Monday update:
The Ministry of Health is reporting 33 new Covid cases in the community - all in Auckland.
That follows 20 cases on Sunday and 23 on Saturday and brings the total in this outbreak to 955.
The latest numbers were released ahead of the Cabinet decision on Alert levels being announced at 4pm on Monday - and would appear to make it a certainty that Auckland will remain in Level 4.
Last year's nationwide Level 4 lockdown lasted for 33 days. Another week for Auckland would see this lockdown extend to 35 days for the country's largest city.
Of the current community cases, 21 cases are in hospital, with four in ICU.
Of the latest 33 cases, 32 of them have been epidemiologically-linked.
Included in the latest cases are seven members of the household of the person who tested positive at Middlemore Hospital on Saturday.
Of the 20 cases reported on Sunday seven were infectious in the community.
This is the Ministry's Covid update release:
Cases |
|
| Number of new community cases | 33 |
| Number of new cases identified at the border | Three |
| Location of new cases | Auckland |
| Location of community cases (total) | Auckland 938 (3601 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (12 of whom have recovered) |
| Number of community cases (total) | 955 (in current community outbreak) |
| Cases infectious in the community | Seven (35%) of yesterday’s 20 cases have exposure events |
| Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infected | 13 (65%) of yesterday’s 20 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked | 32 of today’s cases |
| Cases to be epidemiologically linked | One of today’s cases * |
| Cases epidemiologically linked (total) | 928 (in current cluster) |
| Number of sub-clusters | Eight epidemiologically linked subclusters. The two largest subclusters are the Mangere church group: 381; and Birkdale social network cluster: 76. There are nine epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. |
| Cases in hospital | 21 (total): North Shore (4); Auckland (7); Middlemore (10) |
| Cases in ICU or HDU | Four |
| Confirmed cases (total) | 3,593 since pandemic began |
| Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) | 137 out of 1,775 since 1 Jan 2021 ** |
| Contacts | |
| Number of contacts identified (total) | 38,681 |
| Percentage who have received outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) | 87% |
| Percentage with at least one test result | 92% |
| Locations of interest | |
| Locations of interest (total) | 126 (as at 10am 13 September) |
| Tests | |
| Number of tests (total) | 3,148,945 |
| Number of tests total (last 24 hours) | 8,657 |
| Tests rolling average (last 7 days) | 12,443 |
| Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) | 4,250 |
| Testing centres in Auckland | 22 |
| Wastewater | |
| Wastewater detections | No unexpected detections in past 24 hours |
| COVID-19 vaccine update | |
| Vaccines administered to date (total) | 4,325,490; 1st doses: 2,862,765; 2nd doses: 1,462,725 |
| Vaccines administered yesterday (total) | 33,866; 1st doses: 20,490; 2nd doses: 13,376 |
| Mâori | 1st doses: 265,875; 2nd doses: 128,017 |
| Pacific Peoples | 1st doses: 172,628; 2nd doses: 88,493 |
| NZ COVID-19 tracer | |
| Registered users (total) | 3,209,541 |
| Poster scans (total) | 354,094,377 |
| Manual diary entries (total) | 16,130,697 |
| Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday | 2,200,284 |
New cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 4 September | Serbia and Montenegro | United Arab Emirates | Day 7 / routine | Auckland |
| 7 September | India | United Arab Emirates | Day 0 / routine | Christchurch |
Historical cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 7 September | Sweden | Denmark and United Arab Emirates | Day 0 / routine | Christchurch |
* 32 of the 33 cases reported today are epidemiologically linked. The one case yet to be linked is a person who presented to Middlemore Hospital on Saturday. There are seven others in their household. All seven are included in today’s 33.
** Four previously reported historical cases now have an ‘active’ health status – they have now been removed from our tally, which is why the number has reduced.
Testing reminder
Testing nationwide remains an essential part of our response to this outbreak, in particular providing confidence for understanding the extent of any spread of COVID-19.
We are continuing to remind people across Auckland to get tested, especially if you live in and around Massey, Favona, Henderson, Ôtara, Papatoetoe, Mângere and Manurewa.
78 Comments
they cant -- To do so at this stage would effectively negate most the gains and benefits of the strategy to date -- as way too many people will die, become seriously unwell and swamp the health system -- the only way we really gain is to stay the course and get everyone who wants it a vaccine -- otherwise we may as well have just had open borders and the deaths and pain like everyone else did -- Just stay the course NZ -- and get vaccinated and get all your friends whanau neighbours and work colleagues to do the same !
Horns of a dilemma. Auckland’s situation necessitating level 4 is remaining constant. If the solution is vaccination and even if just the one shot is considered sufficient, taking into account the 14 days for effectiveness and the present level and speed of vaccination, then level 4 if needed now, it is then going to be needed for another 8 weeks at least by my calculations. That is nigh on mid November, and optimistically speaking at that. Don’t know if the good people of Auckland can accommodate that myself, mainly because they won’t want to.
nope NSW has 222 people in ICU beds today -- and has a significantly higher vaccination rate - about 10% currently -- Even with 7 or 8 in ICU we were shipping patients around the country and stripping overstretched DHB/s of staff to come support Auckland - with 50 in ICU we are really up the creek - no extra ICU capacity adn no extra ICU nurses trained in our 18 months of covid free preparation -- no half a job is no job in this case -- we need to go the whole way and get much higher rates
Surge capacity? Capacity quantified exactly as what? Perhaps some alleviation of pressure, but certainly not if NZ lapses into the conditions ongoing in say the state of Victoria. To keep it nautical, don’t expect that that extra capacity will suffice anymore than a sand castle before a storm surf on a king tide.
The vaccination rate in NSW is ok now, but it wasn't 8 weeks ago when this current outbreak took hold there, it's not a totally analogous situation.
We are probably not far away from a tapering in vaccination rate, you can see now the narrative is moving from elimination to vaccination.
The border to the South Island is way too insecure to assume Delta won't spread there before too long. If S.I. really wants to go to L1 then everyone entering the S.I. should have a short stay in MIQ until they've been tested and cleared. Even that isn't perfect, but it would be light years ahead of what's being done now.
Getting tested and being positive is like an economic death sentence for the community at risk. Why not say that everyone who tests positive tomorrow gets $10,000. Then you get a real handle on it. I bet that now those who suspect they might be positive are hiding out. Trying as best they can not to infect others in their bubble and hoping they don't actually get sick.
That’s the rogue element isn’t it. Let’s say the criminal fraternity by way of an euphemism. Say covid gets right in amongst that brethren, those types for many many reasons both diverse and nefarious, ain’t going to be coming forward are they. Scrutiny shy for very obvious reasons.
Probably Foxy. The rogue elements are the achilles heel of every society. And not every one of them is a known criminal, but many will be entitled and selfish who think the rules only really apply to others. There's plenty of those about, some with holiday homes in Wanaka!
AJ123
No
Level 4 until Auckland anniversary weekend end of January. Then we go to level 3 which can be shifted to level 2 by Easter all things going well.
Remember 95 percent of us can work from home on our lap tops while the essential workers can deliver our weekly farro order.
Simple really
Me too,
The Min Health Website has a field “Active Cases /under Investigation” and that was zero at 9am this morning.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-no…
Sounds reassuring to me.
Oddly if you read further down, under source of active cases, it says cases caught locally with source unknown 1 and cases under investigation 158. Seems a bit double dutch.
Have they just given up contact tracing?
*Edit* rereading, it seems like yesterday's unlinked case has been linked and of the 158 cases under investigation 1 has been confirmed as unrelated to known chains of transmission. Reading between the lines I'd concluded that at this point they have exhausted contact tracing on this one case in order to classify it as such.
That's really unfortunate. Perhaps it's time to direct more vaccine and vaccinator resources at Auckland until this is solved? I'm concerned that compliance will fall as lockdown wears on, particularly if there isn't apparent progress.
We can't really abandon elimination just yet because our stroll-out was off to such a slow start.
The usually ultra-orthodox-PC "NZ Herald" has surprisingly come out today with a cartoon by Emmerson showing side-by-side portraits of a fat Judith Collins and her fat Samoan husband effectively holding them to account for Collin's hypocritical "fat-shaming" comments.
So, this opens up the way to ask the question as to why her Samoan husband hasn't from the beginning taken a leadership role in persuading his fellow Samoans to take Covid seriously and get vaccinated. Both Collins and her husband have been conspicuously quiet on the Samoan question. Her husband has made political commentary in the past on social media so his silence now on all things Covid is reprehensible and cannot be simply put down to his wanting to remain politically 'neutral'.
This huge missed opportunity in the fight against Covid surely disqualifies Collins from ever holding political office again.
This huge missed opportunity in the fight against Covid surely disqualifies Collins from ever holding political office again.
Agreed with your comment until this line. Her husband is not an elected official. So long as he's not actively harming the vaccination cause, that really doesn't reflect on her as leader of opposition at all.
I mean really, Collins has already disqualified herself from holding political office again from being such an odious person. Don't need to drag her husband into it.
Amongst all the dust & feathers of this pandemic the abysmal failings in both integrity and morals of National leading up to the last election have been somewhat obscured by clouds. Collins though appears quite willing to blow the clouds away by reaching back and replaying the same sort of antics. For a highly qualified and successful lawyer she reveals a lack of tact and temperament, and even more oddly for such a professional, any ability to articulate her argument coherently, at least in arena of the media, without becoming hot and hostile . In my opinion she ain’t taking National anywhere but down. NZ finally got sick of Muldoon. No thanks, not another one.
You're slipping into casual racism here. I mean, let's get the brown person to talk to the other brown people and hope that he can educate them about what's good for them.
And perhaps some casual sexism too. If Collins' husband does or does not do something then somehow she's not right for the job (I'm not saying she is, by the way, just pointing out that she should be judged on her own merits).
This issue is complex. I know of Samoan nurses in primary care who are struggling to encourage their own to get vaccinated. If people don't trust their close family, why would Collins' husband make any progress? Collins' husband, socially and economically, does not connect with the vaccine hesitant. He's not one of them. In order to connect with that sub-demographic, you need people who can influence them.
Essen
'Playing the racist card' in this case just stifles honest and open debate on a subject which, in case you haven't noticed, is the biggest national disaster NZ has suffered since the Second World War. Due to our geographical isolation, NZ of all nations should have been able, with the exercise of a little common sense, aim for a successful elimination strategy. The demographic I'm obviously referring to will not suffer any judicial consequences because ignorance and misinformation are at the bottom of their unfortunate reaction to Covid. I was particularly disturbed to see on TV one of the lady leaders of the Samoan Church of the Assembly of God admitting, in her words, "that she just thought Covid was fake".
But having just heard about the deliberate flouting of the regional boundary restrictions by an Auckland couple who travelled to a holiday home in Wanaka, I now extend my reproof to include that self-entitled, extremely wealthy, overly-privileged sub-demographic of NZ's Pakeha community. He is the son of a prominent Auckland lawyer. This couple will almost certainly be hauled before the courts but will avoid any real punishment, the fines being no more than pocket-money to their socio-economic group. These lawbreakers deserve, in my book, a term of imprisonment; they most certainly should have known better.
I hope that I have demonstrated my even-handedness in this matter.
Rising case numbers were inevitable and very foreseeable, given Delta, some eye-rolling DHB actions, the relaxation of AL4 rules, certainly a much more relaxed public and significantly higher intra-region traffic volumes than experienced previously.
I consider it self-evident that Auckland needs to remain at AL4. A highly-porous border and unidentified Covid-infection sources guarantee that cases will sooner or later propagate elsewhere, if they have not already, meaning relaxing AL's elsewhere entails extreme risk.
Clearly, AL differentials are not at all helpful, as when our biggest center is locked down, other regions are seriously affected.
So unless we all take this far more seriously, lock TF down and all concentrate on elimination, Auckland will drag on in AL4 until such a time when we say no more, or facing economic reality, industry and voter pressure forces a re-opening under a partially-vaxed scenario, with all that that will entail.
At countdown there is absolutely no social distancing. People are shoulder to shoulder and shopping in pairs which is not allowed. Yet they patrol the line outside with Authority. I'm personally against lockdown, however I obey the rules and if its like this we have to take it seriously, but nobody seems to.
Social distancing for delta is a bit of pandemic theatre really. There was always an element of theatre to it with the earlier strains, but delta really drove the nail into it.
Still, there is some marginal benefit from theatre (reduces anxiety in some, may help overall compliance, etc).
Better to only have 1 person from each household shopping though.
I'd disagree that it was theatre, if you're suggesting it had no practical value.
Cursory analysis of mantras like 'take the stairs' and 'no avocado smash' are plain silly, where as subconscious adoption of the wider approach tends to mean one finds oneself automatically making all the right decisions.
Same as distancing, and thanks to physics a small increase in separation makes a massive reduction in risk of infection. That and a bit of mask wearing, the risk profile is radically altered.
The question is what will the outcome be?
- Typical wet bus ticket? (i.e. borders are open people)
- $300 fine? (i.e. borders are open for those that can afford it)
- Home detention? (i.e. ironic given they are in trouble for ignoring a lockdown)
- Actual imprisonment? (i.e. real consequences)
My pick, name suppression until the case is heard. Case will be delayed until a politically acceptable point after lockdown so that the likely punishment doesn't encourage others. End result will be no conviction (as it might impact future careers) and an insignificant fine.
"These unlinked cases are concerning for health officials as they could indicate there are undetected chains of transmission in the community - meaning the outbreak has yet to be fully contained."
"could indicate" - they do indicate. Health officials too timid (not allowed?) to call a spade a spade.
Akl lockdown level 4, maybe 3 at a push until end Septemeber21 minimum
All the govt is doing is to try and buy time until more people are vaccinated. They have painted themselves into a corner on the elimination strategy
Time to reopen.
It will be very hard to stop in South Auckland. My wife has been doing covid tracing, highest number she has hit in a single home is 10 people.
30 = 3 to 4 households. Need some perspective on this. Also many years of underinvestment in health and growing inequality in these areas are all coming home to roost in a most inconvenient way. Not to mention the messaging simply does not penetrate these communities.
Someone needs to ask Aunty the hard questions.
Someone also needs to ask her the damage for the thousands and thousands of delayed surgery's because they didn't build purpose built facilities when they were told too,18 months ago. How many have had their chance to beat cancer or something else evaporated. We need to remember this got out of MIQ, the government run isolation facility. She gets up there pretending that she will save the country when it is their mess that put us back into their Alert level system. May of the team of 5 million are burning...day by day.
This is all pretty predictable and most people could write the script. Labour is playing for time and fear is driving testing and vaccination rates. Level 4 lockdown until 1st October and they hope that enough people will be vaccinated in the next 2 weeks to then give us all the pep talk about how well the team of 5 million has done and how they now deserve level 3 with caution. Lockdown fatigue is setting in, this cannot go on effectively now for more than a couple more weeks. Yes as soon as 70% is reached its reopen, no other choice. Not sure if it will be possible to lockdown again after we reopen or else people will wonder why we bothered to lock down in the first place.
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.