No relief in sight as increase
As testing steps up, confirmed cases are expected to rise as well for at least 10 days
Any hopes that transmission of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand was under control were dashed yesterday with confirmation of 89 more confirmed and probable cases — the largest increase in a single day.
That takes the total in New Zealand to 797, with 92 of those deemed to have recovered.
As daily testing increases to nearly 5000 before long, confirmed cases are expected to increase as well for at least 10 days.
The Government is working on the specific triggers that might bring the country or parts of the country out the lockdown which started eight days ago.
“What we are looking at are signs that we have transmission back under control,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.
“So we will be building and thinking around the number of cases we have, also the level of community transmission, what’s happening with our clusters. It will be multiple factors.
“Alert level 4 was all about wresting back that control, making sure that we are back on track for ultimately stamping out Covid 19.”
Top officials including Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield met yesterday to further discuss the triggers that could relax the lockdown. Announcing the latest figures, Bloomfield said that of the 89 new cases, 76 were confirmed and 13 were probable.
The increases for the previous seven days, starting last Thursday, were 78, followed by 85, 83, 63, 76, 58, 61 and then yesterday’s 89.
Across the country 13 people were in hospital, including two in intensive care. There has still been only one death.
Asked if New Zealand was flattening the curve, Bloomfield said: “Not yet. It is on the up and we expect it to keep rising. You won’t see any impact until another week at least of the measures that are currently in place.”
Finance Minister Grant Robertson yesterday announced a plan to fund leave required by essential workers who were susceptible to Covid-19 at an estimated cost of $100 million for 12 weeks. No essential worker should feel pressured into working if they’re vulnerable, sick or otherwise unable to work, Ardern said.
The Government also announced the conditions under which foreign nationals could begin to leave New Zealand during the lockdown which is set to last at least another three weeks.
An estimated 10,000 British visitors and 12,000 German visitors are in lockdown around the country.
Deputy Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said they would need to have a confirmed international flight, a commercially scheduled one or charter flight, and would have a 24-hour window to travel domestically to that flight, by car or plane. Their domestic travel would be deemed “essential travel”. The first group could be leaving as early as tonight, Peters told Newstalk ZB. He said he had never ruled out the possibility of mercy flights for Kiwis stranded around the world. But Ardern pointed out at her press conference that while there were thousands of visitors stranded here, New Zealanders were dotted around the globe. Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts welcomed the move, saying the plight of those stranded was threatening to harm New Zealand’s international reputation. The Epidemic Response parliamentary committee met for the third day running yesterday and police monitoring the self-isolation regime was the issue of contention. Police Commissioner Mike Bush admitted that police had been unable to check on every person who had promised to selfisolate but had now developed a technique to do so using cellphone location services — with the person’s consent.
Bush revealed there were:
● 116 symptomatic people in quarantine
● 1573 in hotels under “managed” self-isolation under a 24/7 watch of police and other security
● 4068 who’d been sent home to self-isolate but it’s unclear what timeframe this relates to.
Opposition leader Simon Bridges said to Bush: “I suppose I am putting it to you squarely Commissioner, one, that it is not good enough and two, that you’ve got your priorities wrong because given that most cases of Covid 19 have come in internationally, it would be much better to focus on that, than who is on the beach or what neighbourhood someone is in.”
However, the most scathing criticism of the day was reserved for the Prime Minister in reacting to Bauer Media’s decision to shut up shop in New Zealand, abandoning publications such as the Listener, the NZ Woman’s Weekly, North & South, Metro and Cuisine. She said she was gutted by the decision.
“They didn’t enter a conversation about becoming an essential service.
“They didn’t seek to continue to operate in lockdown and they didn’t want to use the Government support to keep their doors open. So I just reject any suggestion that Covid-19 and our response to it has caused them to shut their printing press but I deeply regret that they have. In my view, they should have taken it up and they should have kept going.”