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Monday's Covid-19 update: 12 new cases all in Auckland; 13 in hospital; four in ICU

Monday's Covid-19 update: 12 new cases all in Auckland; 13 in hospital; four in ICU
covid-vax2

Monday update:

The Ministry of Health is reporting 12 new Covid cases in the community, all in Auckland, down from 18 on Sunday.

The Ministry said two of the cases had yet to be linked.

Also, of the Sunday cases, it said 10 of them were infectious while in the community.

Thirteen people are in hospital, all in the Auckland area, with four of these in ICU. 

A more detailed breakdown of the latest figures was due to be given after Cabinet met on Monday.

Cabinet is next due to decide on the Alert levels next Monday.

There were nearly 25,000 vaccine doses on Sunday, but just 8000 of these were first doses.

This is the Ministry's Covid update release:

Cases  
Number of new community cases 12
Number of new cases identified at the border Zero
Location of new community cases Auckland
Location of community cases (total) Auckland (including 4 cases in Upper Hauraki; all of whom are in the same household) 1,160 (948 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered)
Number of community cases (total) 1,177 (in the current community outbreak)
Cases infectious in the community Ten (56%) of yesterday’s cases have exposure events
Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious Seven (39%) of yesterday’s cases
Cases epidemiologically linked Ten of today’s 12 cases. All 12 have been in isolation at home or in an MIQ.
Cases to be epidemiologically linked Two of today’s 12 cases. Investigations are continuing to determine a link.
Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 1,148 (in the current cluster) (Seven unlinked from the past fortnight).
Number of sub-clusters 15 epidemiologically linked subclusters. Of these, four are active, nine are contained and two are dormant. There are ten epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. Of these, none are active, three are contained and seven are dormant.
Cases in hospital 13 (total): North Shore (2); Middlemore (5); Auckland (6)
Cases in ICU or HDU Four
Confirmed cases (total) 3,838 since pandemic began
Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) 160 out of 2,020 since 1 Jan 2021
Contacts  
Number of active contacts being managed (total): 928
Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 92%
Percentage with at least one test result 90%
Locations of interest  
Locations of interest (total) 117 (as at 10am 27 September)
Tests  
Number of tests (total) 3,336,535
Number of tests processed (total last 24 hours) 6,906
Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) 3,873
Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 13,700
Testing centres in Auckland 23
Wastewater  
Wastewater detections No unexpected detections in the last 24 hours
COVID-19 vaccine update  
Vaccines administered to date (total) 5,045,901; 1st doses: 3,239,791; 2nd doses: 1,806,110
Vaccines administered yesterday (total) 24,710; 1st doses: 8,182; 2nd doses: 16,528
Māori 1st doses: 310,671; 2nd doses: 158,219
Pacific Peoples 1st doses: 201,227; 2nd doses: 111,705
Vaccines administered to Auckland residents to date (total) 1,838,320; 1st doses: 1,177,179 (82%); 2nd doses: 661,141 (46%)
Vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday (total) 10,812; 1st doses: 3,022; 2nd doses: 7,790
NZ COVID-19 tracer  
Registered users (total) 3,255,679
Poster scans (total) 387,968,030
Manual diary entries (total) 17,094,073
Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 2,350,589

*We’re reporting one community case today that had previously been under investigation and is now confirmed, and is linked to the current outbreak. The case has now recovered. The case spent 14 days in a quarantine facility along with household members who also tested positive for COVID-19.

One of the border related cases from yesterday has now been reclassified to under investigation. The net increase of cases today is 11.

Testing Update

Testing continues across Auckland with a particular focus on Clover Park, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Manurewa and Mount Wellington/Sylvia Park.

In some cases, public health staff have been sending mobile testing units to areas where there have previously been cases and encouraging residents to get tested at their home.

If you do receive a knock at your door, we’d strongly encourage you to take up the opportunity to get tested and if haven’t already been vaccinated, to do so with one of the registered vaccinators on board the mobile unit.

Please get tested if you are a contact, have visited a location of interest at the specific dates and times, are connected to a suburb of interest or have any symptoms of COVID-19 – even those with very mild symptoms need to get tested and isolate at home while waiting for test results.

For these suburbs, there were 705 tests processed yesterday (26/09). Note that this number includes both asymptomatic and symptomatic tests.

For all testing locations nationwide, visit https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/

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43 Comments

Interesting that Queensland is reporting no new cases. Yet they share a long and hard land border with NSW. As well they are accommodating large crowd occasions , rugby tests for example. But here  is NZ, and it’s largest most vital city in particular, stricken with lockdown(s.) NZ & NSW are separated by a good sized stretch of sea. So a good question is what has Queensland done that NZ failed to do.

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Ability in governance.

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Caught the outbreak much earlier than Auckland. Hard and early continues to work for elimination - weak and slow brings the worst of both worlds with long dragging restrictions and lots of cases (e.g., NSW). "On 31 July from 4pm, 11 LGAs in South East Queensland went into a snap lockdown ... On 8 August the lockdown in SE Queensland ended, though some restrictions remained in force."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Queensland

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Queensland test processing capacity is also supplemented at the federal or state/nation level, i.e. they have additional covid swab testing resource per capita. 

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Economic cancer and chronic poverty are also forms of deadly diseases.

We are merely allowing the government to choose what diseases are better for us.

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Economic cancer is a wonderful euphemism for the way our entire economy revolves around a real estate bubble.   Well done.

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"We are merely allowing..."

Wait, you mean we had the ability to control the govt?

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In any true democracy, there is a concept.

That concept is called, "People Power".

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Covid is better for the government.

It's easier than facing real issues like poverty and homelessness, where they have been a total failure.

 

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Yet I am sure you got both jabs as soon as you could...

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Remaining above 10 cases a day. Not really getting on top of this. How much longer are we going to be locked down for before they come to their senses. 

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The bigger problem is we still had 10 cases out in the community while infectious on Sunday. My question is how is this still happening ? Clearly the links between people just cannot be made quick enough and people are simply ignoring the lockdown rules and testing is to slow. Really this just clearly shows how Delta cannot be eliminated once it gets into the community. All we are able to do is surpress the numbers to 10 to 20 cases a day and buy time until the vaccination rates hit a peak, once this happens you may as well just drop to level 1. Optional mask wearing and spread out the number of deaths for as long as possible to prevent hospital overload. Its crystal clear now that the elimination game has been lost and sooner or later everyone in NZ will catch Delta. Evaluate you risk profile and if in doubt get vaccinated.

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I wonder if you have to have a booster shot to keep your job or to keep your vaccine passport up to date? 

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Does the shot offer immunity? 

Only to it's manufacturers. 

 

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classic burn!

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Please, John Key save us from this mess...

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Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) 3,873

And if they found 12 cases isolating/in MIQ then I'm guessing a chunk of these tests are happening in managed facilities or within known contacts. Which doesn't suggest a huge amount of testing in the areas of interest/outside those spheres. 

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And curled up in that will be numbers of those who don’t want to be tested, fearful of the consequences, or can’t afford to be tested, fearful of losing work income.  Yep fear is certainly a double edged sword isn’t it.

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4pm might unveil something troubling.. 

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You would think if there was anything critical coming out of cabinet then we'd have been softballed the news by now. 

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Yes they will do what my Cousins did in the UK, caught Covid in the first wave but didn't tell anyone and stayed at home. The problem now is that Delta is way more infectious and is staying ahead of any attempts to trace it or isolate cases fast enough. The number of people wandering about that don't even know they have it must be a problem as well now that clear links cannot be established 100% of the time. Looks like game over to me in the elimination strategy. The governments Plan B should have been to be building up the healthcare system over the last 18 months and obtaining the vaccines faster for the over 65 age group at least. I think we need to brace ourselves for 10 deaths a day.

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Looks like we will learn to live with these numbers, up to 20 a day. What next ? Do we hope that these infections will stay confined to Auckland ? When will we dare to open Auckland to the rest of the country ?
Vaccinations in Auckland will hit 90% soon, but that is no guarantee that infections will not spread outside of Auckland. How to solve that prickly issue ?

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That's the problem. It's all very to get Auckland vaxxed. But level 2 will see huge amounts of people leave the city on the first opportunity. Then what about our ageing rural folk? 4pm might reveal compulsory vax and vax passports. 

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That's only first shots, which do give a good level of protection, but our second shot numbers are still much lower at 43% nationwide. I expect a surge of second shots about 6 weeks after the start of this lockdown to match the surge of first shots.

However the number getting their first shot has fallen off a cliff, yes it was a Sunday but only about 8,000 first shots were given yesterday in the whole country, even getting to 85% of those eligible having a first shot is looking like a real stretch.

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We only keep at these number if we keep Auckland locked down. Ease restrictions and the numbers will spike. Elimination still the best strategy. 7-day moving average of the numbers still going down. 

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Back to 50 cases a day by next week

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Sadly I think that is what will happen - we haven't seen the effects of level 3 yet. 

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So still only one death, and that was a very old person with other conditions.

Is it time to question whether this virus is as bad as is made out?

Are the worse outcomes in places such as England due to large populations of dark skinned people with a significant prevalence of vitamin d deficiency? (Britain's winters having very low levels of sun).

Studies in the UK have shown, adjusting for socio economic factors and health status, that mortality rates are significantly higher among black people and people of South Asian descent.

Perhaps because of our ethnic mix and climate we are significantly less prone to mortality from covid?

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I guess we need to tell the Italians, Spanish, US South and Brazilians (to name a few) that they shouldn't be dying

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Your point, I assume, is sunny climates in those locations?

MY point was more nuanced than that - climate AND race. Rather than a single factor.

What are levels of smoking like in those countries? Much higher than here I imagine.

What I am saying is there could be several factors than mean our mortality rates are much lower than some other countries.

Countering that, our high rates of obesity could represent a risk.

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Spain, and to a lesser extent Italy, have quite high levels of smoking.

Brazil much lower though.

 

 

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From a quick scan, evidence seems to suggest smoking is a bigger risk than obesity.

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I think part of our pre delta success was because of climate but I think our big problems are obesity.

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-1…

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/08/study-severe-covid-…

The independent increased risk mostly cancels our the vaccines effectiveness.

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Lincoln Rd Henderson is known as heart attack ally. 

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Weekend update from Singapore  'will scale back social interactions from 27 September through 24 October 2021, so as to slow down community transmissions, and allow for better stability."  and  two of four deaths deaths included

Case 72277, a 71 year-old male Singaporean, has passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection on 24 September 2021. He tested positive for COVID-19 infection on 8 September. He had been vaccinated against COVID-19, and had a history of atrial fibrillation, thyrotoxicosis and hyperlipidaemia which, together with his advanced age, made him more susceptible to severe illness. and

   Case 82792, a 97 year-old female Singaporean, has passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection on 25 September 2021. She tested positive for COVID-19 infection on 18 September. She had not been vaccinated against COVID-19, and had a history of hyperlipidaemia. 

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Guys, be aware.

This vaccine mRNA is extremly volitile and needs to be encapsulated in a Graphene Oxide nanoparticle. This technology was invented by SinoPEG and is trademarked as per the patent below. Check their website. Do you research and D.D.

There is no cure for death

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32531395/

https://patents.google.com/patent/CN112220919A/en

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Fear porn nonsense.

Here's a review article on lipid nanoparticles with 253 references - this is research.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00358-0

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Nonsense? Must be fake links. SinoPEG makes the PEGylated nanoparticle lipids as per their website. They created the Graphene oxide capsule for the lipid. There are 2 Lipids in the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine, ALC-0135 & ALC-0159. The latter is 'novel', as in never used in humans before, this has the rGO and is the delivery system.

Your link does not state the makeup of the delivery system for the COVID19 vaccine. It says some types use this or that.

But anyway there is much information by independent scientists that is coming out, even from Israel to say natural immunity is superior to being jabbed every 4 months

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It is interesting to observe that in ex-colonial countries the restrictions are much higher than in other countries. We have strict lockdown compared to the countries with infection rates 20x higher  / 1000 people.

 

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What are the least expensive & most effective strategies?  As far as I can tell we should be aiming for some degree of natural immunity in the community by not vaccinating healthy young people.  We should have learning lessons from India that early outpatient treatment with ivermectin, vitamin D3, zinc, and antibiotic dramatically reduces hospitalisations.  I guess the government is focused on the least effective and most expensive strategies.   

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It appears everything here in NZ has gone quiet on a booster shot for the +65 after 6 months. Not enough vaccines ordered even for the  first round (2 shots)? If ordered may three-six months away?

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Good comment FatPat. Am I imagining it or has the whole Western world gone mad? The Covid IFR (J Ioannidis, Stanford) is 0.15% (same as the flu) and would be lower if our DG of Health permitted ivermectin. 

The Pfizer vaccine has caused over 6,000 deaths (as per VAERS) but our PM has ordered some employers to sack people who do not take it. Our country is becoming evil.

 

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Even if that 6000 number was accurate, there has been over SIX BILLION doses administered now. To simplify things that gives you 1 chance in a  million of dying from the vaccine. (In NZ we are currently running at 1 death for 5 million doses). It's not even slightly risky. To put that in perspective here's some chances of you dying in your lifetime from the following.

Car crash: 1/107

Choking on food: 1/2535

Sunstroke: 1/8248

Bee/wasp sting: 1/59507

Lightning strike: 1/138849

 

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