Coronavirus - New Zealand
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@KiwiMurph said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@Donsteppa What Hipkins said earlier today was that this time they know the link of the 2 new community cases - they know where they have come from.
Whereas the initial cases on the weekend they couldn't connect them to anything.
So if I read it right:
- They know that the new cases are connected to the initial family, but
- They still don't know where the initial family got their infection from, but
- They've decided from wastewater testing, and self isolation/negative testing so far of their close contacts that there is no (or significantly reduced) wider risk.
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@Donsteppa sounds right, in addition all the course contacts have been in self isolation since Monday. The waste water testing was big in the recent Oz lock down, a dozen or so cases but significant shed virus in the waste water.
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From the 1.00pm media release:
Auckland February cases Both of today’s community cases are linked to the previous Auckland February cases. Both cases are students at Papatoetoe High School. Case D is a classmate, and had already been identified as a close contact, of Case A. Case E is Case D’s sibling. Case interviews are continuing and we will have further information, including any locations of interest, at a media conference at 4.30pm.
Contact tracing Contact tracing has identified 128 close contacts associated with Cases A, B and C. Of these, 76 have tested negative; there is one positive (Case D) and 49 results are pending. Case investigation and contact tracing for Cases D and E is currently underway. As at 1130 this morning, a total of 31 close contacts and 1523 casual plus contacts have been identified at Papatoetoe High School. Of those, 29 close contacts have returned negative results, one positive result (Case D), and one is outstanding. Of the casual plus contacts, 1159 have returned negative results, there is one positive (Case E), and 363 are outstanding. It’s important to note that Case E is a close contact of Case D, but for the purpose of test reporting is classified as casual plus.
Info from the 4.30pm media conference:
Auckland will drop to Level 2 at midnight tonight - with one exception Auckland and wider New Zealand will drop one level each - to Levels 2 and 1 respectively - from midnight tonight, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced. There is one exception to the alert levels: Papatoetoe High School. Students and their families are being asked to stay home, and return a negative Covid-19 test before returning to school on Monday. "As ever, if you are sick, please stay home," Ardern said. "This continues to be one of our most important restrictions." She said Cabinet would review the alert levels again on Monday. "There is every chance we will find further cases. While our expectation is that these will be linked to our current cases, we still need Aucklanders to follow the Level 2 rules, especially over the weekend, so we can get the extra assurance we need to get back to Level 1 as soon as possible next week." Mask use on public transport would continue to be mandatory across New Zealand as a matter of course, Ardern said.
Two more cases of Covid-19 in the community were reported today, both of them students at Papatoetoe High School. School principal Vaughan Couillault confirmed they were siblings, and one was a classmate of the existing case. Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield has said a further member of those students' household has also tested positive since then. Cases D and E - the siblings reported earlier today - were not infectious when they were at school, Bloomfield said. He also confirmed that one of the people who tested positive today works at a McDonald's restaurant in South Auckland. He said they were not symptomatic. Health officials were working to uncover when the person had been at work, he said. Bloomfield said there were a "handful" of places of interest the new cases, reported today, had visited. Details of those places are expected later today and would be published on the Ministry of Health's website. A message from Papatoetoe High School indicated that after today's positive cases some people may need to be retested. Bloomfield clarified that the retesting would apply to classmates of the original case and teachers of those classes. He said testing of the household contacts would take place and exposure events would be looked at. People linked to any exposure event would also be asked to isolate. He said family members for the two siblings were also isolating.
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@Stargazer said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
As at 1130 this morning, a total of 31 close contacts and 1523 casual plus contacts have been identified at Papatoetoe High School.
Of the casual plus contacts, 1159 have returned negative results, there is one positive (Case E), and 363 are outstanding. It’s important to note that Case E is a close contact of Case D, but for the purpose of test reporting is classified as casual plus.Fuck me that's outstanding work to get that many tests done on the casual plus contacts.
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@SynicBast yeah I think for the little gaps that are allowing these minor (hopefully) breaches, NZ & Aus must be gathering some awesome data for the worldwide fight, as I dont expect the US/UK/Euro/S-American health officials will be able to drill down so tightly due to the sheer numbers of cases.
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@SynicBast said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@Stargazer said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
As at 1130 this morning, a total of 31 close contacts and 1523 casual plus contacts have been identified at Papatoetoe High School.
Of the casual plus contacts, 1159 have returned negative results, there is one positive (Case E), and 363 are outstanding. It’s important to note that Case E is a close contact of Case D, but for the purpose of test reporting is classified as casual plus.Fuck me that's outstanding work to get that many tests done on the casual plus contacts.
The school community appear to have been very active in seeking tests. Well done to them
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@canefan A couple of sound-bites with their Principal, he seems quite switched on.
TV3's The Project did an interview tonight with the Papaptoetoe Head Boy - he was an extremely impressive speaker. I've seen plenty of politicians not as good.
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@Chris-B said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@canefan A couple of sound-bites with their Principal, he seems quite switched on.
TV3's The Project did an interview tonight with the Papaptoetoe Head Boy - he was an extremely impressive speaker. I've seen plenty of politicians not as good.
That's not hard, given how many of them seem to be former PolSci students. Life and soul of student flats and parties they were not. At least all the law students understood the need for marching powder.
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"I'm certainly not going to say there won't be more cases out of this cluster but as long as they are connected to the cluster and our contact tracing system is identifying them, then we can manage that without the need for alert level escalation," Hipkins said.
University of Auckland professor Des Gorman said he felt unease with the decision to lower the alert levels.
"I think the reason I share that unease is because the level of risk we seem to be tolerating is going up and down almost imperturbably," he told Checkpoint.
"For example, the Ministry of Health found out about these cases on Saturday night but didn't think it was necessary to tell the prime minister for 12 hours. So things which should have been cancelled if we needed to be in alert level 3... weren't.
"I can't see a consistency in our risk appetite, it seems to go up and down depending upon the optics of the situation."s:
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If I heard correctly on TV3, this family did not use the covid tracer app on their travels so all places they visited needed to be logged by memory or EFTPOS receipts. All those piston wristed gibbons out there who don't use the app themselves can't be pointing the finger. But a big reminder that the app should be used for exactly this reason.
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@nzzp said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@taniwharugby I'm delighted to be wrong.
CEO of the art deco festival will be un-delighted he/she was wrong.
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@Rapido said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@nzzp said in Coronavirus - New Zealand:
@taniwharugby I'm delighted to be wrong.
CEO of the art deco festival will be un-delighted he/she was wrong.
I don't know why she didn't wait another 12 or so hours
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@canefan I'm a member of the Society and should have been half way to Napier now. They made it quite clear in their email to everyone who had purchased tickets why they had to can it.
They had almost 100 events scheduled for today. These involved the erection of marquees, preparation of thousands of meals, performers coming in from out of tow. They needed a 48 hour window to get everything ready. Not at 4:30 yay it's a go-er fire up the barbie.
Really disappointing for all involved, especially the organisers who had put 12 months planning into all this. Timing just sucks.
Good on the Art Deco Society who have arranged full refunds of all tickets (including booking fees) with the option to gift some to the event promotes if you wish. Fuck of Air BNB who have come to the party with 50% refund less the first day less cleaning less booking.
Unfortunately I wouldn't be going anyway, as my partners mother died on Tuesday. Just so thankful the attendance level at a funeral has been raised from 10. Husband right through to great great grandkids. Bloody nightmare.
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no further cases notified overnight...
Was interesting listening to Shaun Hendy this morning, was one calling for longer at L4, and usually seemed all for longer periods at higher levels, however seemed reasonably ok with the changes yesterday.
Further form the Papatoetoe Principal:
From Joel Maxwell
Principal of Papatoetoe High School Vaughn Couillault told The Breakfast Show that while the rest of the city drops to level 2, school staff, students and families have to retain their level 3 status till at least the end of the upcoming weekend.
The school will re-open on Monday and staff will be checking returning students at the school gate "like it's a rock concert" to ensure they have fulfilled their Covid-19 testing requirements, and returned a negative test.
"Everyone coming in that gate and tested negative is a bit of a rock star in my eyes."
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so one new community case today, linked to existing cluster
The newest community case had originally returned a negative test result, and had been isolating at home. They were now being transferred to the Jet Park Hotel isolation facility.
One more member of the same household had tested negative but was also being moved to Jet Park.
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I’d be interested in the presumed origins of the cases in ISO
Considering that travellers are being pre tested before boarding from some countries, or are coming from relatively Covid free places like Oz, where are they getting infected? on the flights? Transmitting through other places?
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People like this make me so mad! You know, before getting here, that you have to go into managed isolation and get tested several times. If she wanted more info about the tests, why didn't she ask for the info before leaving Australia? Couldn't they send those kids with another caregiver? And now she wants to take the government to court.