Covid Watch

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Tuesday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Get Used to It/Depends Where You Live/Stewart's Not for Everyone/First Home Worries/Hosk WFH

A commercial property owner says the Government should’ve done more to help butchers and bakers open during Level four.  
Sampson Corporation owns 138 properties across Auckland. 
Chief Executive David Friedlander says told Mike Hosking they’re offering tenants up to 80 percent off their rent after receiving some desperate emails from tenants whose businesses can't open 
He says while their doors remain closed, supermarkets are heaving. 
"It would be much safer for the community, when they have one person go in, one person go out, to deal with the local butcher, the baker." 
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Heather du Plessis-Allan revealed earlier in the show that the reason we could be running out of vaccines is because the Government asked for Pfizer to delay delivering their shipment.
She grills Grant Robertson on how this happened.
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After months of desperately trying to get a spot in MIQ for his son, a former National Party MP and former Consul General to LA has a suggestion for how to make the MIQ system fairer.  
While people across the world have been desperately refreshing the MIQ website in the hope that a free room will appear, we've seen the Wiggles, sports people and Antarctic scientists come through instead.  
Maurice Williamson says what we need is a priority queue. 
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The Government is possibly running out of vaccines in September and it could be their own fault. 
In May Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told Newstalk ZB that Pfizer had confirmed that New Zealand would receive 8 million doses in the third quarter, saying “we will get them all by the end of September.” 
But the shipment has now been revealed to be being delivered in October, leaving the possibility of New Zealand running out of vaccines in September. 
But looking back at a June interview Heather do Plessis-Allan did with Hipkins, it revealed the delay may be the Government's own doing. In the interview he said that while Pfizer was still committed to the September deadline, the Government was talking to them about delivering some of those doses in October and November. 
Auckland University Emeritus Professor Des Gorman says he’s “gobsmacked” to find that [the Government] have “been deliberately delaying or asking for deliveries to be delayed.”  
A delay that will cause our vaccination rate to go down, in the middle of a lockdown, which Gorman attributes to being because we don’t have a high vaccination rate. 
Hipkins in his June interview suggested the delay was to make sure “we don't end up with a whole lot sitting in the freezer.” But Gorman says they can last for very long periods of time and last weeks or months once defrosted. 
Gorman says in his opinion this vaccine rollout has been “not handled properly.” 

New Zealand has 83 new Covid-19 community cases today.
It takes our total linked to the Auckland outbreak to 511.
58 links are still being established
There are seven sub-clusters - the two largest are Birkdale, with 68 and Mangere Church with 237 cases.
All others have fewer than 20 infections.
Thirty-four people are in hospital - 32 are stable, and two are stable but in ICU.
Grant Robertson says that these numbers are "cause for cautious optimism."
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It's never been a better time for a weekend of screentime, and Tara Ward has some tips:The Defeated: Historical drama set in post war Germany. Max McLaughlin is an American cop who arrives in Berlin in the summer of 1946 to help create a police force in the chaotic aftermath of the war (Netflix)  Clickbait: a tense thriller about when family man Nick Brewer is abducted in a crime with a sinister online twist, those closest to him race to uncover who is behind it and why (Netflix)  Celebrity Bake Off: some comfort food for the lockdown soul. Celebrity contestants take part in a special version of the popular British baking competition (Neon). LISTEN ABOVE  

It’s the right decision to extend the lockdown for the whole country. It sucks. But we simply don’t have enough people vaccinated to expose our health system any more cases than we already are.To me, what’s interesting about the daily stats is the Covid-19 case numbers versus hospitalisations. This Delta outbreak totals 347 people according to the latest figures. 19 of those people are in hospital. About 5.5%. Admittedly it’s not a great sample size, but you can see how quickly our health system might be overwhelmed with a few thousand cases, especially if they were centred in one region. Delta would get away on us *incredibly* quickly. For areas outside of Auckland and Northland, I think sacrificing the weekend and a few extra days at Level Four is worth it for the security of knowing there is no Delta in the community. Again, it sucks. But it’s like turning around to double-check you locked the front door when you’re leaving town on holiday. You’re pretty sure you remembered. You’re 98% sure the door is locked and everything is safe. But sometimes the inconvenience that comes with being certain is worth it for the peace of mind.I say that as someone who looks enviously upon a move to Level 3. It’s obviously not happening anytime soon, in Auckland. Again though, I think this is pretty much the government’s only option. And as much as I didn’t want to hear it I’m glad they’re being straight up about the likelihood we’ll be at Level 4 for another few weeks.So, then, reasonable decisions about the lockdowns with the information they have available at this moment. But it would be remiss not to point out that we find ourselves in this moment because of decisions made by the same people and their officials earlier in the pandemic.For whatever reasons – and I think there are like many, some of which were out of officials’ control and some of which weren’t – we have found ourselves woefully behind in the vaccination programme. Ministers are incredibly defensive whenever they are challenged on this. But you can’t take credit for one part of the response and shirk all responsibility for another. The vaccination rates speak for themselves. All I can think, anytime someone stands up at the start of a press conference and says ‘First, some good news...’ is actually now isn’t the time to be setting vaccination records. That time was months ago.Delta is insidious. I’m not saying more vaccinations would have meant we didn’t need some lockdown restrictions. But a much higher vaccination rate would have reduced the likelihood of people getting hospitalised or dying of Covid-19. And isn’t that the government’s long-stated goal?One last thought. By my count, before this outbreak, areas outside of Auckland had spent a total of 51 days locked down in either Level 3 or Level 4. Auckland had spent 79 days at Level 3 or Level 4. That’s right, before this outbreak, Aucklanders had spent four weeks in lockdown more than the rest of the country. If we do manage to eliminate Delta this time, that margin is going to extend a whole lot further. Aucklanders will take the biggest hit.So, with that in mind, a suggestion: Let’s all send our latte-sipping, Lululemon slinking, urban-tractor driving, Waiheke weekending, Ponsnobby-bungalow-flipping mates some good will for a change. Yes, they’re fun to tease! But if we do beat Delta this time, the ‘09’ will have made the biggest sacrifice, once again. I never thought I would say this. I never thought I would utter these words.Let’s all spare a thought...for Auckland.

LOCKDOWN ONE BOWL CHEESY HAM & EGG BAKE 
This is a one bowl winner of a lunch! It’s a crustless pie that the whole family will love. Serves 4  1 ½ cups milk  
3 large eggs 
200g shaved ham, diced  
1 medium onion, diced fine or grated  
1 cup grated cheese 
½ cup plain flour  
1 teaspoon baking powder 
2 teaspoons powdered vegetable or chicken stock  
¼ teaspoon black pepper  
¼ cup chopped parsley (optional)  

Heat oven to 170 C. Generously butter a medium-sized oven proof dish.
In a big bowl, lightly whisk together milk and eggs. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  
Scrape into prepared dish and bake for about 45-55 mins or until golden and cooked through. It will puff up and deflate once removed from the oven.  
Serve hot or cold with chutney and some salad greens 

TIP: Bacon or salmon could be used in place of ham. 
Other lockdown lunch ideas: 
Tacos Quesadillas  Toasted sandwiches Fried rice Buttery noodles / spaghetti Fritters Roasted chicken wings  The good old sandwich!   LISTEN ABOVE

Francesca Rudkin has some movies to watch at your house this weekend: Vacation Friends on Disney+, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal and Greed on Netflix. LISTEN ABOVE