Ardern’s gain from Spain
PM confirms jab shipment to keep the rollout rolling
Spain is sending 250,000 Covid jabs to New Zealand — enabling this country to keep up record levels of vaccinations, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “There are now enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone who wants to be at pace. It’s now up to us,” Ardern said.
The shipment left Madrid at 1am yesterday and will arrive in New Zealand this morning.
It comes as director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield revealed there were 13 new Covid cases in the community.
The total in the outbreak is 868 — 264 have recovered. There are 30 unlinked cases and of the new cases, more than half are linked to the current outbreak.
Of yesterday’s cases, six were infectious in the community.
There are 31 people in hospital, including five in ICU or HDU and three requiring ventilation.
More than 17,000 tests were done yesterday, and more than 8000 in Auckland. Bloomfield said that was helping to give confidence that the spread was restrained.
More pop-up testing was in place at supermarkets to test essential workers, while 23 community stations were also in place in Auckland.
Eighty-seven per cent of 38,126 contacts had now been tested.
Staff were continuing to come from around the country to help Auckland’s hospitals.
On the Middlemore case, day three test results from 124 patients and 29 staff had returned negative results. All were still in isolation. Ardern said Middlemore Hospital was a stressful environment and staff there had tried to do what they could “as best as possible”.
“We do have clinicians working in a very difficult environment … but we’ll always be willing to look back and see what can be done better,” she said.
When asked about a Pasifika patient’s struggle to get hospital care, Bloomfield said there are clinical staff on site at MIQ facilities. He said the patient was assessed, and was then transferred to hospital when that level of care was needed.
Bloomfield encouraged more businesses to display QR codes so that they were accessible to those in wheelchairs.
Close to 1.6 million people scanned in yesterday, the first day of level 2 outside of Auckland.
Ardern said there was solid progress, but urged people to keep getting tested, to follow the rules and keep scanning.
The Government has been negotiating with manufacturer Pfizer and a number of countries to get extra vaccine supplies.
Before lockdown the rollout had intended to vaccinate about 50,000 people a day by this point, but with demand surging amid the Delta outbreak this had risen to 80,000 to 90,000 some days, averaging more than 500,000 a week.
With the bulk of supplies arriving next month, the Government risked having to slow the rollout to avoid running out of vaccines, so instead it sought a deal with partner countries.
She thanked New Zealanders for going to get vaccinated. “What I find really heartening is that 64 per cent of people aged 12 plus have had at least one dose.
“Auckland is into its fourth long week of a level 4 lockdown. The rest of the country is having to adapt to a new level 2.”
She said the rules were “gruelling” and that was why as many people as possible should be vaccinated.
“I hate the idea of even one preventable death. If everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, you will be saving the life of someone who can’t be.”
She said that included young children, who could not be given the jab.
She said business owners should be supporting their workforces to get vaccinated, as should sport and church leaders.
She said 121 of the recent cases were under nine years old.
“They can’t be vaccinated, so they need us to be. All of us.”
— NZ Herald