Covid Watch

Frustrated businesses are urging the Government to allow them to bring in rapid Covid-19 tests to protect New Zealand work sites.
A powerful group of 25 businesses across a range of sectors employing thousands of staff have formed a coalition to jointly import 370,000 rapid antigen tests to be introduced on workplaces around the country.
Mainfreight's managing director Don Braid said the businesses were seeking urgent approval from the Government "to allow for the importation of rapid surveillance tests as a critical part of health and safety management in the workplace".
The 25 companies requesting urgent approval to introduce the tests at critical work sites include Mainfreight, Foodstuffs North Island, Genesis, Hynds Pipe Systems, Mercury, Summerset Group, Wellington Airport, Christchurch Airport, Sky NZ, Queenstown Airport, Spark, Vodafone, The Warehouse Group, ANZ Bank, Contact Energy, Fulton Hogan, Woolworths NZ, Fletcher Building, Chorus, Carter Holt Harvey, Meridian Energy, DHL Express NZ, Air NZ and Auckland Airport.
The plea is a sign of businesses increasingly frustrated with the slow rollout of rapid testing as the latest border failure hit in August when the Government's mass vaccination programme had got off to a slow start.
Braid said businesses wanted to take care of their people from a health and safety perspective and to keep their sites operational.
''Vaccinations and testing are key to this and it is bewildering that the rapid testing we are using in 26 locations around the world is unavailable to us at our home base in New Zealand.''

Mainfreight managing director Don Braid. Photo / NZME
Comment has been sought from Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. There will be an update from the Government on testing tomorrow.
Last month it announced a trial at Middlemore Hospital of the tests which use swabs taken from the nose or throat for surveillance testing for Covid. In Britain the National Health Service encourages people to do them at home.
Braid said: "We believe the Government shares our concern that the addition of antigen testing cannot suffer the long delays that occurred in introducing saliva testing. With the current Delta outbreak we are confident they will act decisively and work with us to make it happen."
He told the Herald relevant Government ministers had been willing to consider all options but he feared the push to import the tests for use within businesses could get bogged down at the Ministry of Health.
''We asked for a workplace opportunity to try these antigen testing units three or four weeks ago but it was stymied by the ministry.''
There was heavy demand for the kits - priced at around $10 - around the world and he was worried this could lead to a shortage if this country didn't act quickly to import them.
Testing didn't replace vaccination as the most important way of fighting Covid, said Braid but was another tool.
''Business has been trying to assist the Government and the ministry and we feel we have a vital role to play.''
Rapid antigen tests are used widely overseas as an additional tool to curb the spread of Covid-19, providing on-the-spot results in minutes to help identify chains of transmission, provide reassurance to employees and ensure workplace continuity.
The 25 companies, which are looking to procure 370,000 tests via medical supplies wholesaler and distributor EBOS Healthcare, have written to the Government seeking emergency clearance to import the tests within the next seven days.
The tests, which would not take the place of existing PCR tests for border workers or those who are experiencing symptoms, provide results in about 15 minutes, unlike PCR tests which can take days to return results.
Five of the six rapid tests under consideration are approved and in use in Australia with final option currently under an approvals process, the coalition says.

The Covid-19 Response Minister says authorities are working to figure out how far Covid-19 has spread.
New Zealand has 39 cases of Covid-19 today, 30 in Auckland, nine in Waikato.
Two cases spread past areas that aren't in Alert Level Three.
A potential Covid-19 case was detected in Whangarei. 
The person, who is now in Auckland, returned a weak result and will take another test.
Chris Hipkins told Heather du Plessis-Allan it may be nothing.
“It was a very what we call a high CT value, which means a very, very weak test. And we have had those in the past where when a retest is done it’s come back negative.”
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Senior Mongrel Mob spokesperson Louise Hutchinson spoke to Simon Barnett and James Daniels about Sonny Fatupaitu, the head of the Mongrel Mob's Waikato chapter, being granted a border exemption to cross into Auckland.
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I don’t have a problem with the Auckland border exemption for the Mongrel Mob boss. 
We know the gangs are a major problem with the spread of Covid at the moment.
It doesn’t sound like all the gang members are getting tested and being straight up with the contact tracers about where they’ve been and who they’ve been in contact with.
Which means Covid keeps spreading faster than the contact tracers can catch up.
So if getting Sonny up from Waikato to Auckland to give the Mungies the hard word about being compliant actually helps out.
Then it’s to everybody’s benefit that he got that exemption.
However, that’s not the real problem here, is it? 
The real problem here is that hardworking, taxpaying, straight up and down Kiwis are also asking for exemptions and not getting them.
And that is what is getting up our noses.
Summit Homes.  Remember them?  They spoke to us a couple of weeks ago.  80 per cent of their builders are on the Auckland side of the boundary, but they have about 20 houses under construction on the Waikato side.
They asked for an exemption to cross for a legitimate reason that any one of us can see should be granted.
And they got a no. Four times now. They just applied again today. 
Because of that, people can’t move into their homes and Summit Homes keeps losing money.
Or what about the Rotorua couple with triplets on their way a bit over a week ago.  The mum got taken to Auckland Hospital.  The dad wasn’t allowed.  He asked for an exemption. He got a no.
Any of us would agree the man should’ve been given permission.
And that is the problem here.  Not that Sonny from the Mungies got an exemption — because that’s warranted — but that everybody else with a good reason isn’t getting an exemption too. 
It’s the same thing with MIQ.  Of course we want the Black Caps and the English netball team to get MIQ spots. But we object to a system being so badly designed that more than 20,000 other Kiwis who also deserve to come home missed out yesterday again.
So while I think there’s a very good reason for Sonny to get across the border, I think the government deserves all the blowback it’s getting because there are very good reasons for builders and dads to get across the border too, but they aren’t allowed.

The headline this morning was that a Mongrel Mob boss was granted an essential worker exemption to travel to Auckland. 
Sonny Fatupaito, from the Mongrel Mob Kingdom in the Waikato, travelled in and out of Auckland last weekend. 
The PM was asked about this this morning on Radio Hauraki, after a track from Queens of the Stone Age and a question as to which vacuum cleaner she and Clarke used, and what would she recommend, Jeremy Wells asked her about the headline.
I can imagine that if you are someone who is desperate to get across the border to see family and friends, or who has been denied essential worker status and is watching your business flounder, this would set your teeth on edge. 
This news has probably completely rarked up those who believe, justifiably, that this Police Commission and this government is soft on gangs.  But I have to say, in this case, I support the decision. 
I agree with the PM.   Contact tracers who are on minimum 20 bucks, median 27 dollars per hour, are unlikely to get the information required from gang members with Covid. 
Sonny Fatupaito will. 
According to a press statement released to selected media:
“This work initially started with a cluster at the Assembly of God Church in Manukau which then extended to a Mongrel Mob Kingdom Chapter based in Auckland.
This required immediate intervention from the senior leadership in the Waikato Kingdom, and this onsite intervention ensured compliance and welfare assistance was provided as needed. The Kingdom has collaborated closely with providers South Seas Healthcare and The Cause Collective based in South Auckland.
A request for assistance from the Crisis Management Team in South Auckland was made to Sonny, to facilitate the process of members and their whānau being tested. Sonny was given exemption to cross the Auckland boundary, to complete this essential work, this travel was conducted under strict Covid-19 protocols enforced by Health Authorities and the Police.
The high-level of risk is far from over, the Mongrel Mob Kingdom will be facilitating further educational health programs in the Waikato. To this end, a Covid-19 Education Workshop on 16 October will be held in Hopuhopu, with indigenous health experts, Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen from Te Ropu Whakakaupapa Uruta (National Māori Pandemic Group) and Associate Professor, Collin Tukuitonga from the Public Health department at the University of Auckland.
This event is designed to give our members and their whānau, accurate and relevant information towards protecting their whānau from Covid-19 and will give our members the opportunity to question the experts, particularly surrounding much of the online social media content about the Covid vaccine. The event will also include a pop-up vaccination site for members wanting to vaccinate themselves and their whānau.”
I know it must seem galling to see a gang leader get an essential worker exemption - but hey, at least he applied for one, rather than using the underground railway other gang members do. 
And none of us will be travelling around the country any time soon unless controlling the community spread and overcoming vaccine hesitancy is achieved. 
So, in this instance, Sonny Fatupaito has more to offer than that posturing narcissist Brian Tamaki.

I want to commend the Government for finally mustering the resolve to pump out vaccine certificates and mandate their use in high-risk settings. 
If the Prime Minister stays true to her timetable, these certificates, their use and the mandates will start going live in November. 
Some will see this as a big stick, others a big carrot. Frankly, it's both. It’s the passport to leading a fuller life with more doors open and greater access in a Covid-world. 
And it’s the sort of measure that has been sorely needed to help drive impetus to speed up the vaccination uptake. 
For the cavalier stragglers, the apathetic and the hold-outs, it’s the jolt they need to jolly them into action. 
Ardern has confirmed that a vaccine certificate will be a compulsory pre-condition of entry for large-scale, and she’s right to single out summer festivals. That will wake up some people. 
Alongside the mandated high-risk settings the Government specifies, the private sector will play a huge role, given they can voluntarily make these certificates a condition of entry. Many will. And they will have the legal protection to do so. 
I trust Air New Zealand rise to the occasion and elect to make a vaccine certificate a condition of carriage on domestic flights before Christmas. Ditto for the Cook Strait Ferries. 
Jacinda Ardern has ruled out the need for these certificates to be used for the likes of accessing healthcare services or supermarkets. 
I agree with Judith Collins. If a supermarket operator wants to make them a requirement to enter the store, that should be their call. It’s a private business. 
Yes, the hardcore holdouts will purse their lips and blast me with texts that this is oppressive state control. The dystopia. 
It’s actually a fork in the road, and the route you take is your call. You can either get with the programme, get jabbed and enjoy the fruits of a freer, fuller life with open access.  
Or you can choose to stay aloof, or be bloody-minded, or pack a sad, and narrow your horizons in your own self-imposed hermit kingdom. That’s your choice.

Here's a dilemma - how do you try and promote and sell tickets to a huge sporting event while the country is in lockdown? 
Tickets go on sale today for the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup which takes place in New Zealand over March and April 2022.  
CEO of the Women's World Cup Andrea Nelson joined Mike Yardley. 
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Like a good supporting act, one of the country's biggest summer festivals is supporting the Government's vaccine certificate. 
Festival and concert-goers will need to be fully vaccinated this summer in order to attend large scale events.  
A printable digital Covid-19 vaccine certificate is expected to be available from November 
Rhythm & Vines co-founder Hamish Pinkham told Tim Dower it's a good move. 
"That's the new push, that's what we need to get behind and it's certainly going to be no jab, no entry and Rhythm and Vines this summer from all accounts." 
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Cabinet will have lots to talk about when it meets again next Monday. 
Chris Hipkins says the Government will have more to say next week on whether teachers and healthcare workers will need to be vaccinated. 
There could be further discussions, on whether vaccinations should be mandatory for domestic travel. 
The Covid-19 Response Minister told Mike Yardley there's also a chance restrictions could be further eased in Auckland, on step 2 of the Government's new roadmap. 
"I never want to get ahead of these things. It's going to depend a lot on what we see over the next week, there is certainly a chance but I wouldn't want to give you a degree of odds on it." 
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Job listings are continuing to rise, despite the Covid-19 restrictions and Auckland's lockdown. 
Trade Me job listings are up by nearly a half in the third quarter 
Enterprise Recruitment chief operating officer Ian McPherson told Tim Dower there's a shortage of supply in most sectors, at most levels. 
He says that's because the borders are shut, and international students and travellers can't come in. 
"The lack of ability to bring in skills, it's all creating this storm of demand outstripping supply." 
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