UPDATED AT 3:44PM
New Zealand will remain in Level 4 lockdown until at least 11.59pm on Tuesday August 24.
Cabinet will meet on Monday to determine the next steps.
The update comes as there are now 31 cases of Covid-19 in the community, including three cases in Wellington. The remainder are in Auckland.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the scale of the outbreak is still unknown.
She noted we don’t yet know how much the virus has spread among the close contacts of identified cases.
Contacts from locations of interest are tested five days after being exposed to an infected person. If they’re tested too soon after exposure, the virus won’t show up in testing. So, we are still waiting for a large number of contacts to be tested.
Ardern also said we are dealing with a large number of locations of interest, including bars, schools and churches.
What’s more, Ardern said we are dealing with an outbreak that isn’t limited to Auckland. In addition to the Wellington cases, there are hundreds of people isolating outside of Auckland, including in the South Island.
The Wellington cases were in contact with an infected person on Sunday and returned to Wellington by plane and car before the lockdown started.
Locations of interest are progressively being updated. Keep an eye on them here.
As at 3:43pm, locations of interest between Auckland and Wellington, as well as those in Wellington, weren't yet online.
More information can be found in a press release from the Ministry of Health below.
There are 11 new cases of COVID-19 in the New Zealand community to confirm today. This brings the total number of cases associated with the current Auckland community outbreak to 31. All cases have or are being transferred safely to a managed isolation facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE.
Of the 11 new cases, eight are in Auckland and three are in Wellington. The three in Wellington had recently travelled to Auckland and visited a location of interest there.
The international Air New Zealand crew member, reported yesterday, has now been confirmed as a border-related case, and not linked to the Auckland outbreak, based on the results of whole genome sequencing.
Nineteen cases are now confirmed as part of the Auckland outbreak, with the remaining 12 under investigation to confirm the linkage to the outbreak. Initial assessment shows in most cases there is a plausible link.
Of the 11 new community cases reported today:
· One case is in a family bubble with a case reported yesterday
· One case is in a family bubble with a case reported on Wednesday
· One case is in a family bubble with a case also reported on Wednesday
· Two of the cases we are reporting today are also in a family bubble together.
Public health officials are currently conducting interviews to establish how the new cases were infected and to determine further details of their movements. We will continue to release this information as it becomes available.
Testing
Our advice remains the same - please only get tested if you are a contact, have visited a location of interest at the specific date(s) and time(s), or have cold and flu symptoms. It is imperative we prioritise testing for these groups.
Yesterday, 27,899 tests were processed across New Zealand.
Testing centres in Auckland had their busiest day ever, by more than 50 percent. More than 24,000 community tests were performed across Auckland yesterday, with more than 8,000 at community testing centres and around 16,000 at general practice and urgent care clinics. Police are helping to manage traffic flows at sites.
The Ministry thanks New Zealanders playing their part in complying with Alert Level 4, in getting a test and for their patience at sites while there is high demand. The Ministry also thanks testing staff for stepping up again – these staff are working at pace at the frontline of our COVID-19 response, in high-stress environments, and making personal sacrifices to keep our communities safe.
There are 13 community testing centres available for testing across Auckland today, including seven pop-up community testing centres at Narrow Neck, St Lukes, Wairau Valley, St Johns, Albany, Mangere East, and Pakuranga Heights. There is additional dedicated testing for Avondale College staff, students and whenau, who are considered to be close contacts. Additionally, around 2,600 swabs have been taken onsite from Auckland City Hospital staff and all have been negative so far, following a fully vaccinated staff member working onsite while unknowingly potentially infectious with COVID-19.
All community testing centres in Auckland are continuing to operate extended hours and many will remain open until 8pm today.
Pop-up testing sites remain open in Coromandel Township, Thames, and Hamilton – and testing capacity is being surged to increase throughput at sites. Yesterday, Waikato DHB’s laboratory processed nearly 2,600 (2,590) tests and all returned a negative result.
In Wellington, COVID-19 testing is under way, with a range of sites already in place, and are ensuring additional testing capacity is available, if needed.
All DHBs are ensuring there is good access to testing across the regions. Further locations, including in rural areas, are being actively considered for expanding the geographical spread of testing to help determine whether there has been any undetected transmission to date.
For up-to-date information on all testing locations nationwide, visit www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/
The total number of COVID-19 tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,612,235.
The seven-day rolling average is 9,085.
Wastewater
COVID-19 was detected in wastewater samples collected on Wednesday from the Waitakere area in Auckland. This follows detection in the sample from Tuesday.
There have been no unexpected detections to report outside the Auckland region.
Testing is in progress for a number of samples, most of which will be reported later today.
Whole genome sequencing, Crowne Plaza
The latest preliminary results from the recent whole genome sequencing of 10 test results completed last night show that of the community cases sequenced to date all are linked with the series of cases associated with case A.
Separately the Air New Zealand crew member has been linked to three other cases in managed isolation in a different facility. These four cases are not linked to the community cluster of cases and have a separate origin from overseas.
The community cases are genomically linked to a case in managed isolation who stayed in the Crowne Plaza. Whole genome sequencing has also linked three cases in a family bubble next door to that original MIF case. As a result, public health officials are now arranging further testing for those returnees who have now left, or due to depart, who were on the same floor.
ESR has noted that these whole genome sequencing results are preliminary, and that additional analysis will be carried out before they are finally confirmed.
Contact tracing
Public health staff across New Zealand are now engaged in contact tracing work, with focus on higher risk locations.
The Ministry’s National Investigation and Tracing Centre, and all the country’s public health units, are working hard on the critical work necessary to investigate community cases, identify their contacts, tracing those contacts, and ensuring they’re in isolation and tested.
Isolation, when in Alert Level 4, means isolating themselves away from other household members.
As of 9am today, 1,189 individual contacts had been identified. This number excludes contacts from large settings, such as Avondale College and the Central Auckland Church of Christ, which are still being assessed.
Most of these contacts are in the Auckland and Waikato regions, with a proportion located in other areas throughout the rest of North Island and South Island. As of 9am today, 642 contacts were in the Auckland and Waikato regions, 149 contacts were located throughout the rest of New Zealand, and the location of the remaining contacts is still being confirmed.
The total number of contacts across the country is expected to increase as more locations of interest are identified.
Details of additional locations of interest identified have been added to the Ministry’s website this morning and will be updated progressively.
The Ministry’s website will also include advice on what to do if you were at any of these locations at the time when you could potentially have been exposed. Text message alerts are being sent to people who scanned in using the COVID-19 Tracer App at locations during the relevant times.
If you were at a location of interest at the specified time, please self-isolate and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.
Metro Auckland Hospitals
Hospitals across Metro Auckland are working closely with the Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre to safely manage anyone in the region needing hospital level care.
This follows a positive case being confirmed as being treated at North Shore Hospital prior to being diagnosed with COVID-19 who could have been unknowingly infectious during their admission.
Patients needing emergency care are being diverted from North Shore Hospital to other Emergency Departments across metro Auckland.
There are approximately 120 staff at North Shore Hospital who were rostered on and may have been in the affected areas at the same time as the positive patient. Of these, 30 had direct contact with the patient, the Ministry understands.
These staff have been stood down and are following public health advice. Testing is being set up at the hospital for staff by local public health officials.
Approximately 107 patients were in the affected areas at the same time as the positive patient. Of these, 29 remain admitted as inpatients and are being isolated and tested for COVID-19. Seventy-eight have been discharged and are self-isolating at home and are being followed-up by public health officials.
Public health officials are closely monitoring the situation and additional support is available for hospitals across Metro Auckland, if needed.
Section 70
There is a Section 70 notice in place that puts a legal requirement on all people who were at locations of interest at the relevant times.
There is a separate Section 70 notice that applies to household members of those who have been at locations of interest or have been categorised as a contact. The household members are required to isolate until the contact has returned a negative day-five test result.
It is very important that essential workers regularly check the locations of interest so they can isolate immediately if they have been at any of these locations at the relevant time(s).
Failure or refusal to comply with this direction is an offence under s 72 of the Health Act 1956.
COVID-19 vaccine update
More than 2.64 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to date (to 11.59pm on 19 August).
Of these, 1.67 million are first doses and more than 963,000 are second doses.
More than 145,000 Māori have received their first vaccination. Of these, more than 88,000 have also had their second vaccination.
More than 97,000 doses have been administered to Pacific peoples. Of these, more than 60,000 have also received their second doses.
Yesterday, 21,291 first doses were given, and 8,626 second doses were administered, bringing yesterday’s total doses administered to 29,917.
NZ COVID Tracer
NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,966,100 registered users.
Poster scans have reached 326,384,671 and users have created 13,410,127 manual diary entries.
There have been 497,085 scans in the 24 hours to midday yesterday.
In addition, there are two new cases in recent returnees in a managed isolation facility.
126 Comments
Currently at 4.8% of NSW.
More to come perhaps?
Well now NZ, and NZrs willingly or not, are now about to demonstrate the viability of lockdown vs Delta. Not sure if this match up has actually been fully fought out anywhere else though. Labour will undoubtedly be anxious that their policy putting trust solely in border control, and the former, prevails because their credibility and political popularity will be down the long drop if it doesn’t.
Currently building. Got h1 timber waiting for a roof. It keeps raining.
Many farmers prepped for selling stock. All feed gone, plans for selling at saleyards on hold.
I am sick of economists saying how great we are doing. They should get their asses out into the real world and see the waste.
How many hospitality outlets just biffed a whole heap of food for the fourth time?
How many butchers, biffed meat?
Vege growers biffed veg?
How many houses in various states of being built are left to sit idle.
How many suicides today, tomorrow?
How many operations not done?
How many cancer patients not treated?
Socialist's don't do cost benefit when they are spending other peoples money and crushing other peoples livelihoods.
Lockdowns are not the answer - 200 days in AUS is it..for what?
Can you name a place that hasn't had lockdowns and has had more freedom than NZ? Yes it sucks, but what is the alternative? Let Covid run rampant to the point where people aren't locked down but don't want to leave their homes, don't want to do anything non-essential, and have hospitals overloaded, etc?
The question is whats next? Decades of lockdown are not feasible. I fear we are blowing billions on a timing difference.
Vaccination is next. Once everyone has been given/offered the vaccine I can't see us having any more lockdowns unless there is a resistant strain.
your approach is not realistic.
have you thought about the associated negative affects from lockdowns... probably not.
You guys are hilarious. It's the only realistic approach.
you are assuming we can keep ahead of a mutating virus. Maybe we can, but globally the evidence is not great.
Agreed sadly for the world, get the vaccinations going.
Eventually we have to get on with our lives… regardless of any resistant strain… your chicken little approach is not for me.
Listen to the PM. Delta has introduced a game changer. If lockdowns do not contain and control it then Delta will be out and about, hard and early, targeting the large percentage of our population still unvaccinated. That is the pickle in a nutshell. The problem is that the ability of locking down as protection against delta is yet to be quantified.
Once more than 50% vaccinated, no more lockdowns. Simple.
50% is way too low, would not be that much different to 10% in effectiveness. Health system would collapse in a week.
So what's your minimum, 75%?
Well said Foxglove
Lockdown is only buying time to get vaccination rates up. Level 4 lockdowns are not sustainable. We still don’t know whether lockdown will work as it did last time. It will slow the spread but maybe not stop it. At some point soon we are going to have figure out how to live with it. A high vaccination rate is the only viable way out.
Exactly! But high floor bureaucrats and such like sit back and sit out and suffer not one iota of any inconvenience or shortening of the pocket. Yet my suggestion is that many of the shiny arses amongst them have contributed meaningfully to these present circumstances inflicted on people in the private sector. There it is.
Oh do please grow up, you all do yourselves a disservice with this tiresome, petty point scoring. Show me one country, regardless of political bent, that would not have done exactly the same as NZ given where we were re: covid status.
Perhaps it's a policy feature. If they are ignoring Ivermectin et al then what's the end game? Tin-foil hat-esque for sure but one should ask the question.
You are not alone asking that question. My family all look at each other shrugging shoulders. Whats the end game? All their friends equally are refusing the jab and cant believe whats happening.
So a bunch of anti vaxxers are refusing and putting others at risk and believing in the ivermectin fallacy that has been utterly disproven.
149 contacts out of 1,189 total contacts are from outside Auck & Waikato, including in the South Island. Lvl 4 is going to be extended for all NZ, beyond the original 3 days.
Auckland and Wellington? It's never been better to be in flyover country!
"Of these, 1.67 million are first doses and more than 963,000 are second doses."
Depressing to think there are less than a million vaccinated more than 6 months after we started this vaccination campaign. Mexico, Russia, Turkey and Argentina are further ahead than us on a per capita basis.
Can we not just go back to the per capita Olympics medal table and be happy?
Yes but check out their populations, their cheque books are a lot bigger than ours.
So NZ goes to Pfizer and says "We want 10 mil doses at $1000 each, here is $10 billion", then Mexico comes in and says "We want 250 mil doses at $100 each, here is $25 billion", I'm pretty sure the Pfizer execs would be more interested in the $25 billion even though the unit cost is 1/10th. Very hard for us to compete with that.
They just got in ahead of us with their orders. We didn't finalise our order until early this year so we where a few months behind most other countries.
There's no evidence that placing an order earlier would have resulted in an earlier shipment of vaccines than what we received.
NZ will be at the front of the queue" Minister Hipkins November 2020
NZ orders first Pfizer vaccine (only 65000 doses) : January 29th 2021.
NZ at the bottom of OECD & a list of 100 nations comparing doses per 100 people: July 2021
The evidence is in our vaccination rate compared with other countries
Yes, that is evidence of what happened.
It is not evidence that anything different could have been done, than what was done. People keep making claims that things could have been different, but have not provided any evidence that that is the case.
Except that those who placed orders earlier got their vaccines earlier. I.E. UK and USA. Those who waited for their own authorities to approve the vaccine (at the same time it was going into millions of arms every day around the world) before placing orders. Had to wait for delivery at the back of the queue.
I already addressed this earlier:
There is a material difference between other countries and us, namely that they had raging COVID and we did not.
There is no evidence that we could have received the vaccine any sooner than we did. Merely claims. There are two critical steps required in the process for vaccines to arrive in NZ:
1. For us to place an order,
2. For Pfizer to agree to the shipment.
It's reasonably clear that #1 could have been done sooner, and perhaps should have been. There's no evidence that #2 automatically follows from #1.
What could the evidence be? Perhaps an email from Pfizer to the government saying "We've got a slot of 200k doses being produced in November that we could ship to you, we just need a signed purchase agreement first". National (or anyone else) has failed to produce evidence similar to this.
AstraZeneca is supposed arrive late this month. Is it the 'tweaked' version - tweaked to fix the blood clot issue - that is supposed to be used in September in UK or is it the 'original' version?
Yes it would certainly settle a lot of the dust and feathers if firstly it was made clear to us when that first order was actually placed and in what quantity. And secondly what exactly the response to that was from Pfizer. The success of the attendant policy of denying urgency of vaccinations due to the security of the border closure etc, and safety within, was always going to be threatened by the emergence of a new strain such as delta. That vulnerability, and the effectiveness of lockdown as protection for it, is now going to be tested. Ten days should do it I would suggest.
NZ's slow roll out looks largely caused by the decision to go with the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine only. At the time it looked like the best of a largely good bunch of vaccines (and still does), and there were reports of people shopping around for different a particular vaccine (mostly not wanting the Oxford/AstraZeneca one). There were pre orders for other vaccines that would have got more doses in the country sooner and probably into people's arms faster.
There's no evidence it would not be the case.
AUS just admits that it cannot eliminate Covid delta.
what does that mean for NZ?
An extremely good question. NZ sits at the far end of the South East of everything. That worked for a while and that was relied on for too long, far too long. Things have changed. Things arrive here these days far faster than by wind and tide. In terms of defences available, NZ has been caught with its pants at half mast.
Penny dropping.
Whats infuriating are those that are happy for another 'holiday'. So as less is made and more is wasted those happy holiday makers will find next week the stuff they want to buy will either not be there or will be more expensive. And Jacinda just keeps grinning.
Our stated plan is to treat it like measles, with high vaccination rates across the country meaning any out break remains small and can be stamped down. It requires us to keep it out of the country for the rest of the year, until vaccination rates are high enough.
We'll know if this is a realistic plan by about Feb next year.
Believe it will be known well before then, bearing in mind your comment yesterday, and that of many others, Delta in itself has now laid new cards on the table.
report from Israel suggests that covid infection rate being 40% for those who are fully vaccinated.
Better than getting Sinopharm or Sinovac which are now being colloquially referred to as Sinocrap in one particular country in South-East Asia where they have proved to be hopeless and where no-one wants them and insists on either Pfizer or AZ.
a remarkable share of Chinese community in NZ will ONLY consider using China-made and WHO proved, traditional inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine.
Pfizer's mRNA vaccines are a new type, which needs more study.
I'd rather use a vaccine that is developed using well-known method rather than a vaccine of a method, of which the side effect in long term being just unknown.
Why don't you live in China? Or maybe you do?
Please tell us, it's hard to know your motives without knowing this.
Oh that's right you never tell us do you X? Probably a CCP troll
So where are you going to get a China-made vaccine dose?
From Alliexpress of course.
Given that these Chinese vaccines will almost certainly never be approved here or in any other Western democracy, good luck getting vaccinated here with them. That said, some seem rather adept at importing stuff from China which is prohibited here so maybe you will manage to get your shots of Sinocrap in Godzone.
mRNA vaccines have been in development for 30 years. There's been lots of study on them already.
Moderna are now beginning human trials for an mRNA HIV vaccine.
Moderna hasnt made anything that has worked in 10 years. Til this jab of theirs. And its success wont be judged for another 5 years or more.
If this takes off I'll just go back to Europe for six months to escape lockdowns. Can get my first jab on the way home from the airport.
Given about a quarter of New Zealander where born abroad, and more would likely be eligible for citizenship of another country, a lot of people will be able to exploit the same option.
I am sure you will be back to clip your super card payment box however.
You probably only need to be resident for six months of a calendar year to qualify anyway and there are a few countries with reciprocal arrangements. Anyway I'm too young for it to matter. :-)
"To be eligible for NZ Super, you need to be aged 65 or over and be a legal resident of New Zealand...
...You also need to have lived here for 10 years since age 20, with five of those years since you turned 50."
Pretty slack.
that law is being changed you might want to look it up they are extending the qualify period
Indeed, when the going gets tough the tough run home?
Home? No thanks. Côte d'Azur is the place to spend winter, unless there is an exceptionally cold snap, then I'd recommend Cyprus.
Anyway people leaving for a few months will take pressure off New Zealands health services, rental market and expedite vaccinations for those that remain. Win-win.
You sure take a lot of pleasure in being an OC don't you. Is this just your online persona or have you had your nose broken multiple times?
What did it mean for the other countries that declared that? Deaths. Not something to aspire to. I will admit to respecting your bravery here given the motherlands insistence on an elimination strategy, did you not get the Red Book supplement?
It means NZ will be in a travel bubble only to itself - as all other countries have decided to move on from COVID after vaccinations and came to the realization that it won't go away, so just have to find a smart way to manage it.
Enjoy!
Lock down over in Melbourne is apparently pretty relaxed. InLaws told us they can still get take-outs and even daycare for young ones are still open.
only the premier of NSW is saying that because she is a failure, all the other states have kept it out, she is so stuck in her political ideology that she did not listen to medical people or even her own PM when they told her to lock down, now 120 days and counting she has created a disaster for the NSW economy.
she took pot shots at queensland and victoria for their handling of Covid as they are opposite party leaders whom ironically handle the same way as other state leaders of her own party whom she never calls out. she needs to start showing some leadership and make some hard decisions, she now has a lot people from the right calling for her to go due to her inept wisy washy handling of covid
This is going be a long lockdown, they may aswell come out and tell everyone now yet they'd rather string it out over 3-7 day blocks keeping everyone hopeful. Good move to keeps eye fixated on the 1 pm press conference I guess...
Picking it to be extended out to four weeks nationwide at a minimum.
Really? It doesn't seem as bad as I thought. Only 11 new cases after all of that testing, we may get back to 0 new cases fairly soon. Or we may not, who knows, but I was expecting 30+ cases today.
Thankfully looks like I was wrong. Here's hoping for Tuesday anyway.
Be hopeful & stay locked in to those updates, that's what they want...
At what point would the government publicly give up on elimination? Anyone care to hazard a guess, perhaps some number of total active cases or new daily cases?
When it effects the polling results...
Go to the top of the class Nifty
OK, so when's that going be?
When the PM resigns.
Well at has worked really well until now, so they would have to be pretty bloody stupid. Maybe after say 5 weeks of lockdown with no reduction in cases.
Well, on a somewhat contrary note - so far so good I think with this lock-down – no real nasty surprises so far coming out of the woodwork.
Thankfully the tradesman got tested when he did – valuable time saved.
I think we’ll get on top of it – and relatively quickly.
And push on with the vaccination program as quickly as possible in the meantime.
I think we tend to lose track of just how fortunate we are – large tracts of the rest of the world still don’t look very appealing at the moment.
I may be wrong, but the NZ government attitude toward rolling out vaccination seemed to be like this is the most ordinary, everyday thing. Reminds me of Yes Minister, when the British government wanted to ask the Soviets to attacked Monday to Friday between 9 to 5. No sense of urgency really.
I may be wrong, but the NZ government attitude toward rolling out vaccination seemed to be like this is the most ordinary, everyday thing.
They've only been saying since the very beginning that it would be the largest vaccination programme in this country's history, totally eclipsing any other public health measure ever organised or undertaken.
So yeah, I think you're wrong about the NZ government's attitude to rolling out the vaccination.
Now whether their actions match their attitude is a separate issue.
You need to have the vaccine to roll it out. We don't have the population to support our own proper vaccination research company, or a cheque book big enough on the international stage to get in front of the queue, and we don't have enough cases for the vaccine companies to prioritise us for humanitarian reasons.
Predictably we have the anti-vaxers out in force but I am happy to see they are in large part filtered by the MSM. In regards to the meowwing about business suffering - have a look here https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/financial-support-for-businesses/ or get someone to read it out to you.
If you think that support makes up for all the losses you really have no idea.
And someone has to pay the money back eventually.
It wont be you Belle - the kids pick up this tab ..
It does depend on your business of course but if your business goes under through reduced sales for 3 weeks its really you that has no idea.
EDIT - "Businesses and organisations will be eligible if they experience a 30% drop in revenue over a seven day period after an alert level increase and meet other eligibility criteria. " a business that can't manage a 30% drop in revenue over a 3-4 week period is really just hanging on.
Yes, and I also suspect it would go under had the government let Covid run rampant. There is no scenario where Covid won't create significant expense to business. 5 weeks lockdown a year is just 10% less revenue.
5 weeks lockdown a year is just 10% less revenue.
5 weeks lockdown wouldn't be 10% less revenue anyway, just 10% less trading time, because most purchases will simply be deferred. There are some sectors where 'time is money', particularly hospitality and other sectors like tourism, but even those sectors see a rebound of pent-up demand at the end of lockdown. That's been seen everywhere lockdowns have been used.
Some businesses are very seasonal, mine does 60% of its revenue in 3 months. Many others are very similar.
Oh you arent affected so you dont care. I am pointing out the opposite argument to locking down. Where losses are beginning to grow for many. Some will lose their lives. At this point probably a lot more from suicide than covid. Perhaps more from cancer than covid. And exactly where did the flu go? No one has flu. They have a pcr test which anoints it as all being covid. In the meantime other people lose money get sick and or die. But that isnt being counted.
I am here to put that point of view across. Cos we are not hearing it anywhere else.
It's not that I don't care, and no my business is not so tenuous as to collapse due to 30% sales loss over 3-4 weeks, but I just do not agree that people will kill themselves over it. Certainly the most aggressive cancers can progress in 3 weeks but then the survival outcome in those phases is more about time to go than time to resolution.
The hand-wringing, sky-falling behaviour is simply not justified.
Flu was largely extinguished by the lockdown last year so last winter was a very gentle flu season. Also, cancer treatments have not been interrupted, at least not where I work. It is however probably true that diagnoses will be delayed by other work being postponed and 'non-essential' procedures delayed.
As you say, lockdown does have side-effects, but a lot of them would occur with a large outbreak of Covid anyway. My parents in the UK didn't go to the shops regardless of the current regulations - they were worried about catching the disease.
People will count the fallout in the end and we'll find out which country played it best, for now we are working with partial data and trying to do our best.
I can assure you my farm business is fine. However I see the problems locking down engenders. I want it to be discussed. Why shouldnt we discuss it?
I've been asking for the discussion for years.
But you won't want it, believe me. It says that your kind of food production is unsustainable, but that without it more than half the planetary population is gone.
We should have had that conversation 40 years ago.
I'm with you Belle. We have entered a world we everyone thinks their view is correct and the other bugga is wrong. Rational discussion seems to have gone out the window with no attempt by either side to understand the other.
There are plenty of sides to the covid debate, but divert from the main stream narrative and prepared to be ridiculed or attacked. Covid, race, 1080, climate change you name it.
I don't think institutional and public bullying has ever been as bad as it is today.
The other side of that rastus is a wilfull obstinacy to believe conspiracy theories and ignore science and medicine, experts with a base that goes back hundreds of years, and has been proven time and again.
This has nothing to do with the mainstream, whatever that might be. A huge amount of narrative is driven from an individualist conspiracy driven approach. Look at both sides with clear eyes.
With all due respect that is the same side, not the other side. Rational debate destroys conspiracy and fake news. Smashing everyone who has a different view to others is counter productive.
Recent example was the taking down of you tube and twitter accounts of those who promoted discussion on the Wuhan lab theory over a natural wild bat theory virus. The lab theory since found to be plausible of course.
Can we put aside the fact that twitter and youtube are private owned companies and can do what they want? I don't know about that. You're clearly referring to the swathe of calling out and at times smearing if someone disagrees with you. I'm in agreement there that that has to stop, it's hypocritical and as you say counter productive.
And in the case you mention, that may be so. But equally there is wild conspiracy driven content aimed at disruption and disharmony, propagated without real scrutiny, misogyny, racist abuse, efforts to undermine science and medicine and just general crap running rampant out there. And that is NOT coming from any kind of progressive. That needs to be owned by those that sit within that spectrum, and unfortunately it's mostly on the historical right.
And with freedom of speech comes the need to take responsibility for your statements and actions.
Clearly a bot wrote that last comment
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/ there is another way
Anti-vaxer protest? Just send the police out with some vials and syringes, that'll disburse them. :-)
"Predictably we have the anti-vaxers out in force but I am happy to see they are in large part filtered by the MSM. In regards to the meowwing about business suffering - have a look here https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/financial-support-for-businesses/ or get someone to read it out to you."
Predictably we have the anti-vaxers out in force but I am happy to see they are in large part filtered by the MSM. In regards to the meowwing about business suffering - have a look here https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/financial-support-for-businesses/ or get someone to read it out to you.
Predictably we have the anti-vaxers out in force but I am happy to see they are in large part filtered by the MSM. In regards to the meowwing about business suffering - have a look here https://www.business.govt.nz/covid-19/financial-support-for-businesses/ or get someone to read it out to you.
arent these echo chambers great
I feel sorry for our PM! Team of 5 million let her down!
Is that why we've all been sent to our rooms, supermummy is "not angry, just disappointed" in us?
Grow up. Seriously. You might think you're clever, but it's pretty childish stuff in an extremely serious situation. Did you say the same about John Key? Or is it just women you don't like?
I've no doubt if key was in power every lefty would say "your taking our freedom away".
So much partisan bs ruled by this left right dichotomy it's farcical. People who are hit hardest have a right to be angry. The Liberal elite it's just a minor inconvenience.
Interesting to see Super Liquor is bombarding me with emails to buy liquor contactless , like Briscoes , Harvey Norman including ovens . Kmart, Noel Leemings -Essential services so they call it
They are forcing vulnerable workers who might not of been vaccinated at risk
GREED before people
Th only way to get this emails is to be subscribed to their database...been buying up have we?
5.12 million now ;)
Oh, she's excluding 120,000 of us!
I'm surprised they didn't extend the Auckland lockdown. While the rest of the country can have a faint hope of exiting to level 2 or 3 next week, there seems no chance Auckland will escape level 4 then. Would have been better to give the certainty to people.
it has already spread out of auckland , two separate cases in wellington, one drove so it might be spread through the north island, hope luck is our side and it has not . seems very contagious the wellingon guy caught at sky city casino
Buckle up, likely 4 weeks.
Yeah I've been a bit annoyed by their messaging around timeframes. They should always have said "initial 3 day lockdown" and made it very clear that it was likely to be longer.
IMO should have extended Auckland at level 4 through to Sunday 29th and signaled there would be at least 1 week of level 3 for the rest of the country, once it comes down from level 4, which may not be on Tuesday.
i am thinking , north island in level 4 for at least a 14 day cycle, and if no cases found in the south island by monday hopefully they can move down to level 3 for that period
oh well so far nothing in the South Island let hope for nothing Level 2 Tuesday
Rest of the country will go to level 3, just in case there is someone who has picked it up but not showing symptoms (perhaps they're vaccinated). Level 3 would keep any outbreak in such a case contained, and I expect they'd go back to level 4 immediately upon a positive case.
oh well so far nothing in the South Island lets hope for nothing Level 2 Tuesday
My wife and I are both self-employed, you know, contributing to the economy, employing staff etc. 2 young kids under 3. We cannot discharge our obligations to both our kids and our clients under these restrictions. There's no way to juggle the 2. Family first, always, but at the cost of our business relationships.
We're struggling. If this sh*t goes on much longer something has to give.
Good luck. Many have little appreciation for the struggles of small business owners.
I found it appalling some of the earlier comments suggesting if a business cant survive a lockdown it shouldnt be in business. It is the likes of JRSNZ who are really being hit hard. Young businesses are difficult to get going and it takes time to achieve financial sturdiness required to see through hard times. We need to be mindful that a generation of young businesses are under threat here.
Good luck JRSNZ.
Wondering if it's a good move to start turning the comment section off on these Covid updates.
No. These things need to be debated. If that means some weird views are aired, so be it.
Not sure there is much debate going on, seems to be a lot of grumbling about lockdown with no alternatives presented.
Realistically lockdowns have worked so well for NZ that there is no way the majority will want to change it anytime soon.
i guess we have been insulated from what happened overseas and have been able to enjoy a lot of freedoms others could wish for. i hope a short sharp 2 week lockdown leads us back to that, i hope we dont end up like NSW which has become a basket case
@northman46, yea why not NZ and OZ are owned by China already anyway.
Remember whatever comes next, you lot wanted this.
Signing off.
Has not looking at the comments section crossed your mind ?
Or is it the "great unwashed" ( meaning not yourself ) you are worrying about ?
interesting to see after 3 months of being on vaccine it starts to loose it effectiveness
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