New Zealand records 75 cases after two days of falls – The Guardian

New Zealand has recorded 75 new cases of Covid-19, a bounce upward after two days of seeing cases decline.

The director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said on Tuesday the increase was not unexpected and noted that during New Zealands previous outbreak, case numbers did move up and down somewhat day-to-day, while still tracking down overall.

Bloomfield said that the governments modelling gave 90% certainty that the reproductive rate or average number of new people that each case infected was still below one, indicating that the number of cases will continue to decline, and we are successfully breaking the chains of transmission.

The current outbreak is now at 687 cases total. Of the 75 new cases, one was in Wellington and the remainder in Auckland. Thirty-two people are currently hospitalised in Auckland, eight of whom are in intensive care, and three of whom are on ventilators. Contact tracers have identified 34,832 contacts in the outbreak so far.

Auckland, the centre of the outbreak, and the regions north of the city remain in a level 4 lockdown the highest level of restriction in New Zealand. The rest of the country moved into level 3 on Wednesday , which allows more businesses, such as takeaway restaurants, to open while practicing social distancing.

As the outbreak continues, New Zealand is racing to vaccinate its population. On Wednesday the country hit a new milestone, with just over 50% of its eligible population people aged over 12 - having had at least one shot. So far, 1.21 million of those are fully vaccinated, or 27% of the eligible population.

As of today, vaccination appointments are open to all people aged 12 and over. Until now, New Zealand had been staggering its vaccine rollout by age group.

Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins also announced that the government would pause access to its Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) system the government-managed quarantine facilities that all those re-entering the country must pass through.

Spaces in MIQ are allocated using a voucher system that overseas New Zealanders must book in advance. Those vouchers are hotly in-demand, and spaces are typically snapped up within moments of release.

While people who have already booked spaces will still be able to enter the country, the pause means no additional vouchers will be released until further notice. New Zealanders based overseas have struggled for months to secure spots, with some reporting it is forcing people to violate visa conditions, and causing extreme psychological distress.

I do acknowledge its difficult when families are being separated, but I also just want to say and I do want to reiterate this: people do have to adjust your expectations a little bit at the moment, Hipkins said.

The ability to travel for family events like weddings and birthdays is a lot more restricted in the global pandemic than it would be in normal times, and so people need to be realistic about that, he added.

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New Zealand records 75 cases after two days of falls - The Guardian