Covid 19 coronavirus: 14 new cases; Government Goes Forward with CovidCard Testing After Sam Morgan Retires

LAST VIRUS
* NZ has 132 active cases, with 10 people in the hospital; there have been 25.6 million cases and 852,000 deaths worldwide
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* Auckland managed isolation hotel evacuated after alarm
* Comment: The government now realizes that the lockdowns make the balance between health and economy wrong

The government is continuing its testing of a bluetooth technology to better track Covid-19 outbreaks despite the fact that one of its backers, Sam Morgan, is retiring.

It comes as the Health Ministry revealed 14 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand yesterday – nine in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) hotels and five in the community.

The figures are the highest since August 13, when 14 were also recorded. The last time daily cases surpassed that mark was on April 16, when there were 15 cases.

Morgan yesterday dissolved his team that worked on the CovidCard out of frustrations saying that “there was no capacity or commitment within the Ministry of Health to do so.”

“In fact, there is active resistance and has been since we started.”

The TradeMe founder brought together a group of epidemiologists and technology leaders from the private sector who designed and developed the technology and oversaw a successful trial in Nelson in May.

The technology is embedded in something the size of a magnetic card and is worn around the neck like a lanyard. It tracks what other cards you get close to and helps speed up contact tracing after someone tests positive.

Morgan believes that for around $ 100 million (or around $ 20 per person), every New Zealander could receive a CovidCard in five months.

But Morgan announced that he had withdrawn his team from the project because he was frustrated with the government’s progress: it “will never get anywhere” without a dedicated and well-led group, he said.

“You can’t just put a dozen mid-level government project managers and communications people on this and make it happen. You need real, well-run tech people with a mandate. High-level people need to be involved.” Morgan said.

“This is just another thing that ministers say is happening, but it is not.”

But Communications Minister Kris Faafoi said he disagreed with almost everything Morgan said and that the government did not need TradeMe’s founding team.

Another trial of the CovidCard is scheduled to take place in Rotorua with about 300 people at the end of September and will be reported to Cabinet at the end of October. Before the end of the year, a decision will be made on whether to implement CovidCard more widely.

Another trial in a managed isolation and quarantine facility (MIQ) will begin in the next two to three weeks.

“We are committed to putting the card, as proposed, to the test. We are not going to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer money on something that is not tested,” Faafoi said.

He said they didn’t know how New Zealanders would respond to CovidCards, so they needed to be tested before implementing them. He believed Morgan was frustrated that the government had not yet made the decision to commit to him.

“I know Sam is frustrated, but I can’t control Sam’s feelings on a day-to-day basis.

“Taxpayers deserve to know that if we are going to implement it, it will work.”

The number of active cases is 132. Of these, 33 are imported cases at MIQ facilities and 99 are community cases.

The Auckland group now has 146 cases linked to it.

Meanwhile, the second round of testing MIQ workers should be finished by the end of the week with no one having tested positive yet.

Woods said the current group does not appear to have come from an MIQ facility, based on genomic sequencing results so far.

She said the Rydges maintenance worker’s case had been closed and that she most likely found out that Covid-19 was using the elevator at the hotel shortly after a positive Covid case used it.

Webb said cleaning protocols have been improved to make the facility as safe as possible.

“Hand sanitizer is a critical requirement and is used every time someone uses an elevator.”

Woods said there was a two-minute gap between them using the elevator.