Covid Watch

Grant Robertson believes it’s still possible Auckland will be out of lockdown for Christmas.
The Deputy Prime Minister also says his quip about National giving Covid for Christmas was to do with a specific policy about the border.
He told Heather du Plessis-Allan they're looking at vaccination rates and the state of the outbreak before making the decision to move Auckland out of lockdown.
“As we get to that 90 per cent plus area, that does open those options up. Metro Auckland DHBs numbers are up around 87 per cent first dose now, so we’re not that far away from getting to that 90 per cent level.”
LISTEN ABOVE

Auckland will remain in Alert Level 3 for another week with no indefinite end in sight.
But after the past week, faith in the Government's Covid plan could be lost, especially as Auckland could be in lockdown until Christmas and as it starts to dawn on people that we're going to be living with Covid until Christmas, if not indefinitely.
Vaccines will also become mandatory for teachers and health workers.
It may just be part of the new reality of 'no jab, no job' that many more workforces may have to go through.
Elsewhere, people in New Plymouth who may have got speeding tickets in the past 11 years may be entitled to a refund.
The police have wrongly handed out $50,000 worth of speeding tickets on a renamed part of State Highway 3 that had a reduced speed limit of 50km/h but was never formalised, so the speed limit was technically still 100km/h.
Listen above as Josie Pagani and Tim Beveridge discuss the day's news with Heather du Plessis-Allan on The Huddle

I’m not really surprised by the Cabinet decision to leave Auckland in current restrictions, which is Alert Level 3 with a picnic and not give Auckland any more freedoms.
I think what they’re wanting to do is leave it another week to see how much transmission there is in Level 3 with picnics before they can start giving any more freedoms.
Given it takes seven to 10 days to really see those numbers start coming through the testing system, it’s probably not until Wednesday or even as late as Sunday this week before we really get an idea of what kind of transmission is going on in Auckland at the moment.
That 60 we got yesterday, that’s transmission that happened before the picnics. So I expect now we’re doing the picnics, it’s going to go up from 60 by the end of this week.
The thing is, I really think that Chris Hipkins and Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield need to be straight with us and start answering questions about how long this lockdown is going to take.
Me asking Chris Hipkins earlier is it going to be till Christmas, he needs to actually start indicating to Aucklanders that it is a real possibility that we’re still sitting in Level 3 come Christmas time.
Because this is starting to look like something that’s gonna drag on for months.
For example, we’re essentially doing what New South Wales did, look at how long it took them.
They had Freedom Day today — they just came out of a four-month lockdown.
If that is how long our lockdown lasts, then we’re only halfway through, we’ve got another couple of months ahead of us, which means we’re potentially in this until early to mid-December if you're being realistic about it.
It could even take longer because our health system is so much crappier than New South Wales’ was, which means we’re gonna put pressure on it faster and have to stay in lockdown longer to be able to keep the pressure off.
And that is really what this is about.
They’ve made a big play about how this is all about the vaccination rate.
But listen to what they’re saying, it’s also really about how much our hospitals can handle before they’re overwhelmed.
What the Government seems to be doing is giving us some freedoms, then seeing if the hospitals are OK for a couple of weeks, and if they are OK, then they give you a little bit more freedom, and then they step back and watch if the hospital’s OK for a couple of weeks, and they sort of take it week by week or fortnight by fortnight, letting the pressure off a wee bit.
I’m not sure that they’ve been totally clear with us that that is what they're doing, and I’m not sure that they’ve been totally clear with us about how long that will take to get to the other side.
Rather than putting through Aucklanders through the misery, and frankly the rest of the country who remain in Level 2 while Auckland remains at Level 3, of doing this every single week and getting disappointed, I think they might need to just front up and admit how long this is possibly gonna take and that it could be Christmas.

A Northland mayor says any "underground" community transmission, will be nasty.
The Covid-positive woman who travelled around the region still isn't divulging where she's been.
Authorities have identified her travel companion, but haven't been able to locate her.
Whangarei mayor Sheryl Mai told Heather du Plessis-Allan there are too many unanswered questions and Northlanders are paying the price.
“I’m just really hopeful that we don’t have some community spread we don't know about because people aren't getting tested because they’re afraid of coming forward.”
Northland is staying in Alert Level Three until midnight Thursday.
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A Covid positive woman says her husband's test has been lost and he has symptoms.
Lucy told Heather du Plessis-Allan she tested positive for the virus last Thursday.
She says following her result her husband was initially told to wait at home, but then later told he could go to a testing centre.
“However, I checked in yesterday on Sunday around what's happening with the test result and they couldn't find it anywhere…it’s gone missing somewhere in the system.”
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Hundreds of thousands of education and health staff - including teachers, GPs, pharmacists, nurses - will need to be fully vaccinated in the coming months or face losing their jobs.
The two-dose deadline for high-risk health and disability staff is December 1 this year, and for education - including all school and ECE staff who come into contact with students - it is January 1 next year.
Secondary schools, from next year, will also be required to keep a register to show the vaccination status of students.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins, who is also the Education Minister, has just revealed Cabinet's decision on mandatory vaccinations for workers in the education and healthcare sectors.
"It's not an easy decision, but we need the people who work with vulnerable communities who haven't yet been vaccinated to take this extra step," he said.
"Exemptions may be possible under some circumstances."
Healthcare workers will have to be fully vaccinated by December 1 this year, and will need to have had their first dose by October 30.
The public health order requiring this will include general practitioners, pharmacists, community health nurses, midwives, paramedics, and all healthcare workers in sites where vulnerable patients are treated (including Intensive Care Units).
"These requirements also include certain non-regulated healthcare work, such as aged residential care, home and community support services, kaupapa Māori health providers and NGOs who provide health services," Hipkins said.
The full list will be provided in the next few days.
All staff at schools and ECEs who have contact with children and students will need to have a first dose by November 1, and to be fully vaccinated by January 1.
"This includes home-based educators, and all those support people in our schools and early learning services such as teacher-aides, administration and maintenance staff and contractors," Hipkins said.
"Secondary schools and kura will also be required to keep a Covid-19 vaccination register for students. Students that do not produce evidence of vaccination will be considered unvaccinated."
Hipkins said all school employees in Auckland and other level 3 regions will be required to return a negative Covid-19 test before they can return to work onsite.
"Those who are not fully vaccinated in the period leading up to January 1, 2022, will also be required to undergo weekly Covid-19 testing."
The Government was still considering whether mandatory vaccinations will be required in the tertiary education sector.
While there had been support for mandatory vaccinations for these workforces, there has also been some pushback.
The NZ Council of Trade Unions has previously cautioned that a blanket vaccination order could do more harm than good because it might create a sense of coercion.
And more than 5000 people have signed a petition asking for no mandatory vaccinations, which has been submitted to Parliament.
This morning a number of health and youth experts, in an Otago University public health blogpost, called for a clear strategy to minimise any infections in school settings.
These included mandatory vaccination for all adults on school sites - and no on-site learning to start before 90 per cent vaccination coverage for staff - regular staff testing, vaccination events in schools, and guidelines on ventilation, physical distancing and mask use.
Schools in Auckland had been earmarked to open from October 18, pending public health advice.
ECE centres in Auckland opened last week, but restricted to bubbles of 10 people, and subject to availability - some centres were already at bubble capacity because essential workers could already drop their kids off at ECE centres.
Medical bodies back mandatory vax call
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners has backed the call for mandatory vaccinations for those in...

The Government's Covid-19 response has lost its way and now Northlanders are paying the price, former deputy prime minister Winston Peters says.
Northland is currently in alert level 3 after it was revealed an Auckland woman with Covid obtained travel documents and spent several days in the region.
She is believed to have travelled around Northland, possibly with another woman.
Peters told Jamie Mackay that the region was in lockdown because of a lack of information.
"If the Government knows who these two women are and the background circumstances, then why aren't they sharing that with the people of Northland so that they can forewarn their neighbours and others?
"The system is a mess when you don't get proper disclosure."
On Newshub Nation this weekend Peters claimed the Mongrel Mob brought the woman to Northland via Auckland under false pretences.
Making this kind of information public knowledge was "critical" in tackling the virus in the region, Peters said.
"Māori and the general community up North need to know where they have been."
He thought the Government was vague when disclosing the region's places of interest.
"In other parts of the country they've said this town, this place, whereas in Northland they've said towns … that's no information – that's just misinformation."
This lack of communication was unfair to those following the rules, Peters said.
"We're expecting the team of five million to all contribute together and hold hands and try and get on top of Covid.
"We'll never get there with that sort of lack of accountability and transparency, or downright honesty."
There seemed to be one rule for gangs and another for the rest of the population, Peters said.
"We don't have one law for everybody.
"You've got all sorts of soft-peddling and misinformation and, how shall I say it - misexplanation - of what's going on, when that, at the end of the day, is the worst thing possible in a crisis like this."
Northlanders would be happy to help out if the Government shared information, instead, they were being "utterly left out of the loop", Peters said.
"I can tell you in very quick time Northlanders would tell them precisely where they've been and precisely what their neighbours need to do now."
The lack of information could have a disastrous effect on Northland's economy, Peters said.
"The cost to businesses in Northland and right down the rest of the country is massive.
"[Huge costs] are being racked up every day because of too many failures, one after the other, where Covid-19 is concerned."
Ultimately, the Government should have taken action when Pfizer made contact about vaccines in June last year, Peter said.
"We were smug in not rolling out the vaccine and if we had got on top of the thing before Delta even arrived in this country, we would've got the vaccination numbers up.
"We went from being world leaders to plain smug and lost the plot.
"That's why the Government [is currently] doing its best with public relations and spin officers - to try and show they're on top of it when they're not."

Also in today's interview: Peters talked about Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins suggesting immunity for one of the women and Covid vaccinations rates.

D Day today on the announcements, and I don't think anyone's expecting good news - not with 60 community cases yesterday and more to come. 
It's not the number of cases of the Delta strain that is the problem - it's the fact that unvaccinated or people who are not fully vaccinated are more likely to end up in hospital and that’s the problem. 
Good to see rates of vaccination picking up as the reality of having Covid in the community kicks in - although how you reach some people is beyond me. 
Take the Stuff story - they went into the suburb of Aranui, a suburb with one of the lowest rates of vaccination in the country and spoke to a number of vaccine resistant residents. 
One of them was a woman who looked like she had lived a full life.  She was puffing away on her ciggy, and enjoying a beersie of a sunny morning - and far be it for me to point the digit at anyone enjoying a beerise on a sunny morning. 
But she wasn't going to get the vaccine because I quote 'I'm scared it's going to kill me.' 
And the gangs - they're a bit hesitant because they don't know what's in it.  Since when have they ever given a fat rat's bum about what they put into their body or where indeed they put their body parts. 
 It is time for the authorities to get tough on people like the huckory moll who did the tiki tour of Northland with her dodgy mate.  Once she's out of quarantine, she can spend a bit more time staring at four walls - hopefully in a cell.  She's a criminal nuisance but hopefully she won't prove to be the Typhoid Mary of Northland - and hopefully her selfishness and callousness will be the spur some vaccine hesitant need to get the vaccine. 
As well as getting tough on rule breakers, the Government also needs to mandate vaccinations for essential workers, not rely on the employer to do their unpopular work for them. 
That would be one small thing the Government could do that would help out businesses without costing them a cent.  And the Government needs to let the South Island go - if they want to move down a level. 
 What is the point of everyone languishing if they don't have to?  Talking to my family on the Kapiti Coast, it made me aware of how quickly you become institutionalised.  They went away for the weekend, visited vineyards in Martinborough, went out to dinner in Greytown, their uncle took the kids to the swimming pools - bliss. 
And it seems utterly foreign and exotic sitting north of the Bombays.  The sooner we bring out vaccine passports the better - if we've been double vaxxed, let us visit loved ones in aged care homes.  Let us travel to other cities to be with family and friends.  Let us dine out.  Let us be like Sydney.
But again, because I've become so institutionalised, I really don't expect any good news, leadership or bright ideas.  I will be very, very happy if I'm proved wrong.

Well since I was on air last week things have devolved into a right royal mess.
Last Monday, the Prime Minister kept Auckland in Level 3 but threw the city a bone.
You're still locked down but you can have a little visit with another family or your yoga class.
Her mistake was fooling with the settings.
What Aucklanders heard was socialising is back on the menu boys. They heard Level 2 with restrictions. Not Level 3 with picnics. Give a city an inch, it'll take a mile and it did and lo and behold, case numbers are up and the spectre of Melbourne and Sydney is upon us.
Those cities got into a mess by going into loose lockdowns which don't work. The Government last week lost their bottle and made exactly the same mistake.
They've bowed to the pressure from business who are constantly advocating for opening up, meanwhile they've let down the population who believe that the suppression of Covid cases until we're as fully vaccinated as we can be is the best course for the country.
In trying to make everybody happier they've made everybody angrier.
Meanwhile, the spread of Covid into Waikato and Northland suddenly saw a surge in vaccinations. What worries me is not the hardcore vaccine hesitant, but the guys who only pull their finger out when the threat becomes real. Getting the jab in Raglan the day Covid arrives is 4 weeks too late.
This is New Zealand's great weakness. Too many people don't see the threat. They've not seen Covid up close. Elsewhere people leapt on the vaccine because they'd seen too many ambulances picking up their neighbours in the middle of the night. We never had that.
There is complacency in the community as well as in government.
The threat is hiding in plain sight. It's the swamping of our health system.
This current outbreak is causing a hospitalisation rate of 10%. With the numbers at their current level, we can absorb that. Just. Double them and we're in big trouble. We're on the verge of doubling them
Obviously, we need to learn to live with Covid. Surely, it's simple
Double the hospital beds and ICU and offer freedoms only once we're at 80% vaccinated, or more.
Everything else is just shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic.

I'm not sure if you see things with a slightly more distant eye while you are on holiday, but last week seemed like a new low in the mess that is this lockdown. 
"Park piss ups” was one of the myriads memes as confusion reigned as to just what exactly was supposed to be unfolding in this calamitous mess that was headlined as a roadmap. 
The world media knew what they saw, and what they saw was us giving up on elimination. 
We had seen that a week or so earlier, but still Ardern and Co refused to use the word and refused to accept they got it hopelessly wrong. They started talking about the “tricky transition," whatever the hell that means. 
So, it was bubbles in open spaces for beer according to the Prime Minister. Until some idiot asked about going to the toilet, to which the Prime Minister laughed because they had, of course, no plan for that. 
I am not sure what is worse. The fact the plan was no plan at all, but rather a desperate attempt to make it look like Level 3 was not Level 3, because you could have a beer in a park. Or the fact we have become so pathetically lost we need to ask where we can go to the toilet. 
Unfortunately, Grant Robertson then wandered into the public domain and gave some contradictory advice to the original toilet advice, thus causing yet more confusion. 
The trouble when you literally make stuff up is that it makes no sense and people do pretty much what they want anyway. Either deliberately, or by way of mistake because they haven't got a clue what's going on. 
So essentially, we are Melbourne or Sydney. The exact thing the Government spent so much time saying we didn’t want to be. 
Having pleased literally no one. Not the frightened who think all of this is too much and not the rest of us who are so sick and tired of their ineptitude, they have now fallen between stools. They've lost control and failing at all levels to give coherent advice based on a well-thought through plan. 
When the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are giving contradictory advice on toileting, the Covid response has officially arrived at the point of farce.