‘Heartening’ no new cases found
WELLINGTON: Confirmation of no new active Covid19 cases was ‘‘heartening’’ news to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday but she was waiting until today’s masstesting results before getting too comfortable.
‘‘We do want to give it that bit more time before we get too far ahead of ourselves,’’ she said last night.
Directorgeneral of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield was also pleased, saying yesterday’s reported Covid numbers were an ‘‘encouraging sign’’.
But, like Ms Ardern, he will be keeping a close eye on today’s test results, particularly those of Papatoetoe High School.
‘‘It is the days ahead that will be crucial.’’
Ms Ardern said Auckland’s first day back at Level 3 had, for the most part, gone ‘‘smoothly’’.
This was despite some reports of long lines of cars with people waiting to be tested — some waits as long as two hours.
Ms Ardern announced on Sunday Auckland would go back into Level 3 until at least tomorrow.
The rest of the country would be at Level 2 over the same period.
Ms Ardern confirmed yesterday there had been no changes to the alert level settings but did reveal the new community cases were the more infectious UK strain.
Dr Bloomfield said it was a ‘‘tumultuous period’’ for New Zealand and ‘‘Covid19 can feel like being on a rollercoaster that you haven’t actually bought a ticket for’’.
But both he and Ms Ardern were upbeat about the latest vaccine developments.
The first batch of about 60,000 Pfizer Covid19 vaccines arrived in New Zealand yesterday morning.
Ms Ardern said this would be ‘‘more than enough’’ doses to vaccinate the frontline workforce over the coming weeks.
Smaller batches would continue to arrive while the newly arrived vaccines were tested for ‘‘quality assurance’’.
Ms Ardern was confident the first jabs would be administered this Saturday.
There were 2800 tests reported yesterday, mostly taken from Sunday when the three community cases were discovered.
Many more tests were taken yesterday and these would help provide a more accurate picture of the situation in Auckland.
So far 42 close contacts had been identified relating to the infected Auckland family.
This included 33 pupils and teachers at Papatoetoe High School, which the daughter attends.
Two of the close contacts had tested negative by last night.
It also includes nine colleagues who worked with the mother at LSG Sky Chefs, of whom seven had tested negative by last night.
‘‘What we really want is the results of this testing at the school, at the workplace and in the wider South Auckland community to really rule out that there isn’t undetected trains of transmission,’’ Dr Bloomfield said.
Ms Ardern said having some of the close contacts return negative results was ‘‘heartening’’.
‘‘But I think all of us want a wider set of tests; we want to really rule out with some confidence additional potential chains of transmission and anything further in the community.’’
Just hours after the new lockdown was announced on Sunday night, crowds of people flocked to the shops, despite Ms Ardern saying supermarkets would be open during Alert Level 3.
‘‘It’s just so clear that, after repeated attempts, there is something about human behaviour that says when restrictions are in place people will immediately feel the need to buy toilet paper, and I cannot explain it,’’ she said. — The New Zealand Herald