Coronavirus - New Zealand
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Interesting article about science in general, and genome sequencing in particular, in NZ and what the scientific world can learn from it.
This is just one example of how science is helpful and how it's used:
‘Smoking gun’ At the end of January, in the quieter midsummer period that follows Christmas and the New Year, there was the mysterious case of the rubbish bin lid. A new set of Covid cases had been announced at The Pullman, a hotel-turned-isolation facility run by the New Zealand government to house citizens returning from overseas. Those cases had sparked a flurry of tracing efforts, and anxiety over whether they’d require a new lockdown. But as he watched the Pullman, Dr Joshua Freeman, the acting infection prevention and control director for Canterbury District Health Board, was reminded of another case from November 2020. That scenario had dealt with two residents in the country’s managed isolation and quarantine [MIQ] facilities – David and Jane*. David had caught Covid-19 on a plane en-route to New Zealand – then, at some point during his stay, transmitted it to Jane, who happened to be staying in the neighbouring room. Genomic sequencing and analysis by Geoghegan’s team had revealed who gave the virus to whom: David had sat close to two infected people on the plane, and his viral genome was similar enough to conclude it was a direct descendant of theirs. Jane’s, in turn, resembled David’s, but was another step removed from the plane. Even with that knowledge, however, the precise point of transmission between David and Jane had remained mysterious: during their stay at the isolation hotel, the pair had never been outside their rooms or in a common area at the same time. At that stage, many experts believed Covid19 was primarily spread through larger droplets. “Like ballistic missiles,” Freeman says – fired out when people cough, sneeze, sing or talk, and falling to the ground within a metre or two. So public health workers looked for a surface that David and Jane might have shared. Imagine those missiles again: landing, undetonated, on a doorknob or handrail. Finally, the team found a single surface – a shared rubbish bin lid – that both had touched. But by January, the rubbish bin explanation wasn’t satisfying to Freeman. For one thing, the two had touched the lid 20 hours apart – an unusually long time for the virus to survive on a surface. More recent research showed surface transmission, especially over that timeframe, was extremely unlikely – maybe even approaching implausible. With almost no other “smoking gun” cases of surface transmission around the world, this case mattered. Freeman began combing back through the CCTV records and notes kept by public health teams, looking for other possibilities. “I was just sort of scouring it, going, how on earth did this happen?” he said. “I don’t think it’s a rubbish bin lid, but how else could it have happened?” Finally, he found it: “Swabbing. There’s just an entry in the morning saying ‘swabbing’.” On the 12th day of their two weeks in isolation, both David and Jane had been visited at their rooms by nurses, to test them for Covid. Freeman returned to the CCTV footage, and there it was on the videotape. The nurses had first knocked on the door of David: he opened his door, talked for a few moments, and lowered his mask for a swab. Less than a minute later, the nurses moved on to Jane. As Dave’s door swung closed, Freeman says, would have acted like a fan, pushing contaminated air out into the hallway. Testing the air pressure in the two hotel rooms found that pressure in the rooms was positive, meaning air would flow out into the corridor. Once there, it could remain in the stagnant hallway air, until Jane opened her door, also greeted the nurses, then lowered her mask.
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@taniwharugby what a year!
What time is the announcement?
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Some interesting reflections in this article on the possible tourism industry impacts for NZ destinations of the Trans Ta$man bubble: https://www.benjepatterson.co.nz/winter-will-still-be-tough-for-some-destinations/
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@godder said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@donsteppa Tourism NZ was basically demanding the bubble with claims of large financial impact, but their analysis was silent on the impact of NZers going to Australia.
Yep, the Trans Ta$man bubble is a great thing to do on many levels, family reunification being one especially. However, I don’t see it being the panacea for the tourism sector that it is often proclaimed as. The bubble probably will “save Queenstown” - while setting back the sector in other places. The joys of the Covid times...
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Capacity is going to be a big unknown in places like Queenstown and Wanaka that traditionally rely on itinerant labour.
Skifields struggled last year to keep up staff wise and the lucrative parts of the operation (Ski School) can't operate at anywhere near the levels they should. -
@crucial said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Capacity is going to be a big unknown in places like Queenstown and Wanaka that traditionally rely on itinerant labour.
Skifields struggled last year to keep up staff wise and the lucrative parts of the operation (Ski School) can't operate at anywhere near the levels they should.Hopefully that can be addressed in the circa 40% of MIQ spaces that the Trans Ta$man bubble will free up.
I suppose the big news is now in about ten minutes time...
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@donsteppa said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@crucial said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
Capacity is going to be a big unknown in places like Queenstown and Wanaka that traditionally rely on itinerant labour.
Skifields struggled last year to keep up staff wise and the lucrative parts of the operation (Ski School) can't operate at anywhere near the levels they should.Hopefully that can be addressed in the circa 40% of MIQ spaces that the Trans Ta$man bubble will free up.
I suppose the big news is now in about ten minutes time...
April 19
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@godder said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
I was in Queenstown for Easter and it was packed. We tried to stop for lunch in Arrowtown for lunch yesterday before our drive home but couldn't find a park in town (they have carparks, they were just full).
Yeah I was there for a few days end or March. It was busy. Nice busy, not the overcrowded crap that had made me stay away.
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@voodoo said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@nta said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
June long weekend in Aotearoa ...
you owe it to your marriage mate...
Nah fuck it. Flights will cost a bomb and a bunch of shit might happen in the meantime.
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@nta said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@voodoo said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@nta said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
June long weekend in Aotearoa ...
you owe it to your marriage mate...
Nah fuck it. Flights will cost a bomb and a bunch of shit might happen in the meantime.
you'd be surprised at the flight costs, pretty reasonable actually - they dropped > 40% today to pretty much what they used to be