Baker: We can stamp out the outbreak
Waikato’s biggest cluster of Covid-19 cases could be stamped out if people continued to get vaccinated, follow restrictions and if contract tracing was successful.
There has been 91 Covid-19 cases in Waikato as of yesterday, and 35 of those originated from rural town Te Awamutu.
University of Otago Wellington professor of public health Michael Baker said vaccinations, Level 3 restrictions and contract tracing was enough to stamp out the outbreak – but only just.
But, steady numbers of Covid19 cases meant at least one of those factors was not working.
‘‘It is stamped out if all those things are working.
‘‘There are enough controls to see the numbers track down.’’
He said Delta was highly infectious and could spread in and between households if people weren’t following the rules carefully enough – and it only took one person for it to get out of control.
He said rural areas were likely to have lots of essential workers, where mask wearing and monitoring symptoms was important.
However, they also had lower density, which meant less contact with people.
There were hints of Covid-19 in Te Awamutu when wastewater samples taken in the town on October 12 and 13 both tested positive for the virus.
It wasn’t until October 17 that a case was confirmed in Kihikihi.
By October 26, there were 35 cases.
Two cases in Otorohanga, and one in Blenheim were also connected to the Te Awamutu cluster.
Wā ipa deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk said Sunday’s one positive case offered a glimmer of hope, but four cases on Monday showed the town was not out of the woods yet.
‘‘It’s going be a community effort to pull together and get the vaccine rates higher.’’
People were still turning up to get vaccinated, and testing had continued.
As of October 22, 87.61 per cent of Wā ipa had received one dose of the vaccine, and 69.69 per cent were fully vaccinated.
Stolwyk said it was scary having Covid-19 in the community, and to relieve some of that worry, now was the time to get vaccinated.
She understood all the cases in Te Awamutu were part of a large group, and known to each other.
A police spokeswoman said it received one report of a lockdown breach in Te Awamutu over the weekend.
The person called 105 because they were concerned about possible visitors to a residential address where close contacts of a Covid-19 case reside.
‘‘Police have spoken to the informant and will be conducting follow up inquiries to substantiate the report received.’’
The spokeswoman said the person with Covid-19 was not residing at the address and they were in an MIQ facility.
It took multiple days for locations of interest to be released, and the Waikato District Health said there had been multiple exposure events, but most were between individuals in a private setting.
There are dozens of locations of interest for Te Awamutu listed on the Ministry of Health’s website.
Exposure events ranged from October 12 to October 21 and FreshChoice Te Awamutu and Countdown were hotspots.
Pak’n Save Te Awamutu, Caltex Super Service Station, Top of the town Dairy, Paper Plus Toyworld, VTNZ, Mobil Te Awamutu and College Superette also featured as locations of interest.