The Government is seeking advice on making QR code scanning and mask wearing mandatory in high-risk environments.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said these “high-risk” areas could include bars and restaurants.
She noted mask wearing is already mandatory on public transport, and broadening requirements could apply to when the country is at Level 2 or higher.
Modest fines and possibly prosecution could apply if these restrictions come into force.
Ardern said the issue of how restrictions would be enforced is still being worked through.
She said she didn’t take the burden these rules could inflict on businesses, which may need to enforce the rules, lightly.
The Government plans to consider these issues over the next week.
Resurgence Support Payment kicks in
Separately, Ardern noted that because Wellington will have been at Level 2 for more than a week, businesses affected by the alert level change nationally, may be eligible for financial support.
To be eligible for the COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment, a business needs to have experienced at least a 30% drop in revenue or a 30% decline in capital-raising ability over a seven-day period, due to an increase in alert levels.
Businesses can receive $1,500 per business plus $400 per full-time employee, up to 50 employees.
The maximum payment is $21,500.
Sole traders can receive up to $1,900.
Businesses can apply via Inland Revenue from Thursday.
Ardern said there wouldn’t be additional financial support made available to Wellington businesses that can’t open because their staff are self-isolating due to being exposed to the Sydney man with COVID-19.
Nor would additional support be made available to businesses affected by the trans-Tasman bubble being paused.
Current situation
The Government will on Tuesday review alert levels and the pause on the travel bubble with Australia.
As it stands, Wellington is at Level 2 until 11:59pm on Tuesday. Quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia is also on hold until this time.
No one has tested positive in the community since it was revealed a Sydney man had COVID-19 while visiting Wellington. However New Zealand isn't in the clear yet, with some test results still pending, and there being a chance the first round of testing done on contacts may not have picked up the virus - yet at least.
The Ministry of Health said: "So far, 2,597 people have been identified as potential contacts of the Australian person who visited Wellington 19-21 June.
"Of those total contacts, 2,273 have returned a negative result. The remainder are either being followed up or are awaiting a test result and eight have been excluded from testing.
"There were 58 passengers on the Qantas flight QF163 which the Australian passenger travelled on to Wellington on Saturday 19 June. All have been advised to self-isolate. Of those 58 passengers, 45 have had a negative test result, and the results of the remainder are being actively followed up.
"New Zealand based flight crew from both the inbound and outbound flights have been tested with negative results."
Officials are keeping an eye on another situation too.
"A positive case of COVID-19 has been detected in the Newmont’s Granite gold mine 350km north-west of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory," the Ministry said.
"Health officials have been advised of two contacts who have travelled to New Zealand.
"Both are in isolation and being tested according to the type of contact they had with the case at the mine. One has returned a negative test result already, and the result for the other individual is expected tomorrow. They will both undertake around day-five testing."
84 Comments
How is this an "ad hoc on the fly announcement" when they said they're consulting on the details of how such a proposal might work and be enforced?
I would have thought an ad-hoc on the fly announcement is one that is made before the detailed planning and investigation had been undertaken.
Its ok, we have exceeded expectations and delivered more doses of vaccine than Uganda.
1,432,699 doses Angola
1,408,531 doses Laos
1,253,918 doses Lebanon
1,232,876 doses Ghana
1,220,151 doses Kenya
1,193,315 doses Zimbabwe
1,101,405 doses Latvia
1,068,413 doses Belarus
1,019,364 doses New Zealand
935,184 doses Uganda
Dredge up or stuff why don't you? Things have changed and getting of the queue at the beginning is different from us now with no community transfer and none for a good while now while the rest of the world burns. I don't mind that we wait a bit while those in more need get the vaccine first. You would have to damned selfish not to imho.
RCD. A pakeha mate, fossil age group, some pretty serious health conditions, has to travel across the ditch for family reasons. Couldn't get a jab in his large home city so hopped in his car and drove a round trip of 500KM to a small centre who shot him up with the vaccine, no questions asked. Like something out of a Cold War era iron curtain country where the special people could get health services but the proles had to queue and just wait while watching Pravda issued propaganda about how far ahead of target the govt was.
MortgageB. Try January 2020. NZ companies with contacts in the Wuhan area were well aware by late December a virus was on the rampage in Wuhan. Eg CEO of Fisher & Paykel HC, Louis Gradon, had swung into action by Jan and even the incompetent WHO had by late that month finally conceded the Chinese C19 hound had been released. MFAT and thus the government were in no doubt a serious fast spreading pandemic was happening at least two months before they finally acted. Contrary to Ardern's propaganda, we did the opposite of her 'went early' BS. We went at the last possible moment to avoid catastrophe and by dumb luck escaped.
I mean sure, if you want to rewrite history because you don't like the government, despite the fact that they've prevented COVID getting a foothold here.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120731509/coronavir…
An analysis of the global response to the pandemic shows that New Zealand moved quickly by any measure, particularly among Western democracies.
Internationally, there are few examples of countries enacting national lockdowns faster than New Zealand; and those that did have faced criticisms of human rights breaches and other heavy-handed actions to contain the virus.
Perhaps you'd have preferred National won the 2017 election, in which case Bill English would be PM and Steven Joyce would be the finance minister. Here's what Steven Joyce said about the government's elimination strategy on 16th April 2020:
"This whole idea that we would get rid of Covid-19 is fairly pie in the sky," he told the Leighton Smith Podcast.
"It is with the world, and it is with us and it will be how we manage it over the next 12 to 18 months."
This was during the level 4 lockdown.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/steven-joyce-tells-leighton-…
So it's quite clear that if National were in charge, we would have had a lot more than 25 deaths from COVID.
Once again it is another case of reaction to events or criticism rather than comprehensive forward planning. Remember all the things they altered or changed their minds on along the way, such as at the beginning of Covid last year when Europe and Asia were masking up our government saw no need for masks (Souixie Wiles made a big pitch against them). However, I thing the biggest oversight they can be embarrassed about was that initially they did not require a Covid clear test from those leaving MIQ, in fact they simply didn't test at all but regarded 14 days as time enough for Covid to present itself, never mind that in some people Covid is asymptomatic.
This has happened in one way or other in basically every civilisation throughout the history of the world. But please tell me how we're miraculously different, and why it won't happen in ours while we start to mandate corporate behaviour like this?
https://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/aztec-and-maya-law/aztec-criminal-law
https://www.wycoreport.com/ancient-roman-punishment-was-swift-cruel-and…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_mutilation_in_Byzantine_culture
https://www.history.co.uk/shows/britains-bloodiest-dynasty/execution-in…
https://www.mondaq.com/india/crime/882448/india-and-its-regressive-step…
You are being naive Gareth. Brutality is the natural order of things in this world, not love and understanding. The fact that you so easily dismiss this speaks volumes. The sort of thinking that stems from a fat lazy arrogant society, who has it too good, at the end of their dynasty. It might pay for you to have a deep think about this the next time you get up to honour the ANZACs in April (if you even bother to get up at all).
I'm going on about the extreme panick that's caused every time there's one case in the community. Our only plan is lockdowns that cause havoc for small business owners. The govt have had a ridiculously slow roll out for the vaccine. No adequate plan in place with the high likelihood covid will come back in. The proposals coming in now are extremely reactive.
How does mask wearing really work in a bar or restaurant ? Pretty much useless really hard to eat or drink with it on. Also staff handling multiple plates and glasses. We need to be careful what path we go down here because it can all end in compulsory vaccination.
New York city has gone from the pit of the world for infections to virtual resumption of normal activity and that includes the million or so international and domestic daily arrivals and departures. How so? Why vaccination of course, how else. This government knew full well that the solution to containing the pandemic and resuming international contact lay in widespread vaccination of the population. Why then did it take so long for the MoH to even begin thinking about locations and personnel. How come New York can vaccinate in suitably equipped gymnasiums, school and town halls but NZ cannot.New York city has proven that our government’s thinking was correct. How many people live in New York City. How many people live in NZ. Why has it been such a blasted challenge for this modest little nation that punches above its weight time after time?
Both, and we are pretty dumb to limit the availability of vaccines by not including alternatives such as Astra Zeneca, to speed up supply, this vaccine could be done by GPs
Also pretty silly to have a bubble with a country that has had outbreaks for a month, now all across Aus.
Pretty silly to think we will cope any better than Aus is with the Delta variant, so why take the expensive risk and lose all the gain we have suffered for..
Pretty silly to re-open the borders when the bug has already got to Wellington and possibly beyond(it'll take a month to find out), Proving the folly of opening borders while 90% of our country is still not immune..
Pretty silly to imagine we can continue to protect NZ with open borders and limited targeted lockdowns in the face of the Delta variant; as NSW is finding out.They are running out of luck and so are we.
An absolute lie that we don't need to worry about our slow rollout because "we haven't got an emergency"(Ardern's excuse for one of the worst rollouts in the OECD, even the WHO realized it was an emergency in Jan 2020), arrogantly overconfident in our ability to keep the bug out, or control the outbreaks with limited measures on the cheap as we have done with a fair bit of luck on our side, allowing our authorities to over-rate their abilities.
Can't believe (actually I can) that Cabinet is meeting to reconsider opening the borders tomorrow night!!
kiwichas. Ardern's media tribe is complicit in creating the myth of her superior covid response. It has led to public apathy about use of the tracing app and acceptance of a third world vaccine response and will deliver an overnight catastrophe if delta proliferates. I was checking in on my mother in law yesterday, in her 90's, still living independently. She hasn't had her jab, her doctor has no idea when she'll be able to. One whiff of covid and this family taonga would be gone. Yet 50% of people in south Auckland with priority eligibility fail to turn up for their jab appointments while on the street a wink/nuge from someone 'in the know' will get anyone well connected enough a shot. Time for the fourth estate to do their job and hold the blowtorch to this incompetence.
Media, media scrum or media Wall
The government has done its best to ensure continued media support for this ideological project by creating a $55 million slush fund, supposedly to support ‘public interest journalism’ but available only to news organisations that commit themselves to the promotion of the so-called principles (never satisfactorily defined) of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
What has been framed as an idealistic commitment to the survival of journalism is, in other words, a cynical and opportunistic bid for control over the news media at a time when the industry is floundering. This is a government so shameless, or perhaps so convinced of its own untouchability, that it is brazenly buying the media’s compliance.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/06/maorification-of-smiling-zombies/
Middlmam, If you bothered to look online instead of posting here you would see your mother is due early next month. I am sure her her independent life will carry on as is until then (Gold Card and Super included and doing your laundry). Your South Auckland remark doesn't pass the the sniff test either - nice little put down however?
Yes, hard fast and early was spin for almost too little too late, even the WHO realised it was bad on 29/1/20
As for not testing anyone coming in for all July 2020 and then pretending the outbreak in August was inexplicable was a masterpiece in public and self deception
And why are we still evaluating the Astra vaccine? Other world studies have shown it to be safer than the contraceptive pill. Today’s news is that it is especially effective used in conjunction with the Pfizer jab. It does seem at times that our Health Ministry isn’t particularly motivated. We have too few vaccination centres, too. And of course too few doses of vaccine. Vaccination centres in the UK were set up in community halls, schools, volunteers coopted, and they ran from 6am til midnight.
Will this be part of the enabling legislation that suspends the Bill of Rights? Every day another person in vulnerable groups gets vaccinated, the rest get on with things.
By the end of the year, Covid-19 won't be a major public health threat due to a decent vaccination profile. Yet we are ramping up the abuse of power.
Unite against covid hysteria! The restaurants in Germany are packed, I was at three of them yesterday. There are nonsence rules, even over here because you're supposed wear a mask when standing, but not while sitting down, talking, and eating. Everyone knows these rules are just BS virtue signaling. There's talk of of getting rid of masks alltogether. But NZ is going it's own way and planning ways of real time tracking everyone everywhere? what the heck? Get rid of this government!
Glad to hear things are improving in Germany. My parents in the UK are enjoying being allowed to see other people after a year spending 99% of their time in the house and allotment. You might be aware that in NZ, we've had crowded restaurants for the best part of a year now thanks to defeating the first wave entirely.
The new proposed changes are because we keep on getting leaks from Australia involving the new more infectious strains. I guess it's a choice between popping the bubble until vaccine rates are high, or taking appropriate precautions and keeping the bubble with our eyes open (and perhaps faces covered). The third option of taking a few hundred deaths on the chin are likely not publicly acceptable given our success so far.
I'd like to OIA the data the government are using to make their decisions based on. Elderly are largely vaccinated (or will be in the next couple of months), we now have 18 months of mortality data for the virus. Note that 80-90% of deaths in Melbourne's outbreak were in rest homes, that outcome is pretty much assured not to happen again.
My feeling is that the predicted fatality numbers for a full covid sweep through the NZ population, are embarrassingly low for the government. If they were remotely scary, we would be beaten continuously over the head with them.
Hospitalisation rate seems to be about double for delta. Hard to say much more than that on the evidence, but being bad enough to go to hospital is where the risk of death really ramps up.
The other aspect which has likely played a large part in India, is that the hospitals are quickly overwhelmed, both due to the fast spread and the higher hospitalisation rate, which increases the fatality rate a lot amongst people who would normally not die from it, if they could receive treatment, since there's no treatment available.
I agree with Brutus but unfortunately not many of the oldies (outside of rest homes) have been vaccinated yet. However once that is done, then this thing is pretty much like a normal flu and we need to get rid of these restrictions and media hype. The statistics don't lie - excess mortality is not significant outside of the aged and those with co-morbidities.
All NZ has achieved is an unstable equilibrium which requires ever more tremendous economic sacrifice to maintain. Your mentioned the third option being “publicly unacceptable”. No, I think rather it’s “politically unacceptable” to indirectly admit that the country wasted tens of billions of dollars chasing windmills. If you were honest with the public and told them that yes some people will die from covid but we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that everyone who wants a vaccine gets one, and we have other measures in place to prevent covid death and complication then the public would accept that.
Have you been following our economic stats? We're trekking along pretty nicely compared to much of the world. Unemployment is low, GDP is higher than before, the deficit is quite reasonable (about -6% in 2020 vs -14% for the UK, -15.2% the US, -12% Australia and Germany around -9%).
Where is the sign that we're taken an unreasonable economic hit from our response when compared to the rest of the world? I don't see it...
Yes, I included our deficit of 6% in my post, we are quite low compared to other countries. Brazil, which essentially didn't take any coordinated action against the disease, ran up a 10% deficit in 2020. Most of the world ran up large deficits last year.
Is there any data to support your preconceptions?
Data to support the explosion of NZ government debt? Yes it's here https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/government-debt
But it might be more accurate to look at total government bonds https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/d30 Just graph the A and B columns on HD30.xlsx. Total bonds went from ~80 billion to over 150 billion in 1 year. The bigger problem is that future growth has likely been compromised, and a permanent reduction in growth is what defines a depression. If extra debt has been added then it makes the problem worse.
It is in inappropriate to look at the debt raised in isolation, much of it has not been spent. I'm not saying this is sensible policy by the treasury, but the deficit as I was discussing is much more relevant.
Of the 80 billion debt raised, 40 billion hasn't been spent and sits in government accounts.
https://www.interest.co.nz/bonds/110220/treasury-expected-issue-less-de…
Our debt to GDP ratio will still be the envy of the developed world.
If GDP or AD=C+I+G+(X−M) then a 6% increase in GDP just says that government spending outpaced the decline in (exports-imports) and business investment by 6% y/y assuming constant consumer spending. From trading economics you can see G went from 55.7->83.3 billion, a substantial 27.6 billion or 49.5% increase (you say 40 billion). We know Business Investment growth collapsed by looking at the RBNZ C5 borrowing stats. How can the government maintain GDP and return to pre-covid levels of spending if the I and X parts of the aggregate demand equation stay at low levels? It a valid question because the plan appears to be to keep the country’s tourism industry closed this summer? That’s why I don’t quite believe the argument about the bonds that “We’ve withdrawn the money but we haven’t spent it” because on the current trajectory the spending is baked into the cake. I’m not against government spending if it’s high quality. So is the government spending being used wisely to generate future wealth or any productive tangible assets?
Indeed. The UK has world leading bio-tech and advanced manufacturing industries and will be speeding on past this ugly episode of the Wuhan coronavirus.
Meanwhile the increasingly out of touch New Zealand will be left behind hiding in its turtle shell for quite some time to come.
How many phones able to "download the app" and use it exist in New Zealand? That's the first data needed to answer two big questions:
What is the scanning rate?
Could compulsory scanning raise the scanning rate significantly?
If the present scanning rate is 40%, maybe yes. If the present scanning rate is 80%, the legislation and enforcement would not be cost-effective.
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