Covid 19 coronavirus: the new case had contact with the infected family during the confinement – PM

LAST VIRUS
* Locations of Interest: New Papatoetoe Cluster Details Released
* Families trapped for hours in traffic; confusion on Auckland’s borders
* Final straw? Latest lockdown could push some Auckland businesses hardest
* Guidance Discarded: Auckland University Students ‘Unbelievably Disappointed’
* Richard Prebble: Why are locks the only option?

The latest community case of Covid-19 had contact with an infected family during alert level 3, says the Prime Minister.

Jacinda Ardern’s comments come after a recent case was revealed that she went to the gym when she should have been home after getting tested for Covid, something that has angered many in the community and generated numerous requests from seniors. consequences for those who do not -isolate.

Ardern says there is a confirmed link between the latest positive case and a previous family.

Ardern told Mike Hosking of Newstalk ZB that this means there was a chain of direct transmission in the current outbreak.

She said that after several interviews, officials discovered the new contact.

The two families had contact below level 3, Ardern said.

“Obviously we’ve had contact here at level 3 when it shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

“This was a family that had already been identified as a Covid carrier and therefore was part of the contact tracing and did not identify that they had contact with this family,” Ardern said.

“That means we go back, we interview again and we say ‘now that we have identified that this has happened, we have not had all your contacts, are there others?’ and we do our best to identify if there is someone else with whom he has had contact. “

“The most important thing for us is that people tell us. Obviously, we had contact here at level 3 when it shouldn’t have happened, but the best thing people can do is tell us the truth,” Ardern said.

“If we had known this, the other family that we now find a week later, they would have been a close contact and they would have been in quarantine and we would not have had this situation. The truth is so important to us.” “

Ardern told The AM Show that the person had been interviewed by officials and did not reveal the meeting.

“Whether they forgot or lied or not, I can’t tell them and it has obviously had devastating consequences,” he said.

She said it was not up to her whether any action would be taken or not.

“People do silly things, but we are not going to get over this if people ridicule them to the point where they don’t tell the truth.”

He said there were multiple violations that occurred in two families at the center of the outbreak.

“The decision of whether or not to take compliance measures is not mine,” he said.

Ardern said he was constantly on two minds about saving people from death and keeping people by his side to follow the rules.

“It’s a difficult dilemma,” said Ardern, who admitted she was angry.

She hoped the biggest deterrent would be witnessing what was happening right now with the highest level of public responsibility. (edited)

I wanted people to be honest with health officials.

“We have been here before,” he said, referring to people who did not comply during the August outbreak in Auckland.

The prime minister told Hosking that people in isolation were subject to daily checks by health officials and that, for the most part, they were following the rules.

She said there was no excuse for what happened.

Ardern cautions that more community cases are likely to be discovered in the coming days, so it is important that people follow the blocking rules because “Covid kills.”

And he has a direct message for anyone who doesn’t abide by the isolation rules: Expect the police to knock on the door.

When people went to a GP for a test, the staff made it very, very clear that they would stay home after the test, he said.

On the latest border fiasco, Ardern said what we saw happen yesterday was the effect of a shutdown that took place in the middle of a weekend.

He said the government did not want more people in Auckland in an environment of increased alertness.

Additional defense personnel were recruited to help ease the queues.

“MBIE here has done an amazing job. Yes, the first level 3 was difficult and we needed to improve at the border. We now have a regime where everyone can reissue their documents so they can move immediately,” he said.

Meanwhile, as Auckland entered its first day with Level 3 restrictions, there was chaos and confusion at various police checkpoints on the borders of the region. Some families were still trying to get home last night after spending 10 hours stuck in traffic at Auckland’s Covid-19 checkpoints.

LISTEN LIVE NEWSTALK ZB
6.35 am: Judith Collins

Auckland residents are back in Level 3 restrictions for a full week and the rest of New Zealand is Level 2 after the 21-year-old MIT student, known as Case M, visited various public places before test positive.

Then he went to the gym when he should have been isolated. His mother, Case N, also tested positive.

Last night, a new case, Case 0, from the same household was revealed, while several new locations of interest were posted in the Case M movements, including an MIT cafe and Pak’nSave Cavendish Drive, as well as new times for Hunter. . Plaza and the City Fitness gym there.

Too much politics, not enough science

Auckland University medical professor Des Gorman said the country’s situation was one of “déjà vu” after the second blockade in less than a month.

When Hosking asked if plans were being made on the ground, Gorman agreed that they were.

He said it showed our “inconsistent risk management approach.”

Gorman said the government’s response to Covid-19 was too much politics and not enough science.

He was particularly critical of the contact tracing system, which he said hadn’t made much progress in a year.

Calling someone and, when there was no answer, simply calling again was “deeply inappropriate.”

He said contract tracking teams should visit homes to track someone at that time.

Gorman was also unsure of the public health messages, asking what his GP said to the 21-year-old Covid-19 case who went to the gym after taking a virus test.

The waiting game

The country is waiting to know if any of the people it has been in contact with will test positive for the British strain of the virus, something that experts say is a real possibility.

“There may be several people who are currently incubating the virus [in the community] and it will test positive in the next few days, “microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles told the Herald.

And, Wiles said it was not “very clear yet” if the level 3 restrictions would be good enough when it comes to this outbreak.

“Certainly level four restrictions would take care of [the outbreak] faster because there are far fewer interactions between people. “

He said changing alert levels is something officials may have to consider in the coming days, if new community cases are detected.

Testing has revealed that the sequencing of the student and his mother shows close ties to another Papatoetoe family, with members already testing positive.

If this link is confirmed, it would be good news, meaning that the new cases are from the same Valentine’s Day group that generated a three-day lockdown for Auckland residents earlier this month, rather than a new one. unknown outbreak.

“That reinforces that we are still looking for a single source of infection,” said Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield.

Last night another person not related to the 21-year-old tested positive but there is no risk to the community since they were already in quarantine with relatives as a precautionary measure during the time they were infectious.

Bloomfield said the Level 3 restrictions were sufficient to handle the outbreak “at this point.”

“As long as everyone does what they are supposed to do at alert level 3.”

Ardern said preventing death was the “main reason” behind the short and abrupt closings.

“It is to save the lives of our people and save their livelihood.”

Because the most recent cases are of the highly communicable and unpredictable British strain, he said it was unlikely that Auckland would move from level 3 before the seven-day lockdown ended.

Arden acknowledged “frustration” over the fact that the M case broke isolation rules and left when she should have been isolated at home, a move that she said had “dire consequences.”

And she is clearly not alone, with many Auckland residents turning to social media to express their frustration.

Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said the breach would have irritated everyone who obeyed the rules.

However, he said that attacking the person who made the mistake did not help.

Ardern agreed: “No one wants Covid in our community. But we will not beat equality by standing up to each other.”

However, that does not mean that the government is sitting idly by when it comes to making sure that people who need to isolate themselves are at home.

At the moment, health officials control people who must be isolated through a phone call.

If a health official cannot locate someone they are meant to isolate, there will be an in-person visit that could involve the police, if necessary.

But National asks the government to go further.

For example, random phone calls to those who should be in isolation and a request to confirm their location with a video call or photographic evidence.

“Monitoring of self-isolators must be increased to ensure compliance,” said Chris Bishop, spokesman for National Covid-19 Response.

“This means regular spot checks, and if no contact is made within 24 hours, the police are involved.”

Meanwhile, Ardern has confirmed that people in South Auckland will get the vaccine first when it comes to general rollout mid-year.

“It would make absolutely sense for us to start a vaccination program in areas like South Auckland, as there is a higher risk there.”

She said 75 percent of the people who have been vaccinated so far have been from this area, these are border and MIQ workers.

“Our border workforce is predominantly a South Auckland workforce.”