But Delta Variant yet to peak in New Zealand
Wellington, August 24, 2021
Another 41 cases were announced today with the revelation that there are six sub Clusters – the largest connected to a Church.
Here is what happened on the seventh day of lockdown.
The Covid-19 outbreak which has shut down businesses, closed schools and kept people indoors has not yet peaked – but it’s only a matter of days, officials say. Here’s what happened on the seventh day of New Zealand’s latest lockdown.
There were 41 new community cases reported today – the highest daily total since the outbreak began early last week.
Delta Variant warning
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the numbers are expected to climb over the next two or three days, reaching the outbreak’s peak, before coming down.
With the Delta variant all household members of a case will usually become infected, unlike previous strains where only some or even no members of the same household would contract the virus, Ms Ardern told Morning Report.
“That does affect your numbers particularly if you are dealing with large households. We said that we did not believe that we would peak until eight to 10 days into lockdown. We are not there yet,” she said.
Of the total 148 community cases, 89 have been epidemiologically linked, and officials say that the vast majority of the remainder are either close contacts or were at locations of interest. More than 15,000 people are considered contacts – about 10 times more than this stage in the outbreak last year. That is intentional, and a direct result of the more contagious Delta variant.
Dr Bloomfield said that for people who are close contacts, everyone in the house must stay home until they receive a negative test at day five. “This means staying home, full stop.”
He said that he had spoken to his counterpart in Australia who told him that dealing with Delta was like handling a whole new virus, and that matched our experience in New Zealand.
Six Sub Clusters
There are six sub-Clusters, details of which have been provided for the largest two. The largest has 58 cases and is associated with the Assembly Of God Church in Mangere, while the second-largest is connected to case A and called the Birkdale Social Network Cluster, with 23 cases.
A colleague of case A became infected, and subsequently their flatmates and friends also picked up the virus.
The Church Cluster is connected with an event on Sunday, August 15, 2021, where 27 Church groups attended an ‘Assembly of Assemblies,’ Dr Bloomfield said.
At least six of the 11 Wellington cases are connected to this Cluster.
The Auckland Regional Public Health lead for the Church Cluster, Colin Tukuitonga told Morning Report that he expected cases would continue to rise and that efforts were being made to better isolate those at risk.
Self-isolating was a directive particularly challenging to the Pacific community due to overcrowding, Tukuitonga said.
“These are multigenerational households, with small houses and big families. We have agencies looking at other options for isolating contacts where there are suitable arrangements when home is not possible.”
Vaccine rollout criticised
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced said that a record 63,333 vaccinations were given yesterday (August 24, 2021).
Dr Bloomfield said vaccination rates for Pacific and Maori were similar to or slightly higher in each age group compared with other age groups, but rates were lower for Pacific in South Auckland.
Pacific Response Coordination Team Chair Pakilau Manase Lua said the Cluster linked to the Assembly of God church was a huge concern, and he questioned why officials had not heeded calls for more community-led organisations, like churches, to lead their own vaccination drives.
“If officials engaged Pacific Churches earlier, the community would have the highest rates of vaccination. We do not have enough of our people vaccinated, so that is a concern,” he said.
Reverend Victor Pouesi of the Puaseisei Christian Congregational Church of Samoa in Mangere East echoed Lau’s concerns.
People are more comfortable coming to Church to get the vaccine and they must speak up about their concerns, he said.
Meanwhile, more than 39% of Tairawhiti residents have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, due to the combined efforts of Māori health providers and district health board, Hauora Tairawhiti, and vaccination centres in Nelson and Blenheim have relocated to larger venues to increase the number of vaccines delivered to residents across the top of the South Island.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that if by the end of the year everyone who is currently eligible got their vaccinations, vaccine stocks would not be used up.
He said the government was talking to Pfizer about the possibility of securing booster shots.
Crowne Plaza contacts located
Ms Ardern said that the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where the original case of this outbreak stayed earlier this month, is no longer open as a MIQ facility.
Officials still do not know how the virus got into the community but know that it is genomically linked to a person who arrived from Sydney and initially stayed at Crowne Plaza.
Authorities have located the person and were being interviewed by the Police.
Mr Hipkins told the Health Select Committee today that there would have been a recent review of the Crowne Plaza, including the physical layout and infection control measures.
Lockdown Costs 1.5 billion a week
As well as the Health Committee, the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee was held today, with Mr Robertson defending the government’s planning and use of the Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
He said that there is about $5 billion left in the Covid Response and Recovery Fund and that there was more unspent money, including about $2.1 billion that was not used in the small business cashflow scheme and another $1 billion in other support schemes.
He said that $5 billion was merely the amount already set aside for Resurgence.
There was a wide range of supports available for people, he said. They included the Leave Support Scheme, Short Term Absence Payment, the Resurgence Support Payment and Wage Subsidy Scheme.
So far, the Ministry of Social Development has received close to 120,000 applications for the wage subsidy scheme, and more than 82,000 have been approved.
By Monday, about $152 million had been paid out, Robertson said – and the country was tracking about the same as the last level 4 lockdown.
The weekly cost to the economy is about $1.5 billion.
“A strong public health response is still the best economic response,” he said.
Meanwhile, locations of interest continue to be added and now total more than 400.
Mr Hipkins told the Health Select Committee that one of the lessons learned from the lockdown in Auckland in August 2020 was that the government stepped out of lockdown too early and had to increase it again.
They did not want to repeat that, he said, indicating that Auckland could be in lockdown for some time yet.
-Published under a Special Agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
