Monday update:
The Ministry of Health is reporting 22 new Covid cases in the community - with three in Waikato.
It is the third day in a row of over 20 cases.
The Waikato cases were reported late on Sunday but are included in Monday's figures.
Monday's figures brings the total in this outbreak to 1071.
Five of Monday's cases have yet to be linked, while of Sunday's cases, six of them were infectious in the community.
The latest numbers were released ahead of the Cabinet decision on Alert levels being announced at 4pm on Monday.
Last year's nationwide Level 4 lockdown lasted for 33 days. As of the end of Tuesday this week, this Level 4 lockdown will have extended to 35 days for the country's largest city.
Of the current community cases, 16 cases are in hospital, with four in ICU.
This is the Ministry's Covid update release:
| Cases | |
| Number of new community cases * | 22 |
| Number of new cases identified at the border | One |
| Location of new cases | Auckland, Whakatīwai |
| Location of community cases (total) | Auckland (including 3 cases in Whakatīwai*) 1,051 (677 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered); |
| Number of community cases (total) | 1,071 (in current community outbreak) |
| Cases infectious in the community | Six (25%) of yesterday’s 24 cases have exposure events |
| Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious | 18 (75%) of yesterday’s 24 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked | 17 of today’s cases |
| Cases to be epidemiologically linked | Five of today’s cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked (total) | 1,039 (in current cluster) (12 unlinked from past fortnight) |
| Number of sub-clusters * | Ten epidemiologically linked subclusters. Of these, two are active, seven are contained and one is dormant.
There are ten epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. Of these, two are active, three are contained and five are dormant. |
| Cases in hospital | 16 (total): North Shore (1); Auckland (5); Middlemore (10). |
| Cases in ICU or HDU | Four |
| Confirmed cases (total) | 3,725 since pandemic began |
| Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) | 151 out of 1,908 since 1 Jan 2021 |
| Contacts | |
| Number of active contacts being managed (total) | 1,289 |
| Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) | 85% |
| Percentage with at least one test result | 85% |
| Locations of interest | |
| Locations of interest (total) | 141 (as at 10am 20 September) |
| Tests | |
| Number of tests (total) | 3,240,635 |
| Number of tests total (last 24 hours) | 8,084 |
| Tests rolling average (last 7 days) | 13,104 |
| Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) | 3,916 |
| Testing centres in Auckland | 24 |
| Wastewater | |
| Wastewater detections | No unexpected detections in ESR’s latest testing |
| COVID-19 vaccine update | |
| Vaccines administered to date (total) | 4,711,410; 1st doses: 3,092,737; 2nd doses: 1,618,673 |
| Vaccines administered yesterday (total) | 26,673; 1st doses: 14,145; 2nd doses: 12,528 |
| Mâori | 1st doses: 291,019; 2nd doses: 141,378 |
| Pacific Peoples | 1st doses:188,534, 3; 2nd doses: 99,048 |
| NZ COVID-19 tracer | |
| Registered users (total) | 3,233,881 |
| Poster scans (total) | 370,812,131 |
| Manual diary entries (total) | 16,630,176 |
| Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday | 2,152,609 |
New cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 10 September | United Kingdom | United Arab Emirates | Day 9 / contact of a case | Auckland |
*SO/Auckland Hotel MIQ worker update
After further investigation, including retesting, the positive COVID-19 test result returned by the SO Hotel MIQ facility worker last week has been determined to be a false positive.
The individual has been notified and will be able to be released from the quarantine facility today.
The Ministry of Health would like to thank the person for their cooperation.
As a result, the net increase in community cases today is 21.
*Whakatīwai cases
The three cases recorded in Whakatīwai fall within the Counties Mānakau DHB catchment and are being counted in the Auckland total.
*Sub-clusters
The number of epidemiologically linked subclusters now sits at ten. The new one is associated to two households in South Auckland.
Unlinked cases
Of today’s 22 new community cases, 17 are linked to known cases.
Of the five unlinked cases today; three are from one household; the other two are being interviewed.
Of the 22 new cases today, 10 were already in quarantine when they were tested.
Whole genome sequencing
ESR has now analysed whole genome sequencing from samples taken from several recent cases. This shows the truck driver and a couple who went to Middlemore Hospital with COVID-19 symptoms are genome linked to the main outbreak cluster.
Wastewater testing
Following confirmation of the three cases in northern Hauraki, ESR is currently sampling from Kawakawa Bay and Pukekohe. Samples are being collected from three sites in the region. In addition, new samples are being collected from Cambridge, Ngatea, and Paeroa. Results are expected later in the week.
Seven suburbs of interest
Testing in the seven suburbs is continuing with 946 tests taken yesterday across Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Papatoetoe, Ōtara and Manurewa.
The Ministry has asked people in these areas, both with symptoms and without, to get tested to help rule out undetected community transmission. Today we are asking in particular for anyone living in Clover Park, on the south east side of Papatoetoe, to please get tested.
Testing in Kaiaua
There has been a good community turn out for testing in Kaiaua this morning. By 11am today, 150 swabs had been taking. The Waikato DHB has reported wait times of about 30 minutes.
Further update
There will be a further update on the latest cases this afternoon.
99 Comments
what to do...Drop AKL to L3, and keep Waikato at L2, basically admitting defeat of elimination strategy, delta will spread. Keep AKL at L4 and bump Waikato to L3...there be a riot I suspect. It will be at least three months before second jab is given to 70%, a lot of water to tread till then.
Agree. But these decisions aren't just about physical health.
They are also about politics, mental health, the economy...
Many people I speak to are getting very irritable. I am the same.
Given this I think they will move to level 3 in Auckland. Level 3 still has a lot of restrictions after all.
I'm loving it. Roads are quiet, Tuis are singing at full throttle. I run on semi-rural roads and don't have cars or car noise. It's like heaven. Throw in some chin-ups between work commitments, avoid the daily commute and retire to a chair with the sun streaming in to read some history books by 4pm.
I get it's hard for others and those with kids but damn, there are heaps of positives.
that is because our health people are reactive not proactive, they are trained that way. who goes to a doctor or nurse to prevent a disease, you only go for a cure
its time to admit they will never get ahead of delta, too many people wandering around and they have not done pop up testing to find the missing cases even though you can see from locations of interest the same places popping up again and again, instead they are waiting for them to come to the testing center, which in south auckland will not happen 100% of the time
They don't go to a Doctor to prevent disease because they know the Doctor will tell them stuff they don't want to hear (or do); don't drink so much, don't eat so much, stop smoking (no matter what it is), do a lot (or any) more exercise. Can't cure lazy until it's too late! People always look to the quick fix, but there just isn't any. Then they feel crap about themselves and turn to drugs and guess what? It gets worse!
Painted herself into a corner on that one, gambled that the paint would dry, but it is still wet. Didn’t have the backbone to indicate level 4 for more than another week. Now that week has passed and it is no different in principle to the preceding week. Therefore there is no reason to not drop to level 3 because nothing has changed from when the indication was given “in principle” If the reduction is not made then that simply exposes the announcement last week, offering some hope of it, as utter deception and propaganda, politicking at its worst.
Many people won't get to 'live their lives' as such, if we don't get this under control.
Lots of commentators here are very gung-ho about just letting it run, long before our vaccination level is high enough. You must be pretty confident it won't be any of your family drawing the short straw. Good luck.
I'm in my 30s, got the first shot a few days after it was opened to my age group and its still another 2 weeks or so until I can get the second shot.
You may want to take a f you, got mine approach to it but not everyone has had the opportunity to get the jab yet.
“if we don’t get this under control” but we haven’t got it under control and the lockdown is not getting it under control either. There has been a steady outcome of daily cases for five weeks of level 4 in Auckland. Are you saying that level 4 is forever then? Because if after 5 weeks of lockdown effort being ineffective what makes you think more of the same is going to be effective especially as the population is understandably getting more and more restless and more and more breaches of protocols are inevitable.
I agree except the moment the Prime Minister lost credibility in my view was that first day when she flew back to Wellington before locking down Auckland. Don't tell me they couldn't use Zoom, Teams, Skype etc.
It's clear to me vaccination is the only way to dig ourselves out of this. Always has been.
Print many many tens of billions of dollars.
Do nothing to prevent it all being funnelled into house prices.
Make hundreds of thousands of overseas kiwis effectively stateless.
Pat yourself on the back for being so good at covid with a dumbass fortress
Be smug and virtue signal about kiwi exceptionalism some more.
Do nothing to prepare the health system for covid.
Suprised pikachu when the fortress is inevitably breached.
Lets do this.
#Aroha.
Let's be fair, after personally being around 8000th place in the MIQ lottery today, I did get offered September 21st available for booking, so there are still options right?..... Oh wait, that's tomorrow? Nevermind..... Luckily there are 180 odd countries that are willing to let NZer's in, just not our own.... Perhaps I'll take the tax that I earn overseas and also lock that out of NZ moving forward.....Maybe one day we'll develop some rights, and put them into a bill, legislating free entry to NZer's into our own country. And before someone comments, no I haven't had two years to return, my work is overseas but my home is NZ, along with my family, who I now wont see for who knows how long.........
Yeah but we're never going to have the money or the staff to fix the health system in a year and a half. That's a ten year project as a min and I doubt we actually have the money as a country to invest in it the way it needs to be. For now Australia will continue to suck all our best and brightest overseas to get paid real money and we will make do with what is left.
We have unlimited money to print and pump into house prices though, don't we?
The cancerous cretins in Wellington firmly chose the "wealth effect" over the "health effect".
A ten year project started 18 months ago would be 18 months closer to completion.
Instead they did NOTHING but virtue signal about their idiotic fortress.
I thought this was a good article on our ICU capacity, or lack of. Training staff is the key, which takes years. This is a problem that has developed over decades, not the past 18 months. But, as the author points out, there may be better health investments. Let's face it, as a country we haven't run the health system as well as we could for a long time now.
The Ministry of Health is in the process of reviewing national ICU provision. However, a similar report commissioned 16 years ago made many key recommendations that remain unaddressed. Buying more breathing machines is an admirable short-term strategy during a pandemic, but after this has passed, addressing the needs of a larger sicker population who could benefit from critical care will be expensive.
A single ICU bed costs well in excess of one million dollars per year. There are convincing arguments to be made that investing similar sums in either public or primary health will produce greater benefits for more New Zealanders, including addressing healthcare inequities. Building a cheaper fence at the top of the cliff is surely preferable to funding more expensive ambulances at the bottom.
As I have repeatedly said, we pay our nurses less than many other public sector jobs which require zilch in the way of a degree or ongoing professional development.
Much of this is due to the left wing "we are all competent" theory - so we get dumb promoting dumber to make dumb look capable. Promotion based on lifting up certain groups as opposed to encouraging a smart educated and capable public sector.
Not completely -- but we borrowed a shit load and if we had spent it on COVID related issues only -- such as building ICU beds - training existign high skilled nurses to ICU standard and training more junior nurse up and new nurses -- and making nurse and dr immigration the top priority -- etc it would have been a start - MIQ facility started 18 months ago could have been built or at least under way - used a couple billion on improving Nurses pay and conditions -- no forward planning ability only reactive
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-death-woman-who-died-of-co…
The brown death perhaps?
Unnecessary last comment, but she died because members of her whanau, hapu or iwi were breaking the rules and brought it to her. And this is the message that people need to understand, you might survive it, and if you're very, very lucky with little ill effect, but you may also be the cause of death for someone close to you. A comparatively short period in lockdown is very little price to pay. Jaffas need to STAY HOME!
It's going to be more level 4 with more handouts and money printing.
Elimination is another one of Jacinda's virtue seeking follies. Labour has squandered the time to prepare for living with covid.
The rest of the world is laughing at us still in lockdown near the end of 2021.
What would you do after another week of level 4 and we have an average of 20 cases a day after that week? Extend another week? What happens if that’s the same case? Keep going while no one dies of Covid but other serious illness goes undiagnosed, mental ill takes a toll?
Most of the people I know who support staying in level 4 are on high salaries and government or insulated industry / consulting roles. They also, typically, have very nice homes and gardens.
Not quite so easy in level 4 if your livelihood is in peril and/or you live in poor or mediocre physical and social conditions.
And worse they've been told they're not getting any pay rises while we all know inflation has been occurring no mater what the Government is telling us!
But I do understand who you're referring to and yes the policy wonks in the various departments are all on better pay than the first two layers at the front lines.
Why not.
Less human activities, lower fire risks and traffic accidents. No high numbers of incoming into the hospital UK style, paramedics and nurses no worries. Less people traffic, not much things to enforce except domestic violence, health order breaches and pet saving operations for the general police. The virus provides good excuses to cut short yard time and movements in prison, what's not to like working in the corrections.
The majority of patients coming in to the hospital I work in are always due to either being old, or being old before ones time. Lockdown doesn't change that. The only less people traffic is the reduction in visitors. Plus, we are separating patients into four different risk streams, which uses a lot of manpower
I'm going to put some numbers into context for you "flu" people. Lets start with the fact that only 10% of people who get the flu are still sick after 14 days. And ongoing issues after 2 months are extremely rare.
If you catch COVID and are lucky enough not to be hospitalised, even with a mild case, you still have a 35% chance of having ongoing symptoms. These range from fatigue, cognitive impairment, breathing difficulty, headaches, problems exercising, depression, sleep difficulty and loss of smell or taste. Many of these people cannot return to work because of these issues.
And not just older people, or those with underlying health conditions. Even 20% of previously healthy 18-to-34-year-olds experience Long-Covid, and are unable to perform to the same physical levels as previously. Another study of 100 German COVID-19 patients found that 60% had ongoing heart inflammation 3 months later. That was relatively young and healthy people with an average age of 49.
If you're hospitalized and survive, even worse outcomes. Ongoing viral pneumonia in a number of studies. Of 147 Italian patients in a study who had been hospitalized for COVID-19, 87% still had severe symptoms 2 months after they were discharged. 76% of Wuhan study patients still had symptoms 6 months later, with ground glass opacities on their lungs effecting how much oxygen was reaching their bloodstream.
You should have cold feet over rolling that dice.
Oh yes, almost forgot. The Covid-19 mortality rate is substantially (At least 10x) higher than that of most strains of the flu.
" Fatigue, cognitive impairment, breathing difficulty, headaches, problems exercising, depression, sleep difficulty and loss of smell or taste... people cannot return to work because of these issues."
Most of these doesn't sound like reasons for not showing up at work; however, they do sound like excuses for a handout.
Evolution should take its course rather than transferring the burden to those who can pass the test.
Your references to those 'research' are problematic. The research themselves are problematic especially on the German study.
I put to you that you are exaggerating out of fear.
Ps. Avoid ghost editing when you'd already made your crucial points- there's a time stamp on every post.
I think they'll still drop Auckland to level 3. A strict level 3 really isn't that different to level 4.
Not sure what they'll do with the Waikato. Even if they could go smaller than regional and just cordon off the affected areas and go to level 3.
Jump on the covid website:
https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-levels-and-updates/about-the-alert-system/
The description of the different alert levels has definitely changed. People need to get vaccinated because general acceptance of community transmission is coming quickly.
What happens to the rest of the North Island if Waikato goes to level 3 (or, gulp, level 4). Auckland is on an isthmus and policing all the roads in and out must already be extremely resource-heavy. The borders at Waikato heading east and south and MUCH longer and there are A LOT of roads in and out. Could they realistically erect checkpoints at them all? I suspect not. That makes me worry (as someone in Hawkes Bay) that if Waikato goes to level 3, it would mean the whole of the North Island...because I just don't see them being able to police the boundaries of Waikato to prevent travel in and out.
This might be wishful thinking, but ...
My pick is Level 3 for Auckland and for North Waikato/Hauraki Plains. I.e., a redrawing of the southern Auckland border east and (maybe) south a bit. And I don't think that's necessarily giving up on elimination either.
If the vast majority of new cases are being linked within a day or so, the outbreak is still largely contained.
Only thing that might change that is if they have evidence (not yet made public) of unlinked spread ...
Its simple really -- L4 if the health of the country and elimination is indeed the goal -- or Level 3 if its about politics and being popular still -
150 cases in the week - many unlinked and many more yes in families but not from contact tracing from hospitalisations and symptoms - who remembers 14 days of no community transmission for normal Covid - not the super mega game changer ultra dangerous Chuck Norris
I was chatting to a Polish guy the other day and I asked him about covid in Poland. "We have no covid problem in Poland" he said. That's great I said, How did you solve it? did you use ivermectin vitamin D3 & zinc or some other combination? No he said, we stopped testing.
Vaccinations are simply a licence to open up and let Covid kill people. Look at Sydney. 5 out of 12 of the people who died the other day were vaccinated, and currently 25% of all those in ICU are vaccinated (up from 15% in less than a week). And they are still in a L3 lockdown.
Just think if those people had been fully vaccinated they would be highly unlikely to catch covid in the first place. Or do you want to bring polio back as well by stopping vaccinations. Remember be careful what you wish for because the virus is always much much deadlier than not catching the virus. Without herd immunity through vaccination those with whom vaccination does not work as well are far less protected because those around them are unvaccinated and those with poor immunity also are the most likely to suffer complications, because people cannot bother to vaccinate a population to herd immunity necessary.
You understand that this "vaccine" is only ~40% effective right. Vaccinated people are walking around with the same viral loads as unvaccinated people according quantitative PCR testing. You can’t compare the covid "vaccine" to the polio or smallpox vaccines which were proper sterilising vaccines.
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