Covirus 19 coronavirus: three days until the close of D-Day and officials fight to improve system weaknesses

LAST VIRUSES – THREE DAYS TO BLOCK D-DAY
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* Latest developments and essential information

Health officials are digging into the source of the mysterious infections and have begun conducting targeted community testing in a mad rush to provide the government with stronger information before it decides whether to lift the blockade.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday reminded New Zealanders that there will be at least six more days to go before level 4 closes, and the cabinet will not decide before Monday whether to lift it.

But it revealed long-awaited details about life in the “recovery room” of alert level 3, and companies that have had to halt their operations are now struggling to see if they can meet security requirements.

These include contactless engagement with customers, such as by phone, computer or car, physical distance, and customer monitoring for contact tracking purposes.

But all bars, cafes, restaurants, libraries, museums and public parks will remain closed, while school attendance, up to and including 10, will be voluntary.

Meanwhile, the UK will remain locked up for “at least” three more weeks as Dominic Raab urged the British public to be patient.

The foreign secretary, who is filling in for Boris Johnson as he recovers, said lifting the blockade measures would risk a second spike with more deaths and a second blockade.

More than 140,000 people have died of Covid-19 worldwide, with more than 13,500 deaths in Britain.

“We have gone too far, we have lost many loved ones,” Raab said, adding: “There is light at the end of the tunnel.”

In New Zealand, the general principle of “stay home, save lives” will hold, although Ardern suggested that it could be as short as two weeks in the recovery room before moving on to level 2.

“We have the opportunity to do something that no other country has accomplished: eliminating the virus. But it will still need a team of five million,” said Ardern.

With three days remaining until the close of D-Day, efforts to provide government ministers with as much information as possible have also intensified.

Director-General for Health Ashley Bloomfield revealed yesterday that the targeted tests had started in Queenstown, with 300 workers and supermarket buyers, and more are planned for South Auckland, Waikato and Canterbury.

These regions are considered outliers in terms of test data; Queenstown, for example, has 6 percent of Covid-19 cases, but represents less than 1 percent of the country’s population.

This is a form of surveillance testing, where information on the prevalence of the virus in certain regions or demographic data is collected to obtain a more complete picture. You might even discover undetected outbreaks.

READ MORE:
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• Covid Coronavirus 19: PM Jacinda Ardern mocks New Zealand details under Alert Level 3
• Covid Coronavirus 19: Al Brown is reluctant to reopen restaurants below alert level 3

Epidemiologist Sir David Skegg told parliamentarians on Tuesday that it was a vital piece of the puzzle, and without it ministers who made a decision on Monday risked playing “Russian roulette” for the health of New Zealanders.

The other vital piece of the puzzle he cited was the ability to trace contacts, and although public health experts have denounced the lack of data, the Ministry of Health is expected to soon publish an independent audit of its processes.

But Bloomfield previously said the ministry was already “responding furiously” to the recommendations in the report by Dr. Ayesha Verrall, an expert in infectious diseases.

Public health units were now also digging into Covid-19 cases where the origin of the infection is a mystery, making them more difficult to identify and contain.

University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said such cases were of greater concern to trigger an outbreak, assuming the border quarantine was working and the groups were being contained.

“They are those of the last weeks where the origin of the infection was never resolved. It is essential that they resolve very quickly.”

Yesterday, Bloomfield provided information for the first time on the 23 cases since March 24: five had exposure abroad, 13 were contacts of a confirmed case, four were “community acquired” and only one case, which was identified on Wednesday, it was still unknown.

“This is a very important piece of information that we need now to be able to inform a decision on whether we are in a position to drop alert level 4,” said Bloomfield.

“Track contacts around the [unknown] the case has taken place, and we have requested extensive evidence from close and informal contacts. “

The number of new cases announced yesterday, 15, continued to follow the declining pattern since April 5, but was most notable because the number of tests (3661) far exceeded the calm in test numbers during the Easter recess.

The death toll is nine, although an autopsy is ongoing for an Invercargill man whose death is believed to be related to the coronavirus.

The total number of confirmed and probable cases is 1401, but the number of cases recovered (770) now far exceeds the number of active cases (622).

There are 12 people in the hospital. Three are in ICU, with two in critical condition.

Baker also appreciated the evidence from Queenstown supermarket workers and buyers, as well as the evidence from the wider community.

Testing such workers was one of the ways he and other public experts suggested a way to provide a more accurate picture of the Covid-19 spread.

“A critical line of defense is the surveillance system we have now,” Baker said.

“People carry the virus with no symptoms. It’s helpful to look at people who are most exposed to give an idea of ​​the virus’s circulation, and it will be interesting to see what it identifies.”

Ardern said the measures taken by the government had put New Zealand in a “rare” position to eliminate the virus, and rejected suggestions that the blockade had been too severe.

“We should not confuse the success of our actions with an overreaction, and there is a lot of evidence around the world of the devastating result of responding too late.”

She said revealing details of life under alert level 3 was not an indication that the blockade will be lifted starting next Thursday.

But the more flexible tier 3 restrictions would likely see half a million more New Zealanders at work, some of whom are among the 1.5 million employees enrolled in the government’s wage subsidy scheme, which has now paid $ 9.7b.

People would still need to restrict contact, Ardern said, even stay away from public parks.

“When it comes to public game equipment, I personally know how difficult this is.

“He is trying to get a two-year-old into a play equipment he cannot use. But we cannot risk a single piece of equipment being a vector for transmission.”

Bloomfield said level 3 required more caution than level 4.

“In any case, we must be even more vigilant, because everyone will potentially have more contact with each other.”

Ardern also hinted that level 3 could be facilitated to level 2 after two weeks.

“The last thing you want to do is get out of level 4 and lose everything. That’s why level 3 is designed that way, but it’s not designed to be a place where we want to spend a lot of time.”

“So that’s why we really call level 3 ‘the recovery room.’ This is where we stay, we
see if we are really doing well and if we can keep moving forward or not. “

If the Cabinet decided Monday to ease the blockade, Ardern said it would indicate how long the level 3 alert could last.

“You will have seen what we have tended to use are transmission cycles, so one cycle is two weeks, two cycles is one month. So we will have to look at blocks.”

• Covid19.govt.nz – The official government Covid-19 advisory website