Covid Watch

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are once again battling for a spot in MIQ.
The virtual lobby has closed and about 26000 people are now in the queue for vouchers.
About 3800 spots are up for grabs across October, November and December.
Christchurch resident Tekla Kridle who is stuck in Australia, says their position is under three-thousand in line, and they're watching the numbers tick down.
She says for them it's still up in the air, and will come down to availability of flights.
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The ACT party says the Government’s Covid-19 strategy is no longer viable and they want five key changes. They say New Zealand has been pursuing an eradication strategy, not an elimination strategy.  
ACT party leader David Seymour says he wants to move away from isolating whole cities at a time and shift the overall strategy from public health to wellbeing. 
He says the process of trying to completely eradicate Covid-19 is no longer viable and we need to move to a paradigm of harm minimisation. 
Seymour believes we’ve got to go from ‘Government knows best’ to an ‘all-in team effort’. 
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Auckland's Mayor says planned lockdown protests are an insult to people making sacrifices and following the rules.
Top cops Andrew Coster and Wally Haumaha have had a virtually meeting with Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki over plans for rallies across the country this weekend.
Tamaki says they will be Covid-responsible.
Phil Goff says he hopes protests won't involve confrontation and actions that make people unsafe.
He says if they do, they should expect Police to respond.
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We know about Adesanya now, but will he start an exodus of our top athletes living and competing here?  
Adesanya says he's moving to the US - the MIQ situation, increased difficulty to train and prepare for fights a couple of reasons cited, and he won't fight in New Zealand ever.  
We know the frustrations from the likes of Ryan Fox and Hayden Wilde who are overseas - and Paige Harrab who wants to travel the world to do her job but can't guarantee getting back in.  
Is this the beginning of something? Have we driven our athletes that aren't in the All Blacks too far?  
Director at Esportif International and one of NZ's leading agents Bruce Sharrock joined Mike Hosking. 
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Some major employers within the horticulture industry say they're still in the dark when it comes to getting seasonal workers.  
Originally announced to be starting September, a one-way quarantine free travel trial with Pacific seasonal workers starts next week - the first week of October.   
The Government says workers from Vanuatu can start arriving on Monday, and Samoan and Tongan workers the following Tuesday.  
Yummy Fruit general manager Paul Paynter told Mike Hosking they're expecting workers at some point - but not on those dates.  
"As an employer, you need approval to recruit before you can actually go and get the people and get their work visas in their passports and none of that has happened." 
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Low satisfaction levels for the new MIQ booking system. 
It had its first run at the start of last week, and will be in action again this evening 
In a Grounded Kiwis survey about 900 respondents gave the new system an overall rating of 3 point 6 out of 10.  
A quarter of them say they had technical difficulties.  
AUT computer scientist Ken Johnson told Kate Hawkesby the lobby system was developed in response to automated scripts and bots.  
"In a way, the lobby system is much fairer, of course. But it does have its own problems." 
The next tranche of spots will be released this evening from 5pm. 
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Act is calling for Covid-19 lockdowns to end, once and for all. 
Newstalk ZB can reveal the party will this morning unveil a policy to move away from the need to ever return to Alert Level Four. 
It's instead calling for targeted isolation of people who have tested positive for Covid, people who have returned from overseas, and vulnerable people. 
Act Leader David Seymour told Mike Hosking shutting down when there's Covid in the community is no longer a viable plan. 
"Last year you could say short and sharp lockdowns and then get freedom from eradication of Covid. That's no longer true with Delta, this long tail carries on indeterminably." 
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Event organisers are working through logistics of how vaccine passports will work at summer events.  
The Government's started consulting with concert, festival and other event organisers, about introducing making proof of vaccination mandatory. 
The vaccine passports could be printed out, or shown on a person's phone. 
Rhythm and Alps Founder and Director Alex Turnbull told Mike Hosking it needs to be implemented through ticketing.  
"So the logistics are based around making it as easy as possible and painless. No one wants to walk around with a mask and a phone for the rest of their life." 
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One-way quarantine free travel for seasonal workers from a handful of Pacific countries, starts next week.  
Workers from Vanuatu will begin arriving on Monday, and Samoan and Tongan workers the following Tuesday.  
They'll have to have a vaccine dose before they come, self-isolate and be tested on day zero and five.  
Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor told Kate Hawkesby there'll be health measures in place.  
"It won't be easy; it will require people to keep an eye on things. They'll be checked out by health to make sure it's suitable. We have to make sure there are people available that will be doing the testing." 
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It’s been fascinating to watch the reaction to Sir John Key involving himself in the political debate around our Covid response. 
One of the more interesting hot takes was that John Key isn’t reading the room right, which is to say he’s not in step with public opinion.  
Isn’t he?  
Feels to me like he’s absolutely reading the room right when it comes to Auckland.  
I gather this might be news to Wellington, but Auckland is angry. Auckland is over this lockdown.    
Compliance is way down. The streets are busy. People are breaking bubbles outside cafes.  More than thirty people played a game of touch in mt roskill.  We’ve had reports of people having parties at their houses.  And that’s just what ends up in the papers.  
I really feel like the mood is changing.  John Key is only the latest high-profile kiwi to have a crack at the way the Covid response is being run.  Rob Fyfe did, Sir Ian Taylor did, Don Braid of Mainfreight did, 90% of the columnists in yesterday’s papers did.  This wasn’t happening six months ago.  
The polls are shifting in opinion.  Remember that Herald poll showing support for elimination?  Well, only 46% of people wanted to keep endlessly eliminating.  A bigger number, 52% wanted us to drop elimination now or drop it after we got to 70% vaccination rate.  
This weekend, Research NZ put out a poll showing 70% support for lockdowns.  But look closer. Two thirds of those people said they only support lockdowns until we get vaccinated.    
People are getting the jab and moving on from lockdowns and elimination.    
And it’s making people frustrated or angry enough to have a crack at the Government.  Why?  At the heart of it, because they have no plan. They can’t tell us what comes next.  
They used to have a plan. The plan was keep using elimination until we get the jab rolled out.  
Well, the jab is here but the plan hasn’t been updated.  What comes next?  We have a vague idea that they’ll reopen next year but what do we actually know?  When next year?  Could anywhere between 1 January and 31 March?  What does reopen mean?  It means doubled jabbed travellers might get shorter MIQ stays or stay at home. How short? Dunno. How many travellers? Dunno. Travellers from where? Dunno.  
Do we stop using level 4 lockdowns if we get to 90% jab rate? Dunno.  
Auckland’s aiming for 90% by next Monday. But what happens if we do? Dunno.  
Are we going to get to 90% by next Monday? No.    
And what happens if we don’t? Dunno.  
Having no plan is not normal. Norway just dropped all covid restrictions in the third step of a four-step plan.  Australia has a four-step plan. NSW just announced more of their plan: when they get to 80% coverage they can travel to the regions.  
Plans are a human need. You probably have a rough idea of what you’ll be doing this time next year. What school the kids will go to, whether you want to buy a new house, what suburb that will be in, whether you want to change your job, what you might do in the school holidays.  
Sir John Key’s gripe was ultimately about the fact that we haven’t updated the plan, which means there now is no plan.  That is frustrating everyone from Sir Ian Taylor, to closed business owners, to me.  Hasn’t he read the room right?