Oz outbreak ‘could be us’
Tighter border rules needed for hard-hit nations: Expert
As Australian health officials scramble to contain the Covid-19 outbreak in Sydney, a top epidemiologist here is warning “that could be us”. Professor Michael Baker says New Zealand is arguably entering “our most dangerous stage” since the August Auckland outbreak as the pandemic surges in the Northern Hemisphere.
Baker, from the University of Otago’s school of public health, is now calling for returnees coming from countries where the virus is “out of control” to take an additional step and isolate under supervision at a hotel and be tested before even stepping on the plane.
The new strain of Covid-19 spreading rapidly across the United Kingdom, forcing a third of its population into lockdown, was further evidence the Government needs to implement a “traffic light” system, he said.
“For New Zealand to get through the next few months until a vaccine is widely available, it has to have another control measure in the source country to try and really reduce the number of infected people arriving here which is potentially our greatest vulnerability,” Baker said.
“Particularly now there seems the potential for the more infectious virus becoming dominant.”
The Health Ministry yesterday reported six new cases since Friday in managed isolation facilities among people who’ve returned from South Africa, Australia, the United States and the Netherlands.
The Ministry said it was also closely monitoring the outbreak in Sydney which had reported 30 new cases overnight, forcing the cluster’s epicentre, the Northern Beaches, into lockdown and bringing restrictions to the greater Sydney area.
New South Wales chief health officer Kerry Chant said finding the source of the Northern Beaches outbreak might be a “challenge beyond us” despite the extensive investigation.
Officials said they expected numbers to rise. The New Zealand Government is taking a wait-and-see approach towards the outbreak and what impact it would have on the proposed transtasman travel bubble.
A spokesman said the arrangement wouldn’t start until the first quarter of next year but that would depend on there being no significant change in the circumstances in either country.
“We’re monitoring the situation closely, but it’s too early to make any decisions based on the current community cases in New South Wales.”
Baker said arrivals from New South Wales didn’t need to be treated differently as proportionately their case numbers were still “minute” and Australia was committed to stamping out the outbreak to continue its elimination goal.
“The main thing is this should be a huge wake-up call for us in that it could be us today or tomorrow. We need that continued caution here,” Baker said.
“It’s quite a throwaway line but while we’re on holiday, the virus isn’t on holiday. The virus is behaving the way it’s always behaved.”