Capital learns lockdown fate
Fear of contagious variant prompts halt amid warnings that only luck has saved us from catastrophe. Virginia Fallon
The Government has called a three-day halt to quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel as Australia is hit by multiple cases and outbreaks of a contagious new strain of coronavirus.
The pause to the trans-Tasman bubble comes as Wellington waits to hear today whether it will come out of Alert Level 2 after a Covid scare.
Covid expert, Dr Michael Baker, believes the visit of a Covid-infected Australian tourist to a Te Papa exhibition was the country’s most dangerous exposure event since the pandemic began. The man had the highly transmissible Delta variant though so far there have been no reported cases of community transmission linked to his visit.
He is linked to a growing Sydney cluster, which yesterday saw Sydney announce a two-week lockdown to control the spread, and late last night officials here hitting a days-long pause on the Trans-Tasman travel bubble, citing differing levels of containment in Sydney, upping risk levels here. The decision will be reviewed tomorrow.
‘‘I acknowledge the frustration and inconvenience that comes with this pause, but given the high level of transmissibility of what appears to be the Delta variant, and the fact that there are now multiple community clusters, it is the right thing to do to keep Covid-19 out of New Zealand,’’ Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
The halt began at 10.30pm last night and would continue until 11.59pm on Tuesday, June 29. Earlier yesterday the Ministry of Health notified the arrival of two people from
Australia who were ineligible for quarantine-free travel – one had left NSW before transiting through another Australian port.
Up to 2500 people are thought to have visited the Surrealist Art: Masterpieces exhibition at Te Papa at the same time as the Australian visitor on Saturday last week. Baker warned it made for potential catastrophe.
‘‘On paper it looks like the worst possible scenario of a series of super-spreading events. It all comes down to one unknown factor and that is, how infectious were they when they were here?’’ Baker said.
The Wellington region has been in alert level 2 since 6pm on Wednesday, and this afternoon the Government will announce if that’s going to change.
Baker said the events of last weekend, and the number of people attending made for the perfect potential storm; one that would overwhelm New Zealand’s contact tracing system.
‘‘We would have to go to level 3 or level 4 very rapidly to get ahead of this virus. The only thing standing between us and that shockingly poor outcome is whether that person is highly infectious or not.’’
While no community cases have so far been found, and people turned out in droves to testing stations – although lines were visibly quieter yesterday – Baker said he was frustrated.
‘‘There are two areas of our response that are not fit for purpose – there’s no question about that. Voluntary scanning in – very few New Zealanders are doing it, and we’ve known that for months. Technically the tracing app is a good tool, people just aren’t using it.’’
He wants mandatory scanning-in to high-risk indoor environments – like it is in Melbourne – and says it’s absurd we don’t have mask use integrated into our level system.
‘‘We are mandating much tougher measures to deal with the pandemic – we’ve had huge changes in all other aspects of our lives – this is quite small in the scheme of things.’’
The virus was still being treated as though it spread by surfaces and droplets within a small range, despite it being spread by aerosol transmission.
‘‘If you’re indoors and something is transmitted by an aerosol, physical distancing doesn’t help you much. It’s like saying, if you’re in the room with a smoker, if you stand two metres away from them, suddenly you don’t get their smoke any more.
‘‘There are multiple lessons from this. It will only be good luck if we get through this.’’
Psychologist Dr Sarb Johal says even if Wellington manages to dodge the Covid bullet this time, the close call might give people a bit of a nudge.
‘‘One of the things we know is when the threat level goes up people’s behaviour changes, they start scanning in a bit more.’’
Microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles says there’s plenty to take away fromevent.
‘‘The lesson is the virus is still off our shores and with the travel bubble and the lives we are living there is the chance for a potentially massive exposure before we detect it.’’