Only nine of the 98 port workers tested for COVID-19, after potentially being exposed to 11 positive cases aboard a container ship off the coast of Tauranga, are fully vaccinated.
A further two have had their first dose.
Minister Responsible for COVID-19 Chris Hipkins provided these figures to media at a post-Cabinet press conference on Monday afternoon.
He said 23 of the port workers had returned negative test results. All 98 are self-isolating.
The workers had contact with the ship, Rio De La Plata, as they unloaded cargo at the Port of Tauranga between August 4 and 7.
This work was temporarily paused on August 4 over concerns someone who captained the ship in July tested positive to the Delta variant nine days after getting off the ship. Nonetheless, unloading continued the following day.
Hipkins noted the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 had been particularly prevalent in this community of port workers.
A whopping 60% of the 530 port workers in the Bay of Plenty hadn’t had a single vaccine dose, as at July 22.
Of the 2,848 port workers across the country, 40% hadn’t had a single dose, according to figures obtained by National’s COVID-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop.
Government and private sector border workers have until the end of September to get their first dose of the vaccine, before an order kicks in preventing them from working at the border unvaccinated.
Some border workers will need to be vaccinated by August 26.
Hipkins said he would consider bringing the September deadline forward.
He was worried that if these deadlines were too tight, movement in and out of the country's ports could be brought to a standstill.
“I want to keep the ports open,” he said, noting how difficult it would be to fill some specialised roles if they were made vacant.
He noted supply chains globally were already disrupted due to COVID-19. He didn't want further delays at New Zealand's ports to prompt shipping companies to drop New Zealand off their routes altogether.
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand receives around 2000 commercial ship visits a year.
Bishop said the low vaccination rate among border workers was “incredibly concerning”.
“Frontline workers were meant to have been vaccinated months ago. We have a glaring hole in our border,” he said.
Separately, the Government announced people over the age of 50 will now be eligible for a vaccine from Friday. Previously, they would’ve had to wait a few more days until mid-next week.
Hipkins said more than 2.2 million doses had been administered by the end of last week.
110 Comments
One reality is that NZ has been riding its luck at both the border(s) & MIQ and another is that sooner or later, if that luck does not persist, there will be a lapse and an outbreak. Minister Hipkins though has an economic view of both truth and reasoning. Not so long ago for instance. when questioned as to why border staff were not being saliva tested his natural & impulsive instinct was to lie, saying barefaced they didn’t want them. This business about flow of trade has obviously been dreamed up and kept ready to bleat out as an excuse in anticipation of precisely the circumstances now being faced in Tauranga. The fact is 90% of a labour force have been allowed to go about their work at the border when the government months & months ago stated these were to be prioritised, the first in line so to speak. This is nothing but mealy mouthed obfuscation in which this government is well & truly versed. And yes,yes,yes National probably wouldn’t be any damn better either. Big problem for our nation that is, isn’t it.
If the government was forcing the port workers to get vaccinated the same people complaining would be screaming "nanny state". The obvious question that this article doesn't ask is why they aren't vaccinated. If it's down to misinformation, then what is the source. Surely these port workers don't need a financial incentive to get the vaccine?
Misinformation. As if this government isn’t participating in this, day in, day out, spinning, saying one thing then doing another. Farmers, Ute drivers, water, the trust factor is what is hindering NZ I suspect this is the reason there is such a low uptake. Their own doing.
With the degree of dispersal how else is efficient?
DHBs and water infrastructure serve their local communities. How would Hawera's DHB be efficient if it was run from New Plymouth or Hamilton? How could it be responsive to Hawera's needs if it was run remotely? while the politicians will say and try to make these things look better on paper, in reality they create a political entity where the smaller entities become neglected while the larger ones with the loudest voices get catered for. It already happens; look at Auckland getting funded by the rest of the country based on BS politicking!
Lately there has been comment from Sir Mark Solomon concerning his time as Deputy Chairman of the Canterbury DHB which offers a damning insight as to the antics of the MoH. Similarly Dr Ian Powell has published several papers detailing those same circumstances and more, much more in fact. The MoH blew out their own headquarters build by $38 mill. The new central Christchurch hospital they designed and constructed is dysfunctional, over cost & under capacity. From Northland to Southland DHBs, all of them, have been in constant strife with the MoH. The MoH has demonstrated much mis management from the onset of CV19. And now this government intends to consolidate all power into their jurisdiction. Hell they cannot even manage themselves.
Mark Solomon - now there is one man well deserving of his accolades. I was most impressed with his management of Ngai Tahu's assets and how he grew them very effectively for the Iwi. What I like the most about him is no tertiary education. Puts the lie to a great many egos who require education for credibility.
Nice distraction.
They have mandated border workers be vaccinated and tested, but not checked it is done. It is the most likely point of failure in our hermit kingdom and our eventual freedom depends on vaccination to break out (or prevent COVID breakouts.....)
Same SH*%, different day from Labour.
"same people complaining would be screaming "nanny state"" there would be people complaining, like always, but I doubt it would be the same people.
It should be a job requirement that they are vaccinated, it should not vaccinated, don't come in to work. I see no need to hunt down the source of misinformation in this case. It is just a waste of time.
Sure if you want to vaccinate the whole population, you need combat misinformation but not at our ports.
More Misinformation?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-iceland-deals-wit…
"Iceland is experiencing its worst Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. That's despite near-total vaccination levels. "
"Evidence shows that the vaccines used in Iceland protect about 60 per cent of those fully vaccinated against any kind of infection caused by the Delta variant of the virus and over 90 per cent against serious illnesses," director general Bryndís Kjartansdóttir said.
"About 97 per cent of those infected have mild or no symptoms."
So yeah, if the vaccinated barely know they have the disease, then isn't that reason enough to take the vaccine. Seems far preferable to need a day or two off work with the sniffles rather than a fortnight in hospital with tubes down your throat.
If you did your research on this medical device then you wouldn't want it either.
Plenty of reasons to never have it. Its a disaster going to happen for many people.
https://ysb.co.nz/the-spike-protein-generating-conundrum/
Is the CDC good enough for you?
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0730-mmwr-covid-19.html
"Today, some of those data were published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), demonstrating that Delta infection resulted in similarly high SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people. High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus. This finding is concerning..."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-iceland-deals-wit…
None so blind as cannot see
"Iceland is experiencing its worst Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. That's despite near-total vaccination levels. And what Delta's doing there may now be a sign of things to come for others."
Amazingly, "conspiracy nut job" jibes dont actually contribute to the debate.
For anyone interested in a nice balanced summary of some of the issues we should be contemplating, Id recommend this
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/08/05/covid-19-vaccines-dont-really-wor…
Im certainly familiar with the "no debate to be had" response if the official "jab everything that moves" narrative is questioned in any way
And yet we see this
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tv-14-israelis-who-got-3rd-shot-later-inf…
"Fourteen Israelis have been diagnosed with COVID-19 despite having been inoculated with a third COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to Health Ministry data reported by Channel 12 news on Sunday."
First sentence sums it up. "Limited data not enough to draw conclusions on."
And to boot. "It was not immediately clear whether the 14 contracted the virus before or after receiving the booster."
No one's claiming the vaccines are a silver bullet or a cure to COVID.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-iceland-deals-wit…
"Iceland is experiencing its worst Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. That's despite near-total vaccination levels. And what Delta's doing there may now be a sign of things to come for others..."
The data seems to be getting more unlimited
ONM,
The web site gave me a good laugh. Thanks. You might want to check the section on American Politics, in which Trump bosts og having had the vaccine produced in just 9 months. This is the same vaccine that you say is a disaster.
I think the title You Stupid Boy refers to people like you. The sad thing is that some people-like some of our port workers-believe this shit.
These conspiracy theorists are utterly fascinating. I am wondering if the main contributing factor to their existence is lack of higher education, combined with low IQ and possibly compounded, in some cases, by untreated by mental illness. Some of them are opportunists, of course, and some others are just plain scammers (low lives such as Billy Te Kahika are a clear example).
Our front-line workers started getting vaccinated in February, which means it's coming up 6 months since. If we don't start administering booster shots as per the manufacturer's recommendations, then there are going to be a lot more unvaccinated front-line workers very shortly, regardless of how many doses they might have received.
Worksafe should be investigating the port company to understand how these staff have been exposed....the government can’t do everything ffs.
And the port company must have known. Maybe a little less focus on profits and a refocus on critical success factors. They might have played a terrible hand here to their customers.
On Tuesday 3 August, Port of Tauranga received an alert from Maritime New Zealand that the container ship had been boarded two weeks ago by an Australian pilot, who recently tested positive for Covid-19.
However, the ship was cleared for berthing in Tauranga and it did so on Wednesday afternoon. A Port of Tauranga pilot then boarded the vessel and brought the ship to the Tauranga Container Terminal, according to Port of Tauranga.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/448825/calls-for-stricter-handling-…
Why did Port of Tauranga not insist on comprehensive testing before it exposed its workers to this risk, given they were aware of the crews interaction with a COVID-19 positive pilot?
Just intime to say lets not raise interest rates we now have a small problem again.
You cannot make this stuff up over 1 year to plan for these scenarios but no we just let people onboard without testing or any risk mitagation.
Maybe just lockdown Bay of Plenty now for a month and see what happens before its to late.
Did any of you projibbyjabbers here ever contemplate that maybe the numbers of antijibbyjabbers might be the majority which is why so many port workers are unjabbed? And it is surely their right to keep their jobs considering even if they do get jabbed they can still catch covid and pass it on as well as the unjabbed.
The problem is the jobs are actually quite highly skilled as opposed to what you might be lead to believe. Running a port isn’t the same as a McDonald’s.look at ports of Auckland... they tried to break the Union, now half the staff have been in the role less than two years...and look at how that is working out.
In the herald on the weekend an interview with Jacinda... no pressure to get the jab, no two-tier system for those who have it, will lock down in an instant, no timetable to relook at another MIQ tier for vaccinated people. She wants to string this out until the next election.
Where the heck is personal responsibility in protecting NZ from an outbreak? From my perspective, the vaccine has been available to these workers for quite some time. Why the heck hasn't each individual taken themself off and got the shots?
If there is an outbreak and another lockdown there will be a hell of a hue and cry and demands on the government to come to the rescue, again. Yet it is the failure of individuals to get vaccinated that will probably be the pathway for entry.
Maybe NZ needs a Nanny ...
You give Collins far to much credit .
It is evident to the majority that Delta would have been raging in NZ if National had been in control.
The push for commercial interests taking precedence over health concerns continued in the weekend with eminent infectious disease expert John Key insisting we get more creative in opening up the country .
If anyone cares to look at the data. We're way ahead of two jabs at this point. Israel shows double penetration yields mediocre protection. Get a booster, and it's still not watertight. Everyone is acting like if only everyone gets two shots, suddenly everything goes away. It is a ride you will never get off. Your collective anxieties will never be satisfied. Unless you just learn to live with it.
The two-dose vaccine still works very well in preventing people from getting seriously sick, demonstrating 88% effectiveness against hospitalization and 91% effectiveness against severe illness, according to the Israeli data.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-variant-pfizer-covid-vaccine-39pe…
the vaccine will not protect against getting covid , but will hopefully protect you from getting it bad.
also we only have limited ICU beds 334 in NZ so we need those for people that have many illnesses and injuries not clogged up by covid
https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/ventilators_and…
Have a read through issues raised here
You need to think beyond a couple of months "protection".... as Tsrael is fast finding out
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/08/05/covid-19-vaccines-dont-really-wor…
So? The Massachusetts study showed vaccinated as 75% of all positive cases. The vaccinated have viral loads equal to unvaccinated. The vaccinated spread the disease, therefore masks are back in fashion. Therefore the vaccinated should be treated exactly the same as unvaccinated. Just getting Covid gives you a 90% chance of not getting severely ill. CFR 0.26%. If you're not comfortable with those odds, good luck in the real world.
I believe you're referring to the first data set out of Israel where it looked like 2 doses of mRNA was only something like 44% effective against death, which spurred a bunch of headlines about the vaccines not being effective. Actually that was a bad analysis of the data, the real value is something like 91% protection against death.
So we know what will happen when/if we open our boarder once we are all vaccinated. Israel & Iceland will act as a good bellwether for NZ. If the govt is really intelligent they could probably work our how many ICU beds we will even need. But they arn't so they won't.
way ahead of what data on two jabs ? we are the lowest in teh whole OECD and many emerging countries also far surpass our vaccination rates --- to imply we are ahead of our own targets as a success is a bit like sayign Kiwi buikld was awesome if only yhe target had been 100 homes not 100,000
nor does any flu type vaccine -- but it does - REDUCE massively the likelihood of getting it-- reduce massively the severity and symptoms and therefore also reduces the likelihood of you transmitting the virus - if you check out the UK hospitalisation and deaths graphs -- you will see that whilst they track each other for the first 15 months -- there is clear evidence that the more recent surge in cases last month has not translated to similar large rises in hospitalisations and deaths
But no matter here in NZ we will be different with our massive 330 ICU bed availability .....
Are we really surprised that this incapable government haven't done what they said they had done already?
This has happened time and time again, and nothing has been resolved. If this government ever had any accountability someone senior would resign, but in truth, were that the case, nobody would be left.
Ardern has again failed to manage her Ministers' performance, can you imagine Helen Clark letting this happen?
I wish policy makers would adopt the following..
1. Stop vaccinating healthy people, particularly young people.
2. Vaccinate only high risk individuals, high BMI, sedentary, elderly, low red blood cell count, immunocompromised etc.
3. Reassure the public that most have some degree of immunity to covid19 through previous exposure to other coronavirus (cold virus), and most people who get covid have very mild to nonexistent symptoms.
4. Inform the public that they can boost their immunity through vitamin D and Zinc supplementation (although don’t go overboard), getting proper sleep, eating healthily, eating fruit, getting exercise.
5. Reassure the public that there are excellent treatments for covid if they get sick, primarily ivermectin according to the IMASK+ protocol.
6. Open the border at the beginning of summer so we can return to normality.
1. Healthy young people are dying from the delta variant look at NSW!
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/125963763/covid19-man-in-his-20s-…
https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/world/asia/vi…
2. You do not need to be high risk to die from this virus.
3. Previous colds do NOT give you immunity to COVID 19.
4. Healthy lifestyle is not going to save you.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/uk/125973772/he-was-the-fittest-healthiest-…
5. Ivermectin will not save you.
6. I doubt it will be normality if delta runs rampant.
Some of your points are a bit silly, or seem like hyperbole ie 2,4, and 6. However I'll address your other odd points.
Re: point number 1: The official pfizer data from their clinical trial shows that the death rate among unvaccinated indivicuals less than 55 years of age over six months was 2 people out of 21921. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.28.21261159v1
Re: point number 3 - Yes there is widespread immunity. To understand why read this Nature paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2550-z?flip=true
Re: point 5: Yes ivermectin reduces your chance of death. To understand why dig into c19study.com
If you were really a medical doctor then I'm sure you would appreciate data from the primary literature, from the pfizer clinical trials, and data from Nature (the most prestigious scientific journal in the world)? I don’t think a medical doctor would be copying and pasting from stuff.co.nz or new york times.
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