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[Yossarian]

Yep, she has been extremely impressive compared to almost any other Western leader - not looking too good for NZ right now sadly, 21 Delta cases now confirmed, they've traced the outbreak to an infected arrival from Sydney who arrived Aug. 7, tested positive Aug. 9, and was hospitalized Aug. 16, - it's not clear when the first infection linked to that traveler was, but if Delta has been circulating undetected for weeks, that could be the end of New Zealand's zero COVID strategy.

 

[Balbi]

Alright folks? Day 2 of lockdown here in Auckland. We're locked tight here for another 5 days, but everyone is expecting that to be extended.

We've been here before, the genomic sequencing as Yoss said has traced it to a Sydney arrival - most likely transmission vector is when they were transported between the isolation hotel and the specialised quarantine facility. Fortunately, most staff at facilities were vaccinated as well.

There's a few chain pieces missing, but the focus is now on finding every single person in contact to fill those in.

We are going to have a significant number of cases emerge, as all of our current positives were active in the community. But with a L4 lockdown almost everyone is at home now, and almost everything is shut - that means the chain of infection has hopefully be cut off, or confined to homes as of two days ago - it will probably take 14 days for that to emerge as all those infected beforehand test positive or develop symptoms etc. So hopefully a dropoff in two weeks, back down to zero.

Wastewater testing around the country has shown Covid in the wastewater in areas of Auckland with cases, but so far zero covid has turned up anywhere else in the country.

Vaccinations are being opened up even more, so it's a race to get everyone vaxxed up while we try and limit the spread of the virus.

Of all the cases, I think Doc Bloomfield said 8 were not confirmed as linked to the cluster - but that they had strong links to it. So unlike Sydney, everyone who's tested positive is linked to existing cases. We don't have any mystery ones right now. We might though, but at least the potential transmissin vectors are way down now we're at Level 4.

Fucking impressed with our system again tbh. 1 case, locked down, traced by the third day after the positive back to the original source - the list of locations of interest being updated hourly as positive cases are interviewed and their scanning data from the app is used how it's meant to be.

Hopefully we can stamp it out.

 

[_Russ_]

I think Australia's actions are to be applauded (in contrast to the UK), if you can keep it at bay till you have a good percentage jabbed up then even when it eventually becomes widespread which unfortunately is inevitable then many lives will have been be saved

 

[Balbi]

Did you just call us AUSTRALIAN? Those dog cunts in Sydney fucked their Covid response so badly even we've got it now. Victoria and ACT and Queensland seem to be onto it, but the Tories in Sydney kept businesses open when Delta hit and now they're 600+ cases a day.

 

[Petcha]

Why did New Zealand open its borders to Australia? I remember reading that and thought it was bit weird considering how disciplined they'd been. But as you say, the decisiveness of the action there puts us to shame. I hope you stamp it out.

 

[_Russ_]

Did you just call us AUSTRALIAN? Those dog cunts in Sydney fucked their Covid response so badly even we've got it now. Victoria and ACT and Queensland seem to be onto it, but the Tories in Sydney kept businesses open when Delta hit and now they're 600+ cases a day.

Genuine apology for that, I could blame not waiting till my second coffee before posting but such depth of feck up is non excusable ..im a dull prick at times

 

[Balbi]

All good bro, even Aussies are incredibly pissed off with Sydney. Most other states had it locked down but then Sydney fucked it.

Petcha the borders reopened before Sydney lost control of the virus, and there were some requirements for testing before flights. The current outbreak came from a Red flight after we'd closed the bubble, so the initial case was in the same isolation that anyone else entering the country has to

 

[retribution]

Victorian waving my fist (and some) at Sydney.

In Australia the national and state governments keep referring to the ambition that once we have 80% double vaccinated - likely not until December - lockdowns will be off the table.

One thing I'm curious of is how Australia's good pandemic record will affect us when we reach this 80% figure. Other countries have "extra" levels of immunity in the non-vaccinated due to the spread of the virus. I think I read in the UK about 95% of people have antibodies? Whereas here, when we reach 80%, there won't be much of this "extra" immunity due to our historically low case levels. I guess this all gets worked into the government's modelling but it concerns me.

Does NZ have a similar "X% vaxed" ambition, Balbi ?

 

[Balbi]

Not that I'm aware of, we're scaling up the programme but the aim is still to stamp this fucker out. We're in Level 4 until Tuesday night with the cabinet meeting Monday. We've got thirty cases now, a few down in Wellington. It's gonna spike to hundreds, but all of these people were infected before lockdown so we've got to see how long it takes for them to develop etc.

 

[teuchter]

Here is NZ's strategy

COVID-19: Protecting Aotearoa New Zealand

Protecting Aotearoa and New Zealanders from COVID-19 continues to be a priority for the Ministry of Health.

www.health.govt.nz

It seems to avoid really saying what they are going to do in the longer term. It seems fairly obvious to me that either they have to abandon the zero covid policy once X% are vaccinated, or stay isolated for years to come.

 

[Petcha]

Here is NZ's strategy

COVID-19: Protecting Aotearoa New Zealand

Protecting Aotearoa and New Zealanders from COVID-19 continues to be a priority for the Ministry of Health.

www.health.govt.nz

It seems to avoid really saying what they are going to do in the longer term. It seems fairly obvious to me that either they have to abandon the zero covid policy once X% are vaccinated, or stay isolated for years to come.

Yes. I was wondering about this. Are they really going to keep their borders shut until the whole outside world's got antibodies? Coz that's gonna a very long time. That said, I'm totally impressed about the speed in which they're managing to trace everyone. Will be interesting to watch.

 

[teuchter]

Singapore has already decided to "live with it".

Singapore prepares for long term life - and death - with COVID-19

With just a few dozen COVID-19 deaths and one of the world's highest vaccination rates, Singapore wants to reopen for business - and is laying the groundwork to live with the coronavirus as it does other common diseases such as influenza.

www.reuters.com

 

[Balbi]

Tracked 10,000 close contacts in 3 locked down days and cracked 40k tests and 50k vaccinations yesterday.

The plan is to stamp it out, vax up the population and then reopened the border to low risk countries with minimal quarantine requirements for those travellers, and see how things go with a majority vaxxed population.

 

[HAL9000]

Florida is trying to reduce liquid oxygen use, I didn't know it was used as part of water treatment.

The mayor of the Florida city of Orlando asked residents on Friday to stop watering their lawns and washing their cars immediately, saying water usage needed to be cut back because of the recent surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The Orlando Utility Commission treats the city's water with liquid oxygen and supplies that ordinarily go toward water treatment have been diverted to hospitals for patients suffering from the virus, Mayor Buddy Dyer said.

"We acknowledge that the No. 1 priority for the liquid oxygen should be for hospitals," Dyer said at a news conference.

The city-owned utility typically goes through 10 trucks of liquid oxygen a week but its supplier recently said that it would be cut back to five to seven trucks a week to accommodate hospitals, said Linda Ferrone, OUC's chief customer and marketing officer.

Florida Mayor Says Save Water Because Of The COVID-19 Surge

Orlando treats the city's water with liquid oxygen and supplies that ordinarily go toward water treatment have been diverted to hospitals for patients suffering from the virus.

www.npr.org

 

[Yossarian]

Tracked 10,000 close contacts in 3 locked down days and cracked 40k tests and 50k vaccinations yesterday.

The plan is to stamp it out, vax up the population and then reopened the border to low risk countries with minimal quarantine requirements for those travellers, and see how things go with a majority vaxxed population.

New Zealand once again moves with so much speed and decisiveness that I wonder if Jacinda Ardern gets calls from other world leaders asking her to stop making them look bad. If the UK had controlled the spread of COVID successfully enough to keep the death rate as low as NZ's, the death toll would have been around 350 instead of more than 130,000.

One thing I don't get is why the vaccine rollout has been so slow there - is it supply issues, public complacency, government failures, or something else?

 

[2hats]

Florida is trying to reduce liquid oxygen use, I didn't know it was used as part of water treatment.

Ozonation.

 

[elbows]

Unlikely to be the last time we see this sort of article. Includes the usual mix of truth but also the sort of desperate framing that we are used to seeing from countries like ours where we want their approach to fail because it has made our approach look like the deadly shit it is. In this case its the headline that suffers from that dubious shit.

Its certainly true that Delta poses a massive challenge to their approach, but unlike the UK I somehow doubt that whatever modified approach they take will involve surrender at this stage. Its winter there and that fact combined with their present levels of vaccination means those alternative approaches arent really viable for them yet anyway.

Covid: New Zealand pandemic strategy in doubt amid Delta spread

The highly infectious Delta variant "does change the game", the Covid response minister says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[elbows]

Israel soars to the top of the 'limitations of these vaccines to control Delta infection levels' club.

Given our media were very happy to point to Israel when looking for vaccine good news, lets see if they pay the same amount of attention now that rather different signals are on display. I think the last article I saw about that was the Israeli leader hoping they can use booster shots rather than lockdowns/other restrictions to get through this, whilst receiving a booster himself.

My choice of nations in this graph is a bit random in places.

 

[_Russ_]

Wales cases now more than the peak reached last month and rising, positivity also higher at 14%
Im with you Elbows, the way the msm are directing the narrative is shitty in the extreme, we are in trouble

 

[elbows]

My previous description of Israel was rather sloppy, given that boosters cannot turn around situations in the short-term, and that they've already reimposed some restrictions, extended their vaccine passports stuff down to people aged over 3, and have warned about the possibility of reimposing a lockdown if things go in the wrong direction for a few more weeks.

I suppose I will be somewhat surprised if the media are able to maintain the current mood music in a months time. But since I dont actually know what will happen next, I shouldnt make these presumptions. In any case we'e already seen in the past that the UK media can change their tune at the drop of a hat, and this tends to show up via things like grim reports of the situation in some hospitals. We are coming to the end of summer silly season where more senior arses will now be back on seats, and I'll be interested to see whether UK PLC sticks to its guns or is forced to move away from the current approach.

 

[Petcha]

Tracked 10,000 close contacts in 3 locked down days and cracked 40k tests and 50k vaccinations yesterday.

The plan is to stamp it out, vax up the population and then reopened the border to low risk countries with minimal quarantine requirements for those travellers, and see how things go with a majority vaxxed population.

Why the lack of speed in getting 5m people vaccinated? They're a wealthy country, I'm sure they could have jumped the queue for vaccines like all the others?

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Was reading a thread about Israel on farcebook and the amount of double jabbed people getting infected; apparently now that they have had a few weeks of looking at more data it seem to mostly be amongst those that were vaccinated very early on (the most at risk cohorts) and also mostly with Pfizer vaccination which has a steeper decline in antibodies after a few months, hence the booster plan to try and rectify this.
The person was also saying that having a mix of different jabs does look like it might improve protection so this is a possible route forward.

 

[Aladdin]

85% of adults vaccinated in Ireland now.

NPHET still asking all adults to go to walk in vaccination centres.

12 to 15 yr olds being vaccinated and should be done by end of September.

It's going to be a mess for the under 12s though. Schools reopen end of this week.

 

[Yossarian]

Unlikely to be the last time we see this sort of article. Includes the usual mix of truth but also the sort of desperate framing that we are used to seeing from countries like ours where we want their approach to fail because it has made our approach look like the deadly shit it is. In this case its the headline that suffers from that dubious shit.

Its certainly true that Delta poses a massive challenge to their approach, but unlike the UK I somehow doubt that whatever modified approach they take will involve surrender at this stage. Its winter there and that fact combined with their present levels of vaccination means those alternative approaches arent really viable for them yet anyway.

Covid: New Zealand pandemic strategy in doubt amid Delta spread

The highly infectious Delta variant "does change the game", the Covid response minister says.

www.bbc.co.uk

Seems to be a recurring theme in coverage of the NZ outbreak - "New Zealand stubbornly clings to doomed elimination strategy despite Delta outbreak."

You don't see so much of the flipside - "Countries stick to strategy of letting infections rage despite growing evidence of the debilitating effects of long-term COVID."

 

[elbows]

Seems to be a recurring theme in coverage of the NZ outbreak - "New Zealand stubbornly clings to doomed elimination strategy despite Delta outbreak."

You don't see so much of the flipside - "Countries stick to strategy of letting infections rage despite growing evidence of the debilitating effects of long-term COVID."

And it take a special kind of nerve and doublethink to be writing headlines about other nations strategies being doomed, at a time when this countrys strategy for summer 20201 and beyond has involved millions of infections and quite some concern about the sustainability of such things in the face of Delta. With the added comedy that its summer here and winter in New Zealand.

 

[krtek a houby]

Contamination in a Moderna batch over here.

Japan suspends 1.6 million Moderna doses over contamination fears

The health ministry said "foreign materials" were found in some doses of a batch of roughly 560,000 vials.
Takeda Pharmaceutical, which sells and distributes the vaccine in Japan, said Moderna had put three batches on hold "out of an abundance of caution".
It said an issue at a manufacturing contract site in Spain was the likely cause, but did not elaborate.

 

[elbows]

Speaking on Thursday, Ardern said she was “not fussed” about debating and comparing different countries’ Covid strategies, and added that expert advice says New Zealand should continue to pursue elimination.

“For me, and I’m sure many others, the measure of success in this pandemic is not just what happens in August of 2021. It’s what has happened since February 2020, when Covid arrived in New Zealand.

“Then, and now, we had three goals: we wanted to save people’s lives, and we have. We wanted to try and have people’s lives lived as normally as possible and even now, we’ve had some of the shortest periods of restrictions of any country. We wanted to save people’s jobs in the economy. With unemployment at 4% and the economy performing at pre-Covid levels, we’ve done that too.”

Ardern rejects criticism of elimination strategy after New Zealand reports 68 new cases

Prime minister says she is achieving her goals of saving lives and jobs, and giving people as much normalcy as possible

www.theguardian.com

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is quite a sobering video

 

[cupid_stunt]

This is quite a sobering video

Wow, just 36% of adults jabbed in that area, and only 50% of the hospital workers, totally fucking bonkers.

I am glad we have so few loons in the UK, compared to the US.

 

[albionism]

Waving my fist angrily at Sydney from Wollongong. Beginning our 9th week in lockdown down here.
Mind you, we've had it comparatively lucky for a long time compared to some.