Coronavirus Covid-19: last update on any case of Christmas and San Esteban

The Ministry of Health will provide an update on new and existing Covid-19 cases in New Zealand shortly.

Seven cases were announced on December 23, all in isolation.

17 previously reported cases have also been recovered, bringing the total number of active cases in the country to 49.

The total number of cases is 1772.

The ministry also took note of the emergence of a new strain of Covid-19, known as B.1.1.7, in the UK and officials were monitoring the situation.

They had also been told that a Taiwan-based kiwi had tested positive for the virus. The person had not been to New Zealand while he was contagious.

After today’s announcement, the next one to be held by the ministry will be Tuesday, December 29.

New Zealand Scientists Critical of Anti-Blockade Letter in Major Medical Journal

Earlier this week, a letter against the lockdown in one of New Zealand’s leading medical journals by “Covid Plan B” scholars drew contempt from top advisers to the ministry.

The letter to the editor of the NZ Journal of Primary Health Care from academics at several major universities states that New Zealand is “one of the few countries pursuing Covid-19 elimination” and that it is “killing livelihoods and lives “.

Co-authors of the letter include two professors of public health from the University of Auckland, a professor of public health from AUT University and a professor of law from the University of Victoria.

Among the disputed claims in the letter are that a safe and effective vaccine is “at best in four years” and loss of income for workers through the elimination strategy will result in “loss of life. 330 times greater “than a less severe flattening of the curve approaches.

A quick response from the Ministry of Health’s chief scientific adviser, Dr. Ian Town, rebuked the letter in the same December 22 issue of the NZ Journal of Primary Health Care.

“There is no mention of the adverse health effects of the virus, the direct and indirect impacts on mortality, or the impact on health services and staff,” Town says of the letter.

“Readers will have noticed that scientists in Sweden are publicly questioning their approach to the rapid increase in cases and deaths.”

Kiwis in the UK beg to return as new varieties spread

The rapid spread of new strains of Covid-19 in the UK has prompted some New Zealanders to ask the government for help getting back home.

Meanwhile, the people here, including health experts, want the government to tighten the screws on its border controls.

A new highly infectious variant of Covid-19 is spreading across Britain, while another, imported from South Africa, is being investigated by experts.

A New Zealander in the UK, Ranko Berich, described the plight of his fellow Kiwis as “hundreds of people in dire straits”.

He has been trying to get home to his wife and two young children, after quitting his job and calling at his apartment, but they have found themselves in the middle of the trip interruption.

Hundreds of flights were canceled after Singapore and Hong Kong stopped allowing transits.

“We are effectively jobless and homeless and we have to fight to make alternative arrangements,” he said.

“There are a lot of people in a worse situation where they struggle to find accommodation, they are worried about money and they really have no options.”

The situation is compounded by New Zealand’s managed isolation reserve system, which is full for about 10 weeks.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said that people could keep their isolation reservations managed if they rebooked new flights on the same day as the canceled ones.

He expected eight to 20 arrivals a day to be affected by the outage in the coming weeks, and said canceled bookings would be republished on days with flights from the UK.

Additional reports from RNZ