Covid 19 coronavirus: Auckland out of lockdown – Jacinda Ardern sounds like warning, Professor Des Gorman criticizes alert level response

LAST VIRUS
* Revealed: New locations of interest as community cases grow to six
* Covid-19: switch to level 2 ‘not cautious enough’ – expert
* LSG Sky Chefs and their community cafeteria: a possible contamination zone?
* Covid-19: What if we never solve the mystery of the infection?
* The cafe owner refuses to appear in court for not displaying the Covid-19 QR codes
* What you need to know about using public transport in Auckland under level 2

A health expert has criticized the government’s alert-level responses last week, saying people were confused by an inconsistent approach and distressed by the “political theater” of the Beehive ads.

Auckland residents are waking up to greater freedom today, but the source of the latest outbreak, which now involves six confirmed community cases, remains unknown.

And Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warns that although the outbreak is contained, there is “every chance” that more community cases will be found.

But both she and Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield are confident that the Auckland outbreak has been “contained.”

However, Auckland University medicine professor Des Gorman said today that the government was “everywhere” to determine the level of risk.

When asked by Mike Hosking of Newstalk ZB if moving to Level 2 was the right decision for Auckland, Gorman said: “It really depends on how you view risk and what risk you are prepared to live with.

“I would say that during the last week it has been impossible to follow the response of the Government in terms of determining the level of risk they are living with.

“For example, the Health Ministry decided on Saturday night not to tell the Government for 12 hours – for 12 hours, according to the Prime Minister – that there was an outbreak, which meant that any opportunity it had to shut down the Big Gay Out and America’s Cup [on Sunday] had gone.

“It must be said that in this context, we are prepared to live with a lot of risk. And then we go to level 3, which means that we are not prepared to live with any risk. And now we have We went to level 2, which means we are prepared to live with a modest level of risk.

“I think we are all over the place in terms of our acceptance of risks.

“What you should do depends entirely on the risk you are willing to live with. I don’t think we’ve resolved that basic premise.”

Gorman believed that the answers were driven by optics, not science.

“Certainly if you take Sunday, for example, if we need to be level 3, and you and I would say that it was a reasonable response to the unknown at the time, then how the hell did they let the big gay out and go ahead? the America’s Cup?

“Those public meetings are the antithesis of risk management. So it’s that incoherence that makes it very difficult for me to look at it to say that I can’t see what the scientific pattern is.

“It makes it very confusing.

“It’s no wonder people are anxious and when you add in that political theater that we are seeing in terms of the level announcements. People are getting very distressed by all of this and part of that is they just don’t see any predictability in the response. “.

“It’s almost like the winner tonight is level 3.”

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Auckland will remain at level 2 until Monday, when the Cabinet will make the decision whether the region can return to level 1.

While pleased to be able to get New Zealand’s largest city out of the lockdown, Ardern clearly didn’t want to appear complacent. “I will never feel comfortable with Covid-19,” she said.

“There is an indescribable anxiety that comes with the daily grind of handling a pandemic and I think we all feel it. But you learn things, you certainly learn things.”

He also defended the three-day confinement against those who said it was a “false alarm.”

“I think everyone would agree that it was much better to have a [lockdown] to make a wrong call and have 72 hours of a community outbreak. “

But New Zealand is not completely out of the woods yet. “There is a good chance that we will find more cases,” Ardern said.

However, any of those cases are expected to be linked to the current community group.

One of the six new community cases has been revealed to work at the McDonald’s store on Cavendish Drive in South Auckland.

That medium and four other places of interest related to community cases have been published by the Ministry of Health. The new locations include two fast food outlets, a shoe store and an electronics store.

The new locations are:
• Metro Ōtara: February 15 from 12:30 to 13:30
• JB Hi-Fi Manukau – February 14 – 13:30 to 14:45
• Skechers Manukau – February 14 – 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
• Westfield Manukau City Mall – February 14 – 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm
• McDonald’s Cavendish Dr – February 13 from 11:30 to 16:15

The new locations join the already announced list of Auckland case-related locations of interest below.

Bloomfield said it was still confirming the exact details of the situation, but a McDonald’s spokesperson said the Cavendish Drive restaurant had been closed for “immediate deep cleaning.”

The six cases are the original family, a mother, a father and a daughter, and three additional cases announced yesterday: a brother and sister attending Papatoetoe High School and a person living with them. They are all isolated.

The government was not informed of any new cases overnight, Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said today.

The newest family group includes a mother, a son who is in year 12 at Papatoetoe High School and his younger sister, ZB told Newstalk.

There is a confirmed genomic link between the two families. “Genome sequencing shows that there is only one different mutation that maintains the connection of the infection to each other.”

The departure from Alert Level 3 will be good news for frustrated parents, as Level 2 means that schools and daycare centers are reopening. This is also good news for businesses, as many are eligible for the government’s new business subsidy scheme.

Health experts responded to the government’s move optimistically, but one argues that it is still not cautious enough.

“We still don’t have a clear idea of ​​how the pandemic virus got across the border and many test results are outstanding,” said prominent epidemiologist Professor Nick Wilson.

And, epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said that he would be much more comfortable with the change if he had come up with a more sophisticated approach to managing Covid-19 containment, including additional alert levels like 2.5 and 1.5.

He said those additional tiers would help clarify things like mask wearing requirements, better describe limits in indoor gatherings and manage movements outside of areas where there is a high risk of transmission, such as in Auckland at the moment.

The alert level decision came yesterday after Bloomfield revealed that testing had revealed the three additional new community cases.

One is a student who went to school with Case A, the Papatoetoe student who was revealed Sunday as one of the three initial community cases.

The other two were relatives of the newly infected student.

Bloomfield said it is encouraging that all the cases have clear epidemiological links.
Ardern said he wanted to emphasize that this was “good news.”

“What this tells us is that we do not have a widespread outbreak, but rather a small chain of transmission that is manageable by our normal contact tracing and testing procedures.”

Ardern said about 23,000 tests have been done since the first new community cases were discovered.

Although the vast majority of Auckland students are able to return to school, Papatoetoe High School will be closed until Monday.

When it reopens, only students who have had a negative test result will be able to return.

For the rest of the country, level 1 means that life returns to normal. However, face covers are still required on public transportation regardless of the alert level.

And there’s a silver lining for Auckland businesses too: Eligible businesses will be able to claim payment of the Startup Grant.

Any business that has experienced a 30 percent drop in revenue due to alert level increases is ready to receive a cash payment from the Government.

Payment consists of a lump sum of $ 1,500, plus $ 400 per employee, up to a total of 50 full-time equivalent employees.

Level 2 rules

Alert level 2 is obviously not as harsh as level 3, but there are still restrictions that you need to be aware of.

• No more than 100 people at social gatherings, including weddings, birthdays, funerals, and tangihanga.

• Businesses can open, but legally they must follow public health rules. These include physical distancing and record keeping.

• Alternative forms of work are encouraged whenever possible.

• Talk to your staff to identify risks and ways to manage them.

• Ask everyone (workers, contractors, and customers) with cold, flu, or Covid-19 symptoms to stay away from your facility.

• Keep workers one meter away and retail business customers two meters away.

• Companies are legally required to display a QR code and provide an alternative contact tracing system.

• Covering your face is strongly recommended if you are in close contact with other people.

• Reduce the number of shared surfaces and disinfect them periodically. Wash your hands.