'New Zealand Enters Nationwide Lockdown Over One Covid Case'

[LamieRobertson]

It has been well below par but perhaps the geographical reasons why they were so successful in the first place are the same reasons why as they're kind of on the periphery of the international community meaning even as fairly wealthy nations they've been behind the curve on vaccinations (plus they didn't have the same desperate need we had to avert many thousands of deaths).

They will however have a much more cautious public who are far more likely to adhere to guidance/law as they come out of the pandemic meaning their exit wave will be much less severe than what we are experiencing, and they will be much more bullish about putting in place further lockdowns to protect their citizens from covid and other illnesses.

G’day …Any idea of the lottery numbers for tomorrow

 

[dsr-burnley]

It has been well below par but perhaps the geographical reasons why they were so successful in the first place are the same reasons why as they're kind of on the periphery of the international community meaning even as fairly wealthy nations they've been behind the curve on vaccinations (plus they didn't have the same desperate need we had to avert many thousands of deaths).

They will however have a much more cautious public who are far more likely to adhere to guidance/law as they come out of the pandemic meaning their exit wave will be much less severe than what we are experiencing, and they will be much more bullish about putting in place further lockdowns to protect their citizens from covid and other illnesses.

Are you still under the misapprehension that our current wave is as bad as the January one, because of the number of cases? I think the number of serious illnesses and deaths is a better way to reflect the severity. As a comparison, there are far more cases of scarlet fever around today than there were ni my mother's generation, but my mother had to spend 3 weeks in an isolation hospital when she had it; now, they have scarletina parties because it is so trivial and they like to get it out of the way. More cases, less serious.

The problem they might have (I wouldn't be so confident as to predict the future with dogmatic certainty) is that they may find delta variant running rampant in an unvaccinated population. Something we have thankfully been spared.

 

[dsr-burnley]

Absolutely, I was never disputing that. As I said, I've given shedloads of credit to the likes of Jacinda Ardern in terms of how they acted early and robustly and saved countless of lives as a result. They had geographic advantages that the likes of the UK didn't have no doubt, but their superior handling of the early stages of the pandemic is indisputable.

My point was rather that having seemingly averted disaster last year, they took their eye off the ball in terms of how they might, one day, emerge from Covid hibernation. They didn't experience the tragedy and pain that we in the UK and countless many other countries have endured, and as a result appear to have been more blasè in their vaccination strategy, which to my mind is the only viable exit strategy any nation has against Covid.

Both New Zealand and Australia currently have adult vaccination rates of around 20%. That's dismal really. These are not poor countries - there's no economic reason for it. They'll both emerge with substantially lower per capita death numbers than we've seen in the UK, but you can't argue that their approach to vaccinating their people has been well below par.

It's as if having had a successful plan A, they didn't realise they needed a plan B as well. Our government, for all their faults in the implementation of plan A, did get on with plan B (vaccination) simultaneously.

Australia and New Zealand have completely dissed the AstraZeneca variant, I believe, so that won't be used even though it's possibly the quickest to produce (I think) and certainly the easiest to distribute. Countries like the UK are in position to say "well, AstraZeneca will kill 10 people by the vaccination so we'll use Pfizer instead" because we have plenty of both. Australia aren't in that position. They need to get everyone jabbed as quickly as possible with whatever reliable vaccines are to hand, and they won't.can't do it.

 

[Billy the Fish]

They're probably the only western democracy left who can use this tactic successfully.

Or maybe not. Cases still rising, will they be in permanent lockdown like oz

 

[e77]

At some point when the vaccination programme's even out there will be a background hum of cases round the world. Australia and New Zealand need to decide if they are happy to make their cases go up, from an admittedly very low level, by opening up their borders or continue as they are and beginning to risk the long term economy.

I already get the impression the sport's authorities are losing patience.

 

[Billy the Fish]

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...should-not-delay-australias-reopening-pm-says

Interesting news from oz, Morrison has now set a clear exit strategy. Surely NZ won't be far behind with something similar.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There seems to be a growing backlash in both Oz and NZ media against Zero Covid policies, and an acknowledgement that such policies are unrealistic in the face of the Delta variant

 

[Pierre the Painter]

There seems to be a growing backlash in both Oz and NZ media against Zero Covid policies, and an acknowledgement that such policies are unrealistic in the face of the Delta variant

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-08-2021/exclusive-poll-resounding-popular-support-for-decision-to-take-nz-into-strict-lockdown/

I think Aussies are wearying of it, Sydney has been in lockdown for two months now and it likely to stay in lockdown for at least another 2 months. NZ seem very happy with their strict lockdown.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-08-2021/exclusive-poll-resounding-popular-soz upport-for-decision-to-take-nz-into-strict-lockdown/

I think Aussies are wearying of it, Sydney has been in lockdown for two months now and it likely to stay in lockdown for at least another 2 months. NZ seem very happy with their strict lockdown.

Always just seemed to me that the Aussies were overly complacent. Pull up the drawbridge and She'll Be Right. Low number of cases, low vaccination rate. Scotty From Marketing's quote re vaccination "It's not a race" will probably be all he's remembered for, apart from allegedly shitting his pants in a McDonald’s in Engadine. NZ are even more backwoods. It's like they don't ever peer out much beyond their immediate borders. Maybe the rest of the world will go away and the Team Of 5 Million can live happily ever after in splendid isolation and evolve six fingers, flippers and a pouch, bless 'em

 

[dannyboy]

Were moving out of level 4 lockdown to level 3 as of midnight tonight ( I live outside of Wellington). Were expecting to be at level 3 for a week. Level 3 is not much different to 4 (pretty much just takeaways opening!) Level 2 is schools and pubs etc open . In total that would be 3 weeks in lockdown . That 1 case turned into 600 and is now falling . In Oz they didnt go so strict or so early as us and Sydney is on over 1000 a day now. At the moment there are 30 odd in hospital 8 in ICU 2 on ventilators and 0 deaths. In total I would have been in lockdown for 7 weeks during the whole pandemic. I am self employed and i get $600 a week while in lockdown and for some of that time I have been able to travel to Australia and the Cook Islands.

I think all that would add up to it being dealt with really well over here compared to other countries. Of course the isolation makes it easier to deal with but weve still only has 22 deaths during the whole pandemic. The one area where we were behind is vaccinations but thats really being ramped up now . Everyone above the age of 12 is now eligible to get vaccinated. We all know that a permanent lockdown isnt the answer with Delta as it wont keep it out but it is being used to vaccinate as much of the population as possible . I honestly dont understand all the vitriol towards how its been dealt with here including my family back home.

 

[e77]

Were moving out of level 4 lockdown to level 3 as of midnight tonight ( I live outside of Wellington). Were expecting to be at level 3 for a week. Level 3 is not much different to 4 (pretty much just takeaways opening!) Level 2 is schools and pubs etc open . In total that would be 3 weeks in lockdown . That 1 case turned into 600 and is now falling . In Oz they didnt go so strict or so early as us and Sydney is on over 1000 a day now. At the moment there are 30 odd in hospital 8 in ICU 2 on ventilators and 0 deaths. In total I would have been in lockdown for 7 weeks during the whole pandemic. I am self employed and i get $600 a week while in lockdown and for some of that time I have been able to travel to Australia and the Cook Islands.

I think all that would add up to it being dealt with really well over here compared to other countries. Of course the isolation makes it easier to deal with but weve still only has 22 deaths during the whole pandemic. The one area where we were behind is vaccinations but thats really being ramped up now . Everyone above the age of 12 is now eligible to get vaccinated. We all know that a permanent lockdown isnt the answer with Delta as it wont keep it out but it is being used to vaccinate as much of the population as possible . I honestly dont understand all the vitriol towards how its been dealt with here including my family back home.

With the possible exception of getting the vaccine out New Zealand has dealt with it superbly. However this has created a new set of challenges when reopening the borders as even with a fully vaccinated population (or as near as you are going to get) you are still going to get people catch it and on some occasions get hospitalised then in a handful of cases die.

I think the UK is prepared for it to be rumbling along in the background as it is still an improvement, however it is possible it will be as bad for New Zealand going forward as it has been at it's peak.

 

[Weststander]

Were moving out of level 4 lockdown to level 3 as of midnight tonight ( I live outside of Wellington). Were expecting to be at level 3 for a week. Level 3 is not much different to 4 (pretty much just takeaways opening!) Level 2 is schools and pubs etc open . In total that would be 3 weeks in lockdown . That 1 case turned into 600 and is now falling . In Oz they didnt go so strict or so early as us and Sydney is on over 1000 a day now. At the moment there are 30 odd in hospital 8 in ICU 2 on ventilators and 0 deaths. In total I would have been in lockdown for 7 weeks during the whole pandemic. I am self employed and i get $600 a week while in lockdown and for some of that time I have been able to travel to Australia and the Cook Islands.

I think all that would add up to it being dealt with really well over here compared to other countries. Of course the isolation makes it easier to deal with but weve still only has 22 deaths during the whole pandemic. The one area where we were behind is vaccinations but thats really being ramped up now . Everyone above the age of 12 is now eligible to get vaccinated. We all know that a permanent lockdown isnt the answer with Delta as it wont keep it out but it is being used to vaccinate as much of the population as possible . I honestly dont understand all the vitriol towards how its been dealt with here including my family back home.

Is travelling from Australia to NZ more difficult?

Recent rugby union games were cancelled, which caused an explosion from the Rugby Australia boss.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/20/all-blacks-will-not-travel-to-perth-for-bledisloe-cup-home-tests-cancelled

 

[dannyboy]

With the possible exception of getting the vaccine out New Zealand has dealt with it superbly. However this has created a new set of challenges when reopening the borders as even with a fully vaccinated population (or as near as you are going to get) you are still going to get people catch it and on some occasions get hospitalised then in a handful of cases die.

I think the UK is prepared for it to be rumbling along in the background as it is still an improvement, however it is possible it will be as bad for New Zealand going forward as it has been at it's peak.

I fully agree it definitely seems like theres been a shift in the thinking although they arent really talking about it. If they talk about it too much a lot of people wont bother getting vaccinated . The other thing which Jacinda did mention is they wont say the % vaccination of the pop. they want . When you hit the 90% for example then again people wont bother after that.

One thing i forgot to mention was compliance. its very good here . Generally there arent many stories of people flouting lockdown . Helps I suppose that weve not had many lockdowns!

 

[dannyboy]

Is travelling from Australia to NZ more difficult?

Recent rugby union games were cancelled, which caused an explosion from the Rugby Australia boss.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/20/all-blacks-will-not-travel-to-perth-for-bledisloe-cup-home-tests-cancelled

I believe special dispensation is granted for big sporting events . The Aussies are a bit more relaxed about sending and inviting teams over than we are in NZ. Shame the game was called off in Wellington as i had tickets and its the closest thing to replacing the Albion that ive had. Still doesnt come close though.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I honestly dont understand all the vitriol towards how its been dealt with here including my family back home.

I think people get a bit fed up with hearing comparisons between UK and NZ covid policy, which then prompts a backlash. The two countries just aren't comparable in any way.

I'd say that's true of almost every country, everyone had to play the hand they were dealt using the tools available to them at the time.