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Wellington will move back to COVID-19 Alert Level 1 on Wednesday.
Ninety-three percent of the 2,609 contacts of the Sydney man with COVID-19, who visited Wellington between June 19 and 21, have returned negative results.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said the likelihood of people in Wellington harbouring the virus was low. He noted 950 people are self-isolating, and urged people to keep an eye on the list of locations the Sydney man visited.
There were no new cases of COVID-19 in the community on Wednesday, and COVID-19 hasn’t been detected in Wellington’s wastewater.
Cabinet also decided the pause on the travel bubble with Australia will be lifted at 11.59pm on Sunday, July 4.
Quarantine-free travel will be able to resume between New Zealand and some states - South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.
Cabinet will review the travel bubble again on July 6.
Some restrictions remain surrounding the bubble. Travellers need to receive a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departing for New Zealand.
Here a media release from Minister for COVID-19 Response Chris Hipkins:
- Wellington region to return to Level 1 at 11.59pm tonight
- Pause with South Australia, ACT, Tasmania and Victoria to be lifted at 11.59pm (NZT) Sunday 4 July
- Pre-departure test required for all passengers before boarding flights to NZ
As Wellington prepares to return to Alert Level 1 tonight, people in the region are urged to remain vigilant and should get tested if they are felling unwell or were at a location of interest, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today.
“Cabinet has today agreed to shift the Wellington region to Alert Level 1 from 11:59pm tonight.
“There have been no cases of COVID-19 detected in the community, nearly 2,500 negative results from contacts of the case (including repeat negative results from the case’s close contacts) and wastewater testing which continues to show no detection of the virus.
“However it is paramount that we stay vigilant. Testing centres will remain open in Wellington Central, Porirua, Kāpiti Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa.
“Anyone who was at a location of interest or has any symptoms of COVID-19 including a cold or flu, aches or pains must stay at home, call Healthline or a GP and get a test,” Chris Hipkins said.
“Wellington has been at Alert Level 2 out of an abundance of caution, given the large number of highly populated places the Australian traveller visited last Monday while potentially infectious with the Delta variant of COVID-19.
“The more tests we do and more results we receive, the more certain we can be there is no COVID-19 in Wellington.”
Quarantine Free Travel with Australia
The pause on Quarantine Free Travel from South Australia, ACT, Tasmania and Victoria will be lifted at 11.59pm (NZT) on Sunday 4 July, Chris Hipkins said.
Cabinet made the in-principle decision based on the most up to date information today, but this could change if the situation in Australia was to change, Chris Hipkins said.
“The health advice today is that at this point, the spread of COVID-19 in those parts of Australia appears to have been contained. There is robust surveillance, testing and contact tracing to detect and manage cases, and adequate border controls are in place to prevent the spread of new cases.
“Officials will continue to review the situation between now and Sunday.
“Evidence of a negative pre-departure test will be required before travellers are able to fly to New Zealand, and travellers must not have been in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia on or after 10:30pm (NZT) on 26 June 2021. They must also not have been in New South Wales on or after 11:59pm (NZT) on 22 June.
“The pause with Western Australia, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Queensland will remain in place so that outstanding test results can be returned and to give New Zealand time to assess next steps. This will be reviewed again on Tuesday 6 July.
“As we said on Saturday when we announced the pause, we needed a few days to get a better understanding of the developing situation and the growing number of COVID-19 cases being reported across Australia.
“A risk assessment has been completed for each state and territory. New South Wales is currently seen as the most risk, Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Territory are higher risk than we are comfortable with, and South Australia, ACT, Tasmania and Victoria are consistent with our green flights category.
“Cabinet carefully weighed up the evidence this morning and we consider a partial lifting of the pause is a proportionate action, when bolstered with the introduction of a mandatory pre-departure test and other health measures.
“Today’s decision gives airlines, passengers and Government officials time to prepare for flights back from those states we consider low risk when the pause lifts.
“We know how important the bubble is, in particular for families and businesses. But we also want to avoid a situation where we are having to respond to a case here in New Zealand.
“Our system from here, of only opening up to states as and when they are able to contain COVID-19, will help New Zealand to stay at Alert Level 1.
“Travellers must have a test no more than 72 hours before their scheduled departure time, which means they have to have a sample taken and result returned within the three day time period.”
Passengers should also:
- understand the current public health measures that are in place,
- wear face coverings on the aircraft and at the airport,
- make a health declaration,
- know they are subject to random temperature checks.
- know the importance of downloading the COVID tracer app, and
- self-isolate and be tested immediately if they have any symptoms of illness.
“The Government will keep the pre-departure test requirement under review.”
Further details of pre-departure requirements can be found on the COVID-19 website.
3 Comments
Delta variant infected by Underperformance-21 virus coming out of Beehive.
Having infected millions around the world, the dreaded Delta variant succumbed to the ineffectiveness strain of the current political virus rampaging in NZ. When asked how it felt to catch the virus Delta replied "It was terrifying. I really pride myself on contagiousness but I felt like I couldn't do anything."
Ok. Let's talk facts. I was reading the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research the other day. It introduced me to an interesting facet of immunization and one that has defeated many a coronavirus vaccine in the past. The issue is something known as Antibody Dependent Enhancement. It's when you've had prior exposure to a corona virus and have developed antibodies. The unfortunate anomaly discovered is that the next time you're infected you can experience a worse set of symptoms thanks to ADE. I quote:
"In an extended correspondence published in Nature Biotechnology, Eroshenko et. al. offer a
comprehensive review of evidence suggesting that ADE could become manifest with any
vaccinations employed against SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, they note that ADE has been observed
with coronavirus vaccines tested in both in vitro and in vivo models (Eroshenko et al., 2020). Others
have warned about the same possibility with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. A theory for how ADE might
occur in the case of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine suggests that non-neutralizing antibodies form immune
complexes with viral antigens to provoke excessive secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and, in
the extreme case, a cytokine storm causing widespread local tissue damage (Lee et al., 2020). One
extensive review of ADE potentially associated with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines noted, “At present, there
are no known clinical findings, immunological assays or biomarkers that can differentiate any severe
viral infection from immune-enhanced disease, whether by measuring antibodies, T cells or intrinsic
host responses” (Arvin et al. 2020; Liu et al., 2019)
So do you think these breakout cases among the vaccinated are because these variants are particularly contagious or are we experiencing the beginning of mass ADE as was predicted in vitro and vivo experiments?
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