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Monday's Covid-19 update: 20 new cases in the community; now 40 in hospital, including six in ICU

Monday's Covid-19 update: 20 new cases in the community; now 40 in hospital, including six in ICU
6th Sep 21, 1:19pm by David Hargreaves

Monday update:

The Ministry of Health is reporting 20 new Covid cases in the community - all in Auckland.

There are 40 people in hospital - all in the Auckland area, with six in ICU.

A detailed update on the outbreak was due later on Monday along with the Government's decision on whether to take the rest of the country, apart from Auckland down from Level 3. That update was due at 4pm.

The 20 new cases reported on Monday is the same number as reported on both Saturday and Sunday and is down from the peak so far in this outbreak of 83 cases on Sunday, August 29.

Of the cases reported on Sunday, five were infectious in the community and the other 15 were already in isolation.

The total number of community cases in this outbreak is now 821, with 17 in Wellington and the rest in Auckland.

This is the Ministry's Covid update release:

Cases  
Number of new community cases 20
Number of new cases identified at the border Three (and one historical)
Location of new cases Auckland
Location of community cases (total) Auckland 804 (114 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (three of whom have recovered)
Number of community cases (total) 821 (in current community outbreak)
Cases infectious in the community Five (25%) of yesterday’s cases have exposure events
Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infected 15 (75%) of yesterday’s cases
Cases epidemiologically linked 15 of today’s cases
Cases to be epidemiologically linked Five of today’s cases
Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 788 (in current cluster) (33 unlinked)
Number of sub-clusters Eight epidemiologically linked subclusters. The two largest subclusters are the Mangere church group: 363; and Birkdale social network cluster: 76.
And six epidemiologically unlinked subclusters.
Cases in hospital 40 (total): North Shore (8); Middlemore (18); Auckland (14)
Cases in ICU or HDU 6
Confirmed cases (total) 3,436 since pandemic began
Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) 129 out of 1,618 since 1 Jan 2021
Contacts  
Number of contacts identified (total) 38,058*
Percentage who have received outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 86%
Percentage with at least one test result 91%
Locations of interest  
Locations of interest (total) 122 (as at 10am 6 September)
Tests  
Number of tests (total) 3,062,093
Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 4,750
Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) 2,088
Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 13,488
Testing centres in Auckland 22
Wastewater  
Wastewater detections No unexpected detections in the past 24 hours.
COVID-19 vaccine update  
Vaccines administered to date (total) 3,890,178; 1st doses: 2,564,936; 2nd doses: 1,325,242
Vaccines administered yesterday (total) 38,710; 1st doses: 26,738; 2nd doses: 11,972
Mâori 1st doses: 234,863; 2nd doses: 117,211
Pacific Peoples 1st doses:151,365; 2nd doses: 80,265
NZ COVID-19 tracer  
Registered users (total) 3,151,533
Poster scans (total) 339,584,762
Manual diary entries (total) 15,459,174
Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 852,546

*This denominator may fluctuate due to additional contacts being identified and/or the Ministry excluding records, for instance duplicates, following further contact tracing investigations.

There may be some delays in providing data in some instances. On these occasions, we will use data from the day before and clearly note this.

New cases identified at the border

Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location
1 September Serbia and Montenegro United Arab Emirates Day 3 / routine Auckland
1 September Serbia and Montenegro United Arab Emirates Day 3 / routine Auckland
2 September United Kingdom Singapore Day 1 / routine Auckland

Historical case identified at the border

Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location
28 August Afghanistan United Arab Emirates Day 3 / routine Auckland

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44 Comments

by  Warwick D  |  6th Sep 21, 2:01pm 1630893709

Heading in the right direction but I wonder if the prospect of being sent to Covid prison (managed institutional quarantine) if one tests positive might be putting some off taking the test if their symptoms are not too severe. If so that could conceivably under-count the community cases. The trouble is that not everyone could be trusted to do the strict monitored quarantine at home if that was an option so I guess there is little alternative.  The current process does impact MIQ capacity for repatriating returning Kiwis.

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by  Nifty1  |  6th Sep 21, 2:22pm 1630894927

Perhaps an issue of no wages also if you're in MIQ. Sure alot would rather just keep quiet & continue working so they can pay the bills...

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by  K.W.  |  6th Sep 21, 3:51pm 1630900317

This is how the NSW outbreak went out of control.  Migrants needing to work because they don't get welfare, migrants working illegally, people staying at home rather than getting tested to the point that people were actually dying at home rather than in hospital.

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by  Sluggy  |  6th Sep 21, 5:02pm 1630904573

My wife has been close contact calling. The monetary stress on some families during this lock down is huge. Some people can not afford to stay home, its that simple. 

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by  WellingtonInvestor  |  6th Sep 21, 5:54pm 1630907672

This is why they need helicopter payments. Wage subsidies  don't help everyone.

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by  Lapun  |  6th Sep 21, 2:50pm 1630896651

Why not an ankle bracelet.  I know if i was given a choice between posh CBD hotel MIQ or my scruffy home I'd prefer the latter.  Of course it would have to apply to all in the same dwelling whether +ve or not so home delivered food & laundry.  

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by  donny11  |  6th Sep 21, 4:15pm 1630901737

Will stop you from leaving. Won't stop someone from visiting.

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by  kiwikidsnz  |  6th Sep 21, 4:59pm 1630904377

Singapore manage that process by giving people a GPS smartwatch

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by  sharetrader  |  6th Sep 21, 5:03pm 1630904611

do that here and most would get sold down the pub or on trade me

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by  Carlos67  |  6th Sep 21, 2:16pm 1630894604

Hopefully back to Level 2 for everyone except Auckland sometime this week. No reason to keep the whole country locked down. Back to level 2 but still wear a mask if you want to. People need to start acting with common sense, large gatherings are still a no go but a dozen people in a restaurant is okay. Getting a bit sick of the lockdown now.

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by  realterms  |  6th Sep 21, 2:44pm 1630896255

L2 for the SI I think. The rest of the NI, not so sure. I'd be wary of trying to manage the Auckland boundaries if it's L4 on one side and L2 on the other. So maybe rest of the NI stays in L3 until AKL steps down (hopefully in a week).

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by  Foxglove.  |  6th Sep 21, 3:20pm 1630898415

recall I think back in Feb the Papatoetoe outbreak Auckland level 3 rest NZ unaffected. Not that much difference  between levels 3 & 4. Would think enough should have been learnt by now to run it as 4 & 2. Surely by now if Delta was out & about in the SI at least it would have featured well and truly by now. My guess though is level 3 will continue outside of AKL until next Sunday night. Purely because this government will put their political expediency before anything else and AKL has just too much of the electorate to piss off.

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by  realterms  |  6th Sep 21, 3:51pm 1630900287

Maybe. That was much shorter though. I'm thinking that if it were L2 on the other side of the Bombays and Brynderwyns, and still L4 inside (3+ weeks on), there would be a lot of fed up Aucklanders very tempted to make their way across. 

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by  Foxglove.  |  6th Sep 21, 4:17pm 1630901862

Very pleased to be proven wrong! Voila!

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by  Nifty1  |  6th Sep 21, 2:20pm 1630894810

Low testing numbers, a sign that everyone's over it? They need to instill abit more fear. 

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by  kiwichas  |  6th Sep 21, 2:45pm 1630896307

Likely to be a sign that the lockdown has got rid of most symptomatic viral illness, so we need to up our testing rates by doing all supermarket staff and others who work indoors, as we still have cases popping up unlinked.

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by  Nifty1  |  6th Sep 21, 3:03pm 1630897425

We had many thousands of people in the first days/week of lockdown get tested, that didn't equate to thousands of cases. Many didn't even have symptoms. Fears drives many to get tested.

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by  frazz  |  6th Sep 21, 4:31pm 1630902669

You sound very scared?

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by  Lanthanide  |  6th Sep 21, 5:28pm 1630906100

Um, no, there were lots of tests in the early days because the government was saying if you were at a place of interest, you considered a contact and you needed to get tested regardless of whether you had symptoms or not. There were timing requirements around the tests to, 5 days and 12 days.

Those periods have mostly aged out, so this very large cohort of people are now not seeking tests.

Very simple if you actually follow the news.

You also need to consider that the advice was to get tested if you have cold or flu symptoms. Since we've now been in lockdown for 3 weeks, the number of people who have cold or flu symptoms, from the cold or flu, will be reduced, because they won't have spread as much with everyone staying home.

Or in other words, the lockdown is working exactly as expected, and the reduction in testing not due to "fear" like you are claiming.

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by  Lapun  |  6th Sep 21, 3:01pm 1630897297

Only 5  five were infectious in the community which is good. But it only took 1 to get us where we are.  If we are lucky enough to come out of level-4 then more sticks and carrots until we achieve sufficient vaccine cover to stop further outbreaks (my guess is that will be next year and after 5m booster jabs).  So rewards for reporting indoor gatherings of over 10; a free lottery for all who are vaccinated and all who use the Covid tracer app.  Bribing the population to behave will be far cheaper than this outbreak. Can you imagine our hospitals if we had NSW's number of infected? 

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by  Rex Pat  |  6th Sep 21, 3:12pm 1630897947

How do we exit Level 4 in Auckland if there are any positive cases who were in the community while infectious?

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by  Brock Landers  |  6th Sep 21, 3:18pm 1630898286

The vaccine, no matter how many are vaccinated, will NOT prevent outbreaks.  Covid is still going to rip through like it has in every other highly vaccinated country overseas.

We have to learn to live with it.  Like the rest of the world.  We are not special and we are not exceptional.

This endless lockdown nonsense is ruinous and it is not sustainable.

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by  kpnuts  |  6th Sep 21, 3:50pm 1630900250

agreed we cant have endless lockdowns --  but until we have enough people vaccinated to reduce hospitalisations to a managable number -  afraid thats what we need to do -    not about outbreaks - we just had an RSV one and rthere will be more to come -  its about hospitalisation --  in Victoria of the 100+ in hospital only 1 has been fully vaccinated and they have underlying health conditions -      we need ot ensure that our hospitals can continue to function and save lifes from everything else - and where is the bloody spellcheck! 

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by  donny11  |  6th Sep 21, 4:18pm 1630901883

Agreed, but the govt seems to think it can maintain elimination or close to it without lockdowns once we are all vaccinated.

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by  Pragmatist  |  6th Sep 21, 6:53pm 1630911228

Maintaining it it is far easier than eradicating it inside our borders..  just need to seal the borders and the MIQ facilities better until we run out of arms to stick needles into.

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by  KBKIWI  |  6th Sep 21, 3:58pm 1630900704

Please name another country with high vaccination rates that is “just living with it” (eg no restrictions/lockdowns) that doesn’t have an overwhelmed hospital system at present. Look at the US - it’s chaos all over the place as hospitals are overrun with covid patients to the point that in many states people can’t be treated for non-covid acute conditions. All over the world developed countries have restrictions currently in place to try and ease the burden of delta on their health systems. Now factor in the fact that due to decades of underinvesting in the health system means we have far less ICU capacity and far less ICU staff than any other developed country, so we would fare far worse from a widespread delta outbreak - we would look far more like Fiji than NSW. We need 90%+ vaccination rate before we even think about easing lockdowns with delta in the community, and until then lockdowns are the best response from both a health and economic perspective.

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by  Brock Landers  |  6th Sep 21, 4:12pm 1630901538

Please name another country with high vaccination rates that is “just living with it” (eg no restrictions/lockdowns) that doesn’t have an overwhelmed hospital system at present.

The United Kingdom.

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by  lowercase capitalist  |  6th Sep 21, 4:31pm 1630902661

Both hospitalizations and case numbers have been climbing in the UK since the restrictions were ended(they still have some in place, more in the non England bits of the UK though).

What do you suppose will happen if those numbers continue - seems to me that they will eventually need to have some form of lockdown or increased restrictions.

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by  Brock Landers  |  6th Sep 21, 4:55pm 1630904119

Arguing hypotheticals is a waste of time. 



No restrictions, the hospitals are not overwhelmed and the level of hospitalisations is barely increasing.



Living in a nanny state prison is not "sustainable".

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by  kiwikidsnz  |  6th Sep 21, 5:02pm 1630904551

My wife was talking to her sister in the UK (Dorset) last week; hospitals are full & GPs won't make F2F appointments.

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by  kiwichas  |  6th Sep 21, 6:02pm 1630908148

And more than 100 per day dying for freedom

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by  Lanthanide  |  6th Sep 21, 8:25pm 1630916738

Brock just ignores that part.

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by  Foxglove.  |  6th Sep 21, 4:47pm 1630903620

Add Norway, just for a start.

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by  Pragmatist  |  6th Sep 21, 6:55pm 1630911344

Should I shortlist you for the Herman Cain Award nominations already?

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by  house hunter  |  6th Sep 21, 3:15pm 1630898115

"until we achieve sufficient vaccine cover to stop further outbreaks"

But does good vaccine cover stop outbreaks? My understanding is that it doesn't and that the main benefit of the vaccine is in reducing the severity of symptoms. But maybe the vaccine reduces the R factor somewhat? Happy to be educated here.

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by  jeremyr  |  6th Sep 21, 3:23pm 1630898587

Vaccinated people infected with Covid spread it just like unvaccinated people. The vaccine 'may' stop you from becoming seriously ill after being infected, but, the effect wanes over time, as is now being discovered in Israel and elsewhere. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58432776

 

 

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by  Fairlyfrank  |  6th Sep 21, 3:33pm 1630899216

Don't see how the south island or any other area can be safe when flights are going daily from Auckland to other regional areas including the south island people are not tested before flying and as two students proved last week security and following the rules is obviously not a priority. The so called Auckland borders are very porous and covid is only a flight away . Also see cases at the border from all over the world two from Serbia today I hope these are returning citizens not tourists when many kiwis can't get a spot in quarantine. 

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by  house hunter  |  6th Sep 21, 7:11pm 1630912288

South Island isn't 100% safe but probably a lot safer than areas that are a short drive from Auckland.

I agree with your overall point though. If, and it's a big if, we're going to keep doing these lockdowns then definitely need to tighten travel between North and South Islands. Mandatory short stay in managed isolation for anyone moving from one island to the other.  At least enough time to get a test done and get results back. Not perfect but would considerably reduce the chances of inter island spread.

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by  TonyBarnett  |  6th Sep 21, 3:41pm 1630899687

Waning immunity is a big problem & the reason booster jabs are needed now for our border workers.  Thanks for the link.

‘From the link, Prof Eran Segal, who advises the Israeli government on Covid matters, said by month five or six after vaccination, people are probably only 30-40% protected, compared with more than 90% when protection first kicks in.

The problem with only being 30-40% protected is the increase in break-through infections.  This is where a fully vaccinated person is more likely to get infected and once they are they can infect others just as easily as an unvaccinated person.

lt is a pity you have to get your research from BBC but the following link probably explains why.  Journalists in this country should be asking the hard questions of why booster shots are not being given to our border workers who were vaccinated in March 2021.

https://spectator.com.au/2021/09/the-bribing-of-the-new-zealand-media/?fbclid=IwAR2lXFK7DwAGdvDcswMIyC_BBzkN5B9fJUNyRAXXa15To_tH18Wsdd1e-7g

 

 

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by  jeremyr  |  6th Sep 21, 3:52pm 1630900350

Agree. NZ news media is just for comedy purposes generally. Real news is easily accessible overseas. Most NZ Herald articles that are marked as Premium and not an NZ reporter are easily accessible for free on a multitude of news sites. NZ media is generally 4-6 weeks behind the latest research on almost everything.

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by  K.W.  |  6th Sep 21, 4:03pm 1630901038

The current hospitalisation rate in Israel is almost at the same level of hospitalisation seen in their second wave peak in September last year when everyone was unvaccinated.  That's despite having completed a third booster shot rollout, and planning underway for a fourth shot.  At some point, they will need to come clean and admit the vaccines are not working.  And where is the safety data to say that continuously injecting people with these mRNA shots is safe and not exponentially increasing your chances of suffering severe side effects or long term damage to your immune system?

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by  Lanthanide  |  6th Sep 21, 6:04pm 1630908272

Israel hasn't given booster shots to everyone, and they don't even have a particularly high vaccination rate by world standards: 61% fully vaccinated, vs 68% in Canada for example. Several countries in Europe have higher full vaccination rates than Israel.

And where is the safety data to say that continuously injecting people with these mRNA shots is safe and not exponentially increasing your chances of suffering severe side effects or long term damage to your immune system?

Such data does not yet exist, however the method of action of mRNA within human cells is well-understood. The vast majority of the injected mRNA is cleaned up by your body within 48-72 hours of receiving the injection. It's not something that lingers for weeks or months.

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by  Foxglove.  |  6th Sep 21, 3:30pm 1630899036

Vaccines are considered to slow transmissions, reduce symptoms which in turn should reduce hospital admissions and the serious percentage of those too. And that in turn reduces the peril  of normal hospital etc services being compromised. The  conundrum that has not been addressed though is what would happen if the unvaccinated percentage of the population remains sufficient to still pose that threat. Of course one way to address that would have been to increase hospital capacities as relatively as possible. As far as can see government is just getting around to having a think about that. Hence the lame and evasive response by minister Hipkins to the question in the house by Dr Reti - how many more ICU units does NZ than when Covid arrived her.

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by  Mrs The Point  |  6th Sep 21, 11:27pm 1630927665

Exactly. While they have the printing presses humming, crank out a few more $ for something that will do some good. Like a large new hospital in South Auckland, with specialist covid wards.

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