we farm them & squeeze their teets ... and they go nowhere near ours ... hmmmm ?

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by  NZChinese  |  28th Feb 21, 12:18pm 1614467938

Do we have any law enabling the police to enforce covid compliance?

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 1:00pm 1614470441

Only under an MoH directive. The advice to "stay home and get tested if symptoms manifest" is exactly that - advice, so is not an enforceable directive or law
https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/new-zealand-new-covid-19-p…

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:28pm 1614472137

Hook... public act 145, Criminal nuisance. When you do not want to take action on sthg a good cop out is you can't. There is no doubt that anyone who is told to stay home and does not is endangering the health and safety of others and could be prosecuted under this law. But that is not this Govt or Costers style. If I am wrong could a lawyer plz correct me. Thx.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 1:55pm 1614473715

Karl you don't need to be a lawyer. Read the act. The key words are "unlawful act", "legal duty" and "knowingly/knew". Case M did not commit an "unlawful act" nor did he fail to discharge a "legal duty". As he did not have the results back from his test he also did not "knowingly" endanger the public.
What he did was dumb, cavalier and apathetic but it was not illegal. If he'd escaped from an MIQ facility - that is illegal. Failing to self isolate is not. At the time Auckland was in Lvl 2 therefore there was no MoH Directive restricting movement so he didn't breach that law either.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 2:12pm 1614474773

Hook... I guess it is a matter of opinion whether he knowingly endangered the public. I am not a lawyer but I think one could put up a good case that someone who had covid symptoms, was living with someone with covid and had been instructed to isolate was knowingly endangering the public. The act states that you just need to be knowingly endangering the health of others. And even if you are right emergency laws can be passed if needed.
You might want to read it again yourself.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 2:28pm 1614475733

You're making a few assumptions for a start and your argument is flawed.
1: His sibling had tested negative 3 times so it could be argued he could reasonably assume his household ( and he) was negative
2: His mother (Case L) contracted the virus off him so prior to that he was living with someone with symptoms which are the same as the common cold. Her testing hadn't been released so he had no way to know they were Covid positive
3: He had been ADVISED (there is no legal compulsion) to self isolate, but under lvl 2 there is no restrictions on movement
The lvl 4 restrictions were found to be a breach of the Bill of Rights however there were extenuating circumstances but it was still technically illegal.
If the MoH want to issue a Directive around the ADVICE to self isolate then it would be illegal to ignore that. So far that hasn't happened and it's unlikely (imv) that it will.

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by  Lanthanide  |  28th Feb 21, 2:50pm 1614477028

Actually in response to journalist questions today, Ardern and Bloomfield said that section 70 health orders have legal force and if people break them they can be punished, and that everyone from the Papatoetoe school were placed under section 70 orders requiring them to isolate.

Not sure if that was just the students or the students and their family.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 4:03pm 1614481398

Interesting. Reading Section 70 of the Act I wonder if they actually did do that or were just CTA. Seems to be a few notification requirements that I'm sure the media would have picked up on. The relevant Minister has to give approval or a State of Emergency must be declared.
I think personally it's a smoke screen. If not then let's see them prosecute Case M (obviously they won't). Section 70 seems quite prescriptive
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1956/0065/latest/DLM307083.h…
I wonder how section 1A(a) applies??

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 1:21pm 1614471707

There must be laws relating to public safety and/or endangering others that could be applied. But as Bridges would tell you if Coster makes that decision it will be a non starter for sure.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 2:11pm 1614474714

Karl as I said above the laws in this country revolve around conscious decisions to breach an existing law. The law must exist in the first case. Then there must be conscious and willful action to breach it. Note that ignorance of the law's existence is not a defence. In Case M's situation the law doesn't exist - it's real simple. Banging Coster on the head is spurious. Case M ignored ADVICE.. he did not break any law or breach a Directive

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 2:19pm 1614475168

We will have to agree to disagree. I think under the circumstances he knowingly endangered the health and safety of the public and could be prosecuted under this law. And when you see police regularly being called cnuts and being told to F off and criminals refusing to be handcuffed (and police having to pander to these thugs) it is hard to have any respect for Coster. I am guessing many of his staff would love to see the back of him although I am sure Jacinda approves of the way he runs things.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 2:47pm 1614476862

Case M did not knowingly endanger anyone. He hadn't had a positive test so knowledge can't be proven. And what's your beef with Coster?? He's only been in the job for a short while. All the things you describe have been happening for decades.
BTW anyone trying to evade cuffing will be charged with "resisting arrest", probably pepper sprayed and I can assure you they'll still get to wear the "bangles"

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 2:27pm 1614475627

Hook...even disorderly conduct is defined as "any behaviour that compromises public safety". It does not say knowingly so Did he compromise public safety? Undoubtedly he did and the law does not state he had to know he was. Good enough?

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 2:53pm 1614477217

No it's not Karl. The law around criminal nuisance clearly states the requirement of knowledge. Disorderly conduct doesn't apply as he was not acting in a disorderly manner.
Every person is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding $2,000 who, in or within view of any public place, behaves, or incites or encourages any person to behave, in a riotous, offensive, threatening, insulting, or disorderly manner that is likely in the circumstances to cause ...etc etc
That is a direct copy from the Crimes Act 1981 and it doesn't mention "endangering public safety" anywhere
Hardly relevant in this case

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 4:32pm 1614483135

Hook... the google search on disorderly conduct I did specifically listed actions endangering public safety but I do accept that everything on google is not right. If no law covers it we need to pass one and do it fast.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 6:10pm 1614489014

Your Google search threw up the US definition, so it's not wrong.. just not relevant. NZs laws are different - as I've shown you. We do have Section 70 of the Health Act as Lanthanide referred to, but as I pointed out it's a bit murky whether it is applicable in Case M's situation

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 11:30pm 1614508240

OK fair enough. I should have checked the applicable country obv.

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by  EdwardD  |  28th Feb 21, 6:19pm 1614489547

This Govt is so woke - time to start throwing large fines at people who are putting others at risk.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 6:47pm 1614491241

FFS Edward. Case M is a 21yr old student. Maybe you (and others baying for his head) should just back the wagon up and take a chillpill. Mistakes happen. What do you reckon a 21yr old students capacity for paying a fine would be?? My guess is zero. It has nothing to do with the Govt's attitude and everything to do with encouraging people to get tested when they are symptomatic - fining someone doesn't achieve anything. At least the kid DID get tested (albeit a bit late), had there been a threat of a fine he may well have not been tested, with the ensuing chaos that would eventually have caused.

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by  printer8  |  28th Feb 21, 7:12pm 1614492739

Hook
FFS. It was no mistake he was told what was required of him and in tertiary education he is not thick.
And don’t play the “ . . but, but he is to young . . and doesn’t know any better and he can’t be responsible . . .” : he’s old enough to have voted at the last election, old enough to drive, old enough to drink - all requiring an awareness and a high level of responsibility . . . and mistakes regarding drinking and driving have serious consequence.
Not after his blood . . . but other 21 year old need to know it’s not ok.
He and some other 21 year olds have responsibilities and need to be compliant but choose to ignore that . . .it’s not ok and has tremendous risk to others, and tremendous widespread disruptive and economic consequences.

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by  Hook  |  28th Feb 21, 7:12pm 1614492777

P8 I'm not excusing his behaviour. I am saying that beating him up will have no great advantage. As for being old enough to vote etc etc there's 54.17 % of the population that fall into that category and they voted for the idiots we currently have to endure. Age is no measure of maturity

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 7:25pm 1614493547

You reckon the Nats would have been any better? I don't.

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by  printer8  |  28th Feb 21, 7:31pm 1614493911

Hook
OK . . . but how does one go about convincing others (of all ages) it’s not ok.
The reality is that he and others need to appreciate the responsibility and the consequences for the inconvenience and economic cost for each and every Aucklander and Kiwi. That is serious and needs to be strongly reinforced.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 11:42pm 1614508961

printer8...I am OK with a public apology. He is young and we should give him a break but he needs to own his mistake and at least apologise for all the damage. Slinking away without any action is unacceptable IMO.

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by  karl seastrand  |  28th Feb 21, 11:39pm 1614508758

Hook... crashing your car is a mistake. Going to the gym on the way home from a covid test is not a mistake. It is a reckless and selfish conscious decision. No fine but as I said maybe a bit of a public shaming (a quiet word that a public apology is in order) and maybe even some voluntary community service worked out between him and some kind of mediator who could explain that in order to restore his mana (or whatever the word for mana is in Samoan) he needs to voluntarily do some community service. He should be a man (and not a fa'afafine) and own his mistake and make it right.

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by  mikekirk29  |  28th Feb 21, 1:53pm 1614473625

I know this does not get stated much, but it is important:

the crucial metric is what % of tests taken , are positive, NOT how many infected.
Because, plainly, no test = no infection recorded.
This % is v rarely given by any government or DH spokesperson in NZ or elsewhere.
In UK last April , it was 50%
It is now 6.5%
The latest super peak in January was because UK was testing 900k a day. In April it was only 50k a day

Good info is critical and sometimes you have to go looking for it

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by  NZChinese  |  28th Feb 21, 2:13pm 1614474800

Is it 50% of the entire UK population?

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by  Yvil  |  28th Feb 21, 3:57pm 1614481049

This new lockdown means the Reserve Bank will continue it's monetary easing bias and house prices will continue to rocket up as a result

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by  Brock Landers  |  28th Feb 21, 4:03pm 1614481400

The Reserve Bank was going to continue it regardless of this new lockdown, the virus is just a fig leaf. Adrian Orr was busy juicing house prices well before China's gift to the world and he will be doing it well after.

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 4:28pm 1614482890

If it's one week I don't think that will happen. However if it extends then it's a real possibility.

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by  Yvil  |  28th Feb 21, 4:08pm 1614481731

Over 200 comments already! This lockdown is working perfectly for the government to steer attention away from housing issues

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by  Carlos67  |  28th Feb 21, 5:08pm 1614485322

Just you wait, how many thumbs up from people that think this could quickly escalate to a Level 4 and we start to get the daily Cindy show on the TV ? Everything else goes out the window with Covid when in fact the government is actively doing nothing about it to further reduce the chances of a major outbreak which begs the question, what the hell are they doing all day ?

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 5:49pm 1614487756

I will be surprised if this isn't spreading and we don't go to level 4.
Maybe we will be 'lucky' again...

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by  dago  |  28th Feb 21, 7:46pm 1614494772

Grant crossing fingers

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by  Nifty1  |  28th Feb 21, 5:38pm 1614487096

Interesting how they can all rally together to get quick action taken on Covid but need months and months of advice to consider housing solutions.

Expect any housing announcements to be pushed back further...

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 5:50pm 1614487812

Well, it's unlikely the housing announcements will be meaningful anyway.

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by  paashaas  |  28th Feb 21, 7:31pm 1614493916

it is not really quick "action " - it is mostly quick talking ..

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by  Gummy Bear Hero  |  28th Feb 21, 10:17pm 1614503878

.. waffle waffle ... 100 000 affordable homes .... waffle waffle .... 1 billion trees .... waffle waffle ... no child in poverty .... waffle waffle ... at the front of the queue .... waffle waffle ....

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by  Fritz  |  28th Feb 21, 11:43pm 1614508988

Cindy's Waffles in Wellington, selling the best waffles with sickly sweet cream on top. Eat too much and you might end up with severe indigestion

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by  Sherwood  |  28th Feb 21, 8:14pm 1614496467

I think the lockdowns have served us well so far and have largely agreed with all the governments decisions to date, but I am not so sure about this one. They said at the end of the three day lockdown they only did that because there was a risk of lots of undetected community transmission. It doesn't seem like this one has the same risk. The cluster has only affected four households so far - is that any worse than the November defence force cluster? That one didn't require a lockdown.

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by  Small Kev  |  28th Feb 21, 10:18pm 1614503907

How many people secretly missing L4 lock down, I don’t.

Take the rates to negative, we are at the beach and topless might as well go for a swim...

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by  The Person  |  1st Mar 21, 6:49am 1614534570

electric avenue

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