Covid-19 Coronavirus: ‘Fuck It’ – Auckland Gets Its Freedom, Rest of New Zealand Level 2 After Lockdown, Earthquakes and Tsunami Threats

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* How the emergency telephone alert system works and who decides who receives them
* Closing time: why some Auckland restaurants won’t survive a fourth closing

“Fuck it” were the Prime Minister’s first thoughts as she was rudely awakened by an earthquake on the same day she would decide whether the Covid outbreak in Auckland was contained and the city could come out of the lockdown.

Ardern felt the 7.1 earthquake off the east coast that woke up many New Zealanders at 2.27am on Friday. He sent a text message to the Minister of Emergency Management, Kiri Allan, at 2:29 a.m. M.

It sparked a hectic 14 hours in New Zealand, with two major earthquakes in the Pacific, numerous tsunami warnings and evacuations along much of the North Island coastline, and eventually the cabinet meeting and decision to ease the Covid alert levels as of 6am on Sunday.

“Fuck it, almost what everyone thought at the time, but as the minister (Allan) said, we are the Trembling Isles,” Ardern said, when asked how he reacted at 2.27am.

Allan added, laughing, “He texted me to make sure I was going to be doing my job.”

The Beehive emergency bunker jumped into action to manage the tsunami threat from the Pacific earthquake swarm, which passed without injury or damage.

Later that day, nine stories above the bunker, the Cabinet decided to lift Auckland’s level 3 alert lockdown and ease restrictions on the rest of Aotearoa starting at 6am tomorrow.

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Retailers and hospitality establishments rejoiced at the news, which will allow Aucklandites to burst their bubbles to visit shops, cafes and bars, or simply go see family and friends.

America’s Cup races can begin in Waitematā Harbor, and crowds can also flock to Sky Stadium in Wellington to watch the Black Caps and White Ferns play tomorrow.

If the Covid situation in the country does not worsen, Ardern said that the Super City could go to alert level 1 before next weekend.

Beyond the alert level decision, Ardern said he will describe what the vaccination campaign will mean for New Zealand’s Covid elimination strategy.

The Health Ministry has begun vaccinating frontline workers, but its own survey has shown that more than 550,000 New Zealanders are unlikely to accept the vaccine.

The survey, conducted in September and December last year, found that many kiwis wanted to wait and see if others developed side effects before being convinced of the vaccine’s safety.

Despite five days in a row with no new community cases, Ardern said the Cabinet did not want to lift the closure early to give the best chance for any positive test to “show up.”

Keeping Auckland at Alert Level 2 for another week would allow for a full 14-day transmission cycle to ensure that there are no cases that have not yet been delimited.

Level 2 will go into effect in time for church services to continue tomorrow, but Ardern reminded congregations to limit meetings to fewer than 100 people and to ensure there is good contact tracing.

And after a week of being accused of sending mixed messages, the government has taken a further step by issuing a Section 70 Health Act order requiring Valentine’s Day outbreak contacts to be isolated and made. the proof.

“It makes it very clear to everyone that there is a formal legal requirement for people to do this,” said Chief Health Officer Ashley Bloomfield.

The order applies to everyone who was at the City Fitness gym with Case L and everyone who has already been contacted by public health officials and told they are a close, casual plus, or casual isolating contact.

It legally requires that they get tested and stay home until they get the results.

It also means that health officials can visit their home or workplace to make sure they followed instructions.

Bloomfield noted that a legal framework already supported what the case contacts were required to do.

But issuing a Section 70 order simplifies the instructions and strengthens the legal requirement. The maximum penalties for failure to comply are six months in prison or a fine of up to $ 4,000.

Ten test results are still exceptional for people who were at City Fitness on February 20 and February 26, but eight were tested yesterday.

Finding services was unable to contact two people and make sure they had been tested.

Bloomfield said he considered the contacts to be low risk, as they were in the gym during the previous visit, but was emphatic that they would be located.

“They will be found. They will be isolated and tested. And they will remain isolated.”

The fact that more than 50,000 tests had been carried out, the majority in Auckland, gave Bloomfield confidence that there had been widespread surveillance of the virus. Approximately 6,000 people connected to the outbreak were also contacted by public health personnel.

Ardern and Bloomfield said that even with the benefit of hindsight, they would still have put Auckland in a week’s lockdown because they couldn’t take a chance on the highly contagious UK variant.

Several high-risk exposures could also have led to widespread transmission.

Ardern summed up the outbreak as “unpredictable” because there were fewer cases than expected given the ease with which it had spread between some people.

He also acknowledged that people were getting tired of the restrictions.

“We may not be in the devastating position that much of the rest of the world is in, but an elimination strategy can seem like hard work and it’s completely natural to feel fatigued.

“Covid is hard work for everyone. Thank you for moving forward once again.”

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff welcomed the return to alert level 2 and said the cooperation had helped ensure that initial cases detected in the community did not spread further.

“As this is Auckland’s fourth blockade, vaccinating Auckland residents should be prioritized over areas least affected by the virus and I will continue to advocate for this with the government.”