Category Archives: New Zealand

While were all rightly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic at the moment, the SARS-CoV-2 virus isnt the only microbial threat we face.

Back in 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that within a decade, antibiotic-resistant bacteria could make routine surgery, organ transplantation and cancer treatment life-threateningly risky and spell the end of modern medicine as we know it.

Antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern medicine, used to treat infections and to protect vulnerable patients undergoing surgery or chemotherapy. The world desperately needs new antibiotics and COVID-19 has only exacerbated the problem.

In our search for new antibiotics, we have focused on fungi, especially those found only in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our latest research describes the discovery of fungal compounds able to kill Mycobacteria, a family of slow-growing bacteria that includes another important global airborne killer Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes the lung disease tuberculosis and kills thousands of people around the world each day.

While most people in Aotearoa know me as the pink-haired COVID lady, for the past six years my lab has been hunting for compounds that could make good antibiotics. Weve focused on fungi from the International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants (ICMP), cared for by the Crown Research Institute Manaaki Whenua and our collaborator Bevan Weir.

Our latest findings follow earlier research which revealed a fungal compound with some activity against the hospital superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA.

One of the earliest antibiotics ever discovered, penicillin, originally came from a fungus called Penicillium rubens. With more than 10,000 fungi in the ICMP database, we think this may be a treasure trove of potential new antibiotics.

For our latest study, we tested 36 fungi collected between 1961 and 2016 from locations right across Aotearoa, including the Chatham Islands. Our first exciting finding is that nine of the fungi are not known species, suggesting they may well be unique to Aotearoa.

Aotearoa is well known for its iconic animal and plant species that arent found anywhere else in the world. Our fungi will be no different. And if they are unique, they may have come up with unique compounds able to kill bacteria.

Our second major finding is that 35 of the 36 fungi we tested had some form of antibacterial activity against Mycobacteria. In fact, when we first started doing this work, we thought we must have made a mistake. Wed never had anything like that kind of success rate when screening fungi against other superbugs.

Read more: How we discovered a hidden world of fungi inside the worlds biggest seed bank

Taking a deeper dive into the chemistry of those fungal compounds, we found the majority are fatty acids which wont make good antibiotics. But we did find several fungi, including two of our unknown species, whose antibacterial activity wasnt due to fatty acids.

Were currently working to identify these compounds, with our collaborators Melissa Cadelis and Brent Copp.

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili once said that most scientific progress is a messy, complex and slow process. Take the COVID-19 vaccines as a good example. While weve watched numerous vaccines come through clinical trials successfully and quickly, they are based on decades of scientific study of mRNA and lipid nanoparticles.

My labs search for antibiotics has its roots in work we did over a decade ago, making tools to make Mycobacteria glow in the dark. Because these bacteria grow so slowly, it can take weeks to months for them to form colonies on a petri dish.

But they glow only when they are alive, and this technique allows us to measure the amount of light they produce instead of waiting for them to grow. This massively speeds up the antibiotic discovery process.

Read more: New technology can create treatment against drug-resistant bacteria in under a week and adapt to antibiotic resistance

I started thinking about fungi as a potential source of new antibacterial compounds when Manaaki Whenuas fungi expert Peter Buchanan told me about the collection. After a few years of rejected funding applications, we finally got a small grant-in-aid from Cure Kids to get the project started in 2015.

One of their ambassadors, Eva, has battled superbug infections her whole life. Meeting Eva changed my relationship with my work and inspired me to do all I can to find new antibiotics.

Weve still got a way to go before we have any compounds that might be suitable for further development as antibiotics. We also know that many compounds fail as they move through the pipeline that takes them from the lab to clinical trials in humans.

Thats why my lab will keep working its way through the fungal collection for as long as we can afford to. There are thousands more fungi to screen and hopefully many more unique compounds with antibiotic potential to discover.

The rest is here:

The world is desperate for new antibiotics, and New Zealand's unique fungi are a source of promising compounds - The Conversation AU

New cases of Covid-19 have continued to drop in New Zealand, in a promising early indication that the countrys strict lockdown is working and its latest outbreak may be coming under control.

The country announced 49 new cases on Tuesday dropping for the second day in a row, down from 53 cases on Monday and 83 on Sunday. It is the lowest number of new cases reported in the country in six days.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the drop does provide a further reassuring indication that our public health measures are rapidly slowing the spread of the virus.

According to the latest modelling, Bloomfield said the reproduction rate of the virus in this outbreak is now looking like it is remaining under one, which means cases will continue to decline.

Asked whether New Zealanders should be celebrating the latest results, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said she would ask New Zealanders to hold that thought.

Every day for me is, another step, a bit of progress, but [its] too early. For me I want to see sustained reductions over a period of time and I think actually most people want to see that. It is good not to see some of those high numbers we were only a few days ago.

Its another step. Weve still got a journey to go through.

New Zealand has been in a strict level 4 lockdown since 17 August, when a single case of Covid-19 was detected in the general population. Since then, the total number of cases in the outbreak has grown to 612.

The seriousness of Covid-19 infection is also very visible to us, Bloomfield said, with 33 people in hospital, including eight in intensive care of whom two were on ventilators. These hospitalisations obviously have an outward ripple effect on our communities and whnau [families], and my thoughts are with those individuals and their whnau. Its also sobering that of the current Auckland outbreak six cases are under the age of one.

Ardern said We have an 18-year-old in hospital right now. I dont think anyone can assume that they are safe from this virus, so we all have a job to do so. My request would be that we need everyone from all walks of life to do their best and to be the best role models that they can be.

Officials are still hunting for how the virus got into the community. While the first cases have been traced, via genomic testing, to a single quarantine facility in Auckland, they have not yet been able to identify exactly how someone outside the facility was infected.

Ardern said that all of the obvious sources of transmission people to people contact it would be fair to say that weve ruled most, if not all, of them out.

She said officials were now investigating theories of how the virus could transmit through the air, without person to person transmission.

A number of people have been evacuated from west Auckland due to flooding this morning. Ardern said that those emergency evacuations overrode pandemic alert levels.

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New Zealand cases drop to 49 in reassuring indication lockdown is working - The Guardian

New Zealand reported its first coronavirus death in more than six months on Saturday, while the number of new cases continued to trend downward. Health authorities said the woman who died was in her 90s and had underlying health problems.

Authorities reported 20 new community cases, all in the largest city of Auckland.

New Zealand remains in lockdown as it tries to eliminate an outbreak of the delta variant that began last month. The snap lockdown was announced in August after a man tested positive for the virus, marking the the first case there in six months, the BBC reported.

"Going hard and early has worked for us before," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time.

New cases in the outbreak have steadily fallen from a peak of more than 80 each day.

New Zealand has so far escaped the worst of the pandemic and has reported just 27 coronavirus deaths since it began.

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New Zealand reports first COVID death in over 6 months - CBS News

The stabbing attack in a West Auckland supermarket last Friday jolted New Zealanders, and understandably so it was the first ISIS-inspired terror incident to take place in their country. But more shocking still is the fact that the perpetrator, Ahamed Samsudeen, was well known to the highest authorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been briefed about him, and her government had been trying to deport the Sri Lankan national for years.

They knew that he wanted to commit an act of terrorism. He had been under 24-hour surveillance for nearly two months by 30 police officers. And yet, legally Samsudeen was free to wander and plot as he pleased, until the moment he struck, wounding six, of whom three are in a critical condition. Agencies used every tool available to protect innocent people from this individual, Ms Ardern said. Every legal avenue was tried.

To be fair to Ms Arden, she is moving swiftly to close this hole in the law by criminalising planning such an attack, but there have been too many cases in western countries of people who are on the security services radar being left at liberty, until they try to end the lives and liberties of others. In Britain, they knew all about Sudesh Amman, who stabbed two people in south London in February 2020; he had previously been jailed for possessing and disseminating terrorist material and pledged allegiance to ISIS while in prison. Two days before his attack, arresting him was considered, but rejected because no offences were identified. Three men linked to the 2015 Paris attack on the Bataclan theatre, in which 90 people died, were on a Belgian terror list.

The aftermath of the shooting outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris in 2015. AP Photo

This situation is so widespread that in 2018, Dr Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Programme on Extremism at George Washington University, wrote that he and his colleagues had looked at 76 [extremist] attacks in Western Europe and North America in recent years. We found that more than half [of them] involved perpetrators who had been on a security service watch list". Dr Vidino pointed to the near-impossibility of monitoring the thousands of people who are known extremists, even with clear murderous intent, but seemed to wring his hands, concluding: There are limits to how much a democracy can do to fight terrorism.

With all due respect to Dr Vidino, oh no there arent. It is all a matter of political will and what a society wishes to prioritise. From the perspective of a country such as Malaysia, where I live, the willingness of western countries to respect the freedoms of those who would violently deny others theirs seems like a form of madness. Here we have the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which became law in 2015 under the then prime minister, Najib Razak.

Some criticised its provisions, which allow for detention of suspects for up to 60 days while investigations are carried out. But Najib was resolute, telling a conference that year: It is right to talk about striking a balance between civil liberties and national security. But let me tell you this: there are no civil liberties under [ISIS], and they are no shield against those who are set on committing acts of terrorism. The best way to uphold civil liberties is to ensure the safety of the nation. I make no apology for taking every step to preserve that safety. We will not wait for an outrage to take place before putting all measures necessary in place.

People walk outside a corner restaurant serving Lebanese and Turkish cuisine in the Arab Street district of Singapore in July. AFP

Preventative laws have proved crucial in many countries. In neighbouring Singapore, they enabled the arrest of a 16 year old who planned to kill Muslims in two mosques and livestream his attacks earlier this year. Preventative strikes by special units in Indonesia have gathered up hundreds of militants, and in all three countries all democracies, by the way such moves have stopped many deadly attacks.

It is true that such laws could potentially be misused; but ensuring oversight and that checks and balances are in place should keep their scope clearly demarcated. What this division in approach shows, though, is that the concept of the individuals liberty appears to have been fetishised to a ridiculous degree in many western countries.

You aspire to the liberty of living in a city that is not defined by its most disorderly elements

Tharman Shanmugaratnam

The Singaporean intellectual Kishore Mahbubani once noted that when visiting the central districts of New York, Washington and Los Angeles, if you ventured out at night and strayed a few hundred yards off course, you would be putting your life in jeopardy". He concluded: Danger from habitual crime is considered an acceptable price to pay for no reduction in liberty. In Singapore, by contrast, he said you could wander out at night in any direction since habitual offenders were locked up, often for long spells the interests of the majority in having safe city streets is put ahead.

It is a good point, elaborated on by the city-states then deputy prime minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in 2015. Pointing out that there are many kinds of liberties, he said: You do aspire to a liberty of being able to walk the streets freely, particularly if youre a woman or a child, at any time of the night; you aspire to the liberty of living in a city that is not defined by its most disorderly elements.

He could have added that we all aspire to the liberty of being free from the future actions of extremists in our midst, even if they have not yet technically committed an offence. The rule of law is paramount, yes; but the law is an ass if it allows the likes of Samsudeen the same freedoms as those exercised by responsible members of the community.

Otherwise, the great cry of the American revolutionary Patrick Henry Give me liberty, or give me death! can translate into the liberty of misguided or evil individuals to inflict death on others. And that, for the victims of terror, would be a grotesque consequence of the idea that freedom must come above all else.

Updated: September 8th 2021, 9:00 AM

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

How to vote

Canadians living in the UAE can register to vote online and be added to the International Register of Electors.

They'll then be sent a special ballot voting kit by mail either to their address, the Consulate General of Canada to the UAE in Dubai or The Embassy of Canada in Abu Dhabi

Registered voters mark the ballot with their choice and must send it back by 6pm Eastern time on October 21 (2am next Friday)

See original here:

New Zealand and the West's dangerous dance with civil liberties - The National

Heavy rain showers hit Auckland as seen in Newmarket. Photo / Dean Purcell

While New Zealanders got a taste of spring last week, today's weather has been anything but spring-like.

MetService forecaster Sonja Farmer says New Zealand is covered by "fairly scattered cloud, certainly cold showery-looking cloud", calling today's weather a "mixed bag".

"There has been a sweeping through of frontal activity today which accounts for all those showers that have come through and that abrupt change," she said.

A strong wind watch remains in place for Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula and Waikato north of Hamilton. That watch is expected to lift later this evening.

Strong southwesterlies were expected in Auckland, with some gusts reaching 90km/h in exposed places.

A transformer has blown in Beach Haven, leaving many residents on Auckland's North Shore without power.

Vector received reports of the outage at 8.38pm.

Although the country is in spring, Farmer said there was a "definitely chill" in the air across the country.

Auckland reached a high of 13C, 3C cooler than the regular spring temperature.

Earlier this afternoon Auckland dropped just below 11C.

8 Sep, 2021 04:46 AMQuick Read

8 Sep, 2021 05:53 AMQuick Read

7 Sep, 2021 05:00 PMQuick Read

Aucklanders had some rain today, but Farmer said it wasn't heavy.

The Arataki visitor centre in West Auckland recorded 19mm since midnight. But the majority fell between 8am and 3pm. Similar numbers were recorded across Auckland.

"It's been a fairly steady rainfall out that way," she said.

With the majority of the country in alert level 2, Farmer is warning motorists to be careful on the roads.

A number of road snowfall warnings have been issued for Desert Road, Arthur's Pass, Lewis Pass and Milford Road.

"If you do want to get out and about to blow out the cobwebs you have to be careful," Farmer said.

MetService said a "few snow flurries" may affect Lewis Pass overnight, with the possibility of 1 cm or less near the summit.

Snow may affect higher parts of Arthur's Pass overnight, where 1 to 2 cm of snow may settle near the summit.

On Milford Road 2 to 4cm of snow may settle above about 800m, with rain also expected overnight.

While only 1 to 2 cm of snow may settle near the summit on Desert Road.

MetService has also issued a heavy snow watch for Fiordland; that watch is expected to lift this evening.

Napier reached a high of 19C, which was the warmest region, while Balclutha had the coolest temperature of 4.8C.

Here is the original post:

Weather: Rain, strong winds, hail and snow batter New Zealand - New Zealand Herald

BMW New Zealand has confirmed local pricing for the two i4 models due here in Q1 2022, the i4 eDrive40 and i4 M50.

The lesser of the two, the eDrive40, will kick off from $109,900, right between the base ICE 420i Gran Coupe and the M440i Gran Coupe. It uses a single electric motor on the rear axle to generate 250kW/430Nm, hitting 100kmh in 5.7 seconds, along with a WLTP-rated range of 590km.

Stepping up to the M50, the M divisions first production electric vehicle, pushes price to $137,900. It also adds another motor to the front axle for all-wheel drive and a peak power output of 400kW/795Nm. Range takes a hit as a result, but its still a respectable 520km. Sprinting to 100kmh takes 3.9 seconds.

Supplied

The new BMW i4 is due here in early 2022 with a sharp price tag.

Compare those figures to the 375kW/650Nm M4 Competition, which costs $168,900 and has now been relegated to second-in-command of the 4 Series. Officially, both the M4 and i4 M50 take the same amount of time to get to the open road speed limit, largely due to the weight of the batteries offsetting the instant torque and AWD grip of the EV.

READ MORE:* BMW reveals 'Bahn-storming all-electric i4* BMW fires off one-two EV punch* 'Simple acceleration isn't enough' for BMW's electric i4

Purists will probably prefer the soundtrack of the M4, but its hard to ignore the price gulf of around $35k. Youre getting M4-or-better performance for less than the price of an M340i Sedan.

Supplied

This is the i4 M50, the M divisions first all-electric production car and the new king of the 4 Series.

Meanwhile, the eDrive40 is about three grand more than the 330i Sedan, and should offer substantially better performance than the 190kW/400Nm turbocharged four-cylinder.

However, comparisons will be drawn with the Tesla Model 3 range. The i4 currently doesnt have anything as cheap as the $66,990 Model 3 Standard Range Plus, which also qualifies for the Clean Car Discount rebate of $8625.

In fact, every Model 3 is cheaper than the i4 eDrive40, as the Model 3 Performance currently starts at $95,900. BMW has almost certainly left space for cheaper models in the future though.

Damien O'Carroll/Stuff

The biggest competition is this, the Tesla Model 3. And off the bat, Tesla wins in value.

Both i4 models get lift-related suspension dampers and rear air springs, while the M50 adds a performance chassis with adaptive dampers, anti-roll bars and variable sports steering.

BMW has given the two EVs the same 80.7kWh battery, which can charge at rates up to 210kW. Charging at full speed for ten minutes nets up to 164km of range. Improvements to regeneration under braking means the system can claw back up to 195kW in the M50 and 116kW in the eDrive40.

The exterior looks largely the same as other four-door 4 Series models, although the kidney grille isnt functional in a traditional sense, instead holding an array of radars and sensors.

Inside is a new, curved display running the latest iDrive 8 operating system, which spans half the length of the dashboard. It comprises a 12.3-inch driver's display on one side and a 14.9-inch touchscreen for various infotainment/air-conditioning controls on the other. Sports seats are standard, and there are plenty of blue accents to remind you this is an EV.

Originally posted here:

BMW New Zealand confirms i4 pricing ahead of 2022 arrival - Stuff.co.nz

Kiwis are renewing their passports, Air New Zealand is re-hiring, and experts predict a bumper travel year in 2022. Will our return to flight be turbulence-free? Kelly Dennett reports.

Alice Heaslip is saving for her next overseas holiday.

The Auckland mum has spent years globetrotting, travelling overseas twice a year. Little did she know that her November 2019 trip to Tokyo would be her last for more than two years. Just a few months later Covid-19 grounded the world.

We did spend two weeks driving around the South Island in July 2020, which was amazing, but nothing compares to international travel, she says. I have missed it so much. Its all I dream about. Theres so much of the world that Im dying to see.

Supplied

Alice Heaslip and her son Ashley in Los Angeles in 2016.

READ MORE:* Covid-19 travel: Which overseas destinations could Kiwis visit in 2022? * Covid 19: NZ resets approach with faster vaccine roll-out, border reopening trial this year* Big Kiwi OE could resume later this year - travel sector

Following the Governments tentative plans to unlock New Zealands gate in the first quarter of next year, shes saving to head to Singapore in mid-2022, where she plans to tack on sojourns to Hong Kong and Shanghai, after a work conference, rounding out the year with a white Christmas in Europe.

Shes not the only one with a post-lockdown bucket list. As summer beckons, House of Travel chief operating officer and Travel Agents Association of New Zealand president Brent Thomas says Kiwis are preparing to take flight.

[Figures] indicate were going to be highly vaccinated by later this year, even as early as October on current trajectories. Its not that far away; from people thinking about booking travel and making those commitments, says Thomas. Put it this way: people dont want a third winter in New Zealand. Theyve missed their travelling in 2020 and 2021, and were hearing very clearly they dont want to miss out on 2022.

SUPPLIED

Brent Thomas, chief operating officer at House of Travel and president of the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand (TAANZ).

Millions of Kiwis had international travel plans scuppered by Covid-19. In 2019, 3.1 million packed bags and hopped on planes, but by the end of 2020, only 1.74m had travelled internationally. This year Customs figures show by the end of July just 344,208 made it across the border. The short-lived trans-Tasman and Cook Islands bubbles showed how keen travellers were to get out more than 98,000 departed in May, compared to 13,373 in February.

Just a week before the highly virulent Delta variant was found in Auckland, fog on the runway was cleared, with Government plans for how Kiwis could once again safely leave and re-enter the country revealed. Travellers wings will be tied to a low, medium or high-risk pathway. Low-risk travel would allow quarantine-free travel for vaccinated travellers coming from low-risk countries. Medium-risk travel would require a combination of self-isolation or reduced MIQ possibly up to a week and high-risk travel would require travellers to complete two weeks in MIQ. Details are yet to be released about what would be considered risky travel, but its anticipated to include how highly other populations are vaccinated.

The Ministry of Health is running home isolation tests for a few hundred people from October, and working on getting vaccine certificates and rapid border testing up and running.

123rf

Kiwis are renewing their passports.

Department of Internal Affairs, Te Tari Taiwhenua, general manager of services and access Julia Wootton, says after Aprils travel bubble announcement it processed 80,000 passport applications, including renewals, an increase of 65,000 from the same period last year.

Since late July it had noticed a steady decline in applications, but online applications over the past two weeks had reached historic high levels. It had just opened online applications for first-time childrens passports. Wootton believes there are about 420,000 expired passports in the country, and encouraged people to renew them if they were going to expire.

For now, Kiwis can only watch as the rest of the world embraces reopening. UK travellers can travel the continent in the same way Kiwis will be expected to fly risk-based travel caveated by vaccinations, and testing.

Supplied

Irina Read in Bali. The Auckland woman is looking forward to travelling to Moscow to see her friends and family, in 2022.

Some countries, like Croatia, Germany, and Norway, are open to non or partially vaccinated travellers without quarantine, but fully vaccinated travellers can visit the likes of the Bahamas, Finland, Dubai, France, Greece, Ireland and Poland, without quarantine.

Internationally, cruises have become the travel of choice for travellers with the ability to find a spot scarce, particularly as Americans book in large numbers in the Caribbean and Hawaii. Brent Thomas notes that internationally, where there was more certainty, people do really start to book in, and quickly.

Closer to home, low-risk travel is expected to include the Pacific. Says Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran: New Zealanders want to travel we were seeing this across our domestic network and on services to Rarotonga. The Cook Islands bubble saw a 230 per cent increase in its bookings compared to pre-Covid levels.

RYAN ANDERSON/Stuff

The Pacific, particularly the Cook Islands, will likely be Kiwis first stop.

But domestic and Pacific travel arent enough to sustain the airline. You can imagine were incredibly keen to see international borders open as soon as its safe to do so. We dont need them all open at once, but getting up and running to places like North America, Japan, China, Australia and the Pacific is critical to our business strategy.

Work is well under way in preparation for takeoff next year, including its first flight to New York. Its also added a passenger service to Hobart, and three cargo routes to Guangzhou, and Los Angeles. With the government-assisted cargo scheme its been able to keep the lights on, which means it will be a relatively easy process to open these flights up.

It was consulting with 4000 of its essential workers on health measures, and is considering expanding its requirement for mandatory vaccination to include all employees who interact with customers or their baggage, and essential workers required to come to work.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff

Opening up the borders relies on a highly vaccinated NZ population.

So far more than 82 per cent of its 2300 required staff were double-jabbed, and about 700 had been rehired to keep up with demand.

With more countries opening up for travel with varying caveats, it feels like this is how the future travel experience will look, at least for a while, Foran says.

Theres some innovation required to take some friction out. For travellers to keep track of all the different requirements for each country, it will require a digital solution like the IATA Travel Pass. Having one universal app across the world would make more sense then a number of different apps being used, but I suspect for the interim we will see individual countries apply their own system.

Ideally we need simplicity here it will not only give governments the confidence to open borders but give customers the peace of mind that everyone onboard meets the same government health requirements as they do.

Thomas estimates 2022 traveller numbers could return to 40 to 50 per cent, maybe even two thirds of pre-pandemic levels thats up to two million who could be dusting off suitcases next year. But key to how quickly people book is solving MIQs issues.

Irina Read says shed most like to see her friends and family in Moscow, but having to pay an extra $3000+ for isolation on return would dampen her enthusiasm. Her readiness to book would depend on how long the wait for normality would be. If its two more years Id [save] enough for [MIQ], because Ill go crazy. I miss Europe so much. I got used to going. Now, Im stuck.

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Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran says its critical international travel resumes.

Alice Heaslip says while shes quick to plan, there is a handbrake. I wont be booking anything until much closer to the time, whereas pre-Covid I would book well in advance to secure good deals. A positive to all this is that a lot of travel companies are offering more flexibility.

Wellington travel broker Katrina Harding said people will be wanting to book only when they know its safe. The latest outbreak will have spooked everyone, and they wont be in a hurry, even when we open up. I dont think theyre necessarily going to race again, knowing anything can change and borders can close at any time.

She thought New Zealand could capitalise off the growth of cruising, while injecting some love back into regions that may see a downturn in domestic tourism as travellers race to the other side of the world.

The Insurance Council of New Zealand warns while some insurance policies may include specific Covid-19 cover, border closures imposed by a Government are not covered by any insurer. It advised travellers to get insurance while booking.

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Preparing for international travel: 'People don't want a third winter in New Zealand' - Stuff.co.nz

There are 21 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today, bringing the total number of people infected in the outbreak to 72. One million New Zealanders are now fully vaccinated.

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Case numbers could rise for another five days, says Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall - and numbers today could be the highest we have seen so far.

And hopes that some of New Zealand might be able to move out of a full lockdown early seem to be up in the air - Verrall says "tens of thousands" of Aucklanders left the region when the lockdown was announced, and that's a risk.

"I think [falling case numbers] could still be a wee way away - it could be another five days before we see the impact of the transmission that was happening in the community prior to lockdown pass through," Verrall told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.

Verrall said it was possible we could see a higher number of cases today than we had in previous days.

Asked whether Auckland was in for another four weeks in lockdown, Verrall said she didn't have a view on today's Cabinet decision but there were still areas of ongoing risk around the country, particularly Auckland.

Verrall said officials did not know where every exposed person went in New Zealand when the lockdown was announced and that was the risk when changing alert levels by region.

She acknowledged that "tens of thousands" of people had left Auckland. "That's the level of risk we're dealing with there."

Asked who would look after borders when and if alert levels changed by region, Verrall said there was a lot of work going on. Police would look after roads while MBIE would do businesses affected by road blocks.

Cabinet will meet today to decide on whether to extend the nationwide alert level 4 lockdown beyond midnight on Tuesday, which most observers think is inevitable. The decision will be announced by the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at 4pm.

There are 72 Covid community cases - 66 in Auckland and six in Wellington - and five people are in hospital, but are not requiring intensive-care treatment. A queue of cars is already lining up at the Henderson testing station this morning, following tens of thousands of tests at the weekend.

"In terms of the decision, we get a lot of the informtion in the hours before the decision is made but one thing to be aware of, we are only in day six of this lockdown," said Verrall.

She told TVNZ contact tracers had managed to find 10,000 close contacts connected to the almost 300 locations of interest.

She said it was "massive" that 5 per cent of the Auckland population had been tested. When demand was high for testing, people who were at highest risk were prioritised. She said sometimes there was a delay in letting people know if their tests were negative.

Verrall told The AM Show: "We are in a situation where we need to be very cautious and we are making sure we are adjusting the response as we go to deal with these pressures."

Verrall said she did not think an outbreak could be turned around with contact tracing alone when the government was dealing with Delta. She believed lockdown was also needed to get on top of it.

Verrall told Hosking that the country could do up 60,000 vaccine jabs a day.

The government planned to offer everyone a vaccine by the end of the year. "My message to New Zealanders is almost everyone is eligible to book if not right right now, but in the coming days so just get online and book," she told The AM Show.

An adviser to the Government on Covid-19 is warning Kiwis to prepare for a "messy and frustrated" exit from lockdown to a life that may not be as free as the last 18 months.

Wigram Capital Advisors' Rodney Jones, who has been advising the Government on Covid-19 throughout the pandemic, warned that the highly transmissible Delta variant would make for a difficult exit from lockdown.

He said New Zealanders may need to prepare for life not going back to the way it was before the latest outbreak.

"We're not going back to what we had for the last 18 months," Jones said. "At what point do you say, 'You had a fantastic 18 months, but in some ways the future we face is not going to be as good as that'."

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Jones said that in hindsight, the country should have been at a permanent state of level 2. "We should have been at level 2. Once we had a certain number of Delta cases at MIQ that's quite a different mindset you have to have," he said.

Jones said his pessimism was down to the extraordinary transmissibility of the Delta variant of the virus, which he thinks is no match for even New Zealand's relatively good MIQ system.

The pandemic had forced "tough choices" on New Zealand: to shut the border completely, (which is impossible and maybe illegal) manage a closed border using MIQ, or to use vaccinations to protect people.

Jones said managing a functioning MIQ system with Delta was going to be difficult, meaning "our only defence becomes vaccinations".

"You go from the public-national defence to the individual armour of the vaccine," Jones said.

Jones' comments come as the number of cases in the latest outbreak continued to rise over the weekend, although not at the same breakneck pace as the outbreak in New South Wales, which announced more than 800 new cases on Saturday and Sunday.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced 21 new cases of Covid-19 in the community on Sunday, bringing the number of cases likely connected to the latest outbreak to 72.

The number of locations of interest ballooned to almost 300, and included a large number of mass gatherings.

Hipkins said the decision would go down to the wire on Monday, with Cabinet waiting until it gets the latest case data before making a decision on alert levels.

"We will give people plenty of notice," Hipkins said. "There's still more information to gather."

The big question is how long places like Auckland and Wellington will need to stay in lockdown to stamp out the virus - and whether stamping out the Delta variant is even possible long-term.

Jones said New Zealand's response was "limping to year-end" at which point a decision would need to be made about how the Covid strategy would evolve. But the key would need to be high rates of vaccinations.

"The equilibrium in this pandemic will be found when the virus stops mutating so quickly and the vaccines have caught up with that," he said.

Jones said that the latest outbreak was tracking better than Victoria and New South Wales, meaning the country might avoid a prolonged lockdown.

Fellow modeller Shaun Hendy, whose team had also done modelling for the Covid response, was more optimistic.

Hendy said an extension of lockdown through to the end of the week is likely.

"Given the high number of exposure events I think there is still a chance it's got to parts of the country other than Wellington," Hendy said.

Only by the middle of next week can we start giving the all clear in other parts of the country.

Hendy said there is a "good chance" of getting ahead of the virus "assuming we don't see clusters outside Auckland and Wellington".

He was hopeful that once vaccinations had been widely rolled out to 70 per cent of the population, that level 3 and 4 lockdowns might be taken "off the table".

"We're still going to see things like masking, scanning a supercharged contact tracing system, maybe we can start taking those alert levels out of our levies - at least alert level 3 and 4," Hendy said.

Another decision the Government will have to make today is what to do with Parliament, which is due to return tomorrow.

That decision could be down to the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern alone, who can request the Speaker delay the return of Parliament by a as long as a month, on the advice of Bloomfield.

Hipkins, who also serves as leader of the House, suggested that if the return of Parliamentary sitting was delayed, the Parliament's select committees would reconvene to provide scrutiny of the Government.

"We'll have conversations with the other political parties before we make that decision - part of those conversations will include how we ensure democratic scrutiny in the event Parliament cannot meet in person as it ordinarily would," Hipkins said.

"That will include considerations of select committee meetings, televising of select committee meetings and a whole variety of other things," he said.

Canterbury University Covid-19 Modeller Michael Plank told RNZ today he expected to see 20 new cases per day. But there may be more given the large events that took place.

He said it would not be until the second half of this week before we started to see any sign that lockdown was having an impact on the spread.

It was "definitely good news" that there seemed to be one cluster only.

"We're not completely out of the woods yet in terms of another cluster being out there, people could still be in the incubation period," he said.

Delta had a "wide ranging" incubation period.

He said it was possible that people were not yet sick but were still infectious. He predicted that the L4 lockdown would last at least another week.

"I think it makes sense to go week by week at this stage, a lot can change in a week, and in a week's time we will start to see the impact of that lockdown," he said.

He said at some point regions outside Auckland could come down in levels but we needed to remain cautious given people could still be in the incubation period.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said charges are "very likely" for a group caught jetboating near Wanaka over the weekend.

He told RNZ it was "incredibly disappointing" to see the men from multiple bubbles breaching the rules of lockdown.

He expected an update later today with news of charges against the group.

Coster said most people were behaving.

"We're pretty happy at what we're seeing, by and large, at the moment," he said.

In terms of protests he said police had taken a "pretty firm approach" and people had "dispersed quickly".

Most people had acknowledged "now was not the time" to be out in force.

Coster said police were not against lawful protests but during Level 4 restrictions it was not appropriate.

He was concerned at what was happening in Australia with protests but did not believe New Zealand would see numbers of people breaching lockdown to gather at this stage.

Seven Countdown stores in Auckland remain closed due to staff shortages after people were identified as close contacts and had to self isolate.

Countdown spokeswoman Kiri Hannifin told RNZ there were about 20 incidents a day where people refused to wear masks or showed violence or aggression towards staff.

She worked yesterday as a "greeter" at a store.

One person did not want to wear a mask but "by and large" they were compliant.

She said police would be called in any situation where someone threatened staff safety.

Hannafin said stocks were "holding up pretty well".

There were limits on items that "sell very well at times like this" but there was lots of stock. "The stores are looking good," she said.

Hannafin said the company's biggest fear was Covid hitting the distribution centres."We've been worried well before the current situation we're in," she said.

However there were very strict protocols in place at the centres.

Hannifin said front facing staff started to get vaccinated on Saturday. There was a dedicated site just for Countdown staff.

She went herself on Sunday and said it was "joyous" to see staff and their families getting vaccinated. "I am incredibly relieved... they deserve it, they are essential workers," she said. "I'm so happy."

Northland, Taranaki and Christchurch would all have similar opportunities. "It's awesome, so good," she said.

Hannifin reiterated that Kiwis should shop in store if they could - which would free up online services for those who really need it.

"Including 400 of our own staff who are home and can't leave," she said. It was possible some stores could be dedicated for online orders only.

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Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Decision day looms as experts wonder if New Zealand will ever return to normal - New Zealand Herald

My Kiwi friends ask, somewhat jokingly, how Im finding my first New Zealand level 4. I answer, also somewhat jokingly, that Im a veteran at this, having lived in London and Dublin for most of the pandemic, and had gone through several hard lockdowns.

Thats why it was unfortunate, the day before New Zealand went into one, it felt like Groundhog Day to me.

Supermarket carparks filled and queues snaked out of their entrances. By the end of the night, the same products that ran out at the beginning of the first lockdown were emptied out once again: bread, toilet paper, flour. The government had moved quickly, carrying out a plan developed for a Delta outbreak, but the population did not appear to have the same sense of danger: the shoppers and staff were, for the most part, unmasked.

I had witnessed the same in London, where I was living at the beginning of the pandemic. Back then, we still regarded it as being something that would pass soon enough. We laughed at people stocking up on masks; I turned down a family friends offer to siphon off some supply the Chinese embassy had given her. As we waited for the UK government to announce a lockdown, we continued going out, calling it a last hurrah.

In those days, we were lucky the coronavirus was still in its initial, far less infectious state. We didnt hear much about people we knew getting the virus; these days, everyone in London knows at least one person whos gotten Delta. Over in Australia, weve seen the quagmires New South Wales and Victoria have found themselves in.

We know more now. There is something to be said for Kiwi chillness, but this behaviour seemed downright foolish.

The first day of the lockdown, my mum went out for a grocery shop at a Countdown and she saw no staff wearing masks; in pictures she took for me, one worker had a mask over their chin, another didnt have one on at all. On a local community Facebook group, members announced other supermarkets where staff werent wearing them either. It should be said that this was all legal, as the mask mandate for indoor spaces didnt go into effect until the next day, but the number of maskless people says something.

Perhaps this is a result of how successful the country has been at sealing itself from the ravages of Covid-19: it had gone almost six months without an active community case; there had not been any nationwide lockdowns for almost a year and a half.

When I was overseas, I felt like Kiwis were living in an alternative reality, though really, life continued unabated.

When I returned and came out of managed isolation in May, I went to a cafe for lunch and sat outside. I only had to step a few paces inside to pay, but I felt like my face was unduly exposed. That feeling was easily shaken off; it was easy to forget the virus existed if I didnt look at anything that spoke about the rest of the world. I can see how New Zealands residents have been lulled into this false sense of security.

This complacency has manifested in many ways: only 10% of the population were constantly checking in with the Covid tracing app; masks, which were mandated only on public transport until this lockdown, were not being worn. At least vaccination bookings have skyrocketed these past few days. Those, like some of my parents friends, who were putting them off for whatever reason have realised this is no safe haven.

Though the risk of catching the coronavirus in this country has been small, it was inevitable that Delta or another variant further down the Greek alphabet would eventually breach the bubble. I felt we lacked the constant vigilance required for an elimination strategy. Kiwis, like our namesake bird, have been living without the threats of predators that roam beyond our shores. On Friday, more cases were identified elsewhere in the country. The only way well get through this, and future outbreaks, is if we are ready from the outset.

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In New Zealand it has been easy to forget Covid. Now we are too complacent - The Guardian

A tiny regional airport in New Zealand that weaves a Mori story of love and longing into its architecture is in the running for a prestigious design award, up against international heavyweights including New Yorks LaGuardia.

Unescos Prix Versailles recognises architecture that fosters a better interaction between economy and culture, and includes a range of categories from airports to shopping malls. The finalists for the airport category include the New York LaGuardia upgrade, Berlins Brandenburg airport and international airports in Athens, Kazakhstan and the Philippines.

The sixth airport finalist is Te Hono meaning to connect and is found in New Plymouth, a town with a population of 85,000, on the western shoulder of the North Island.

After six design options were floated, Rangi Kipa a member of the local Puketapu hap (subtribe) and lead figure on cultural design, settled upon a story. The Ascension from the Earth, Descending from the Sky, tells the story of Tamarau, a celestial being, who was so captivated by the earthly beauty of Rongo-ue-roa, a terrestrial being, that he came down to meet her.

This story aligns closely with the creation narrative of Te tiawa iwi [tribe], said Rangi.

The terminals silver and blue roof cascades in large stepped planes, like the feathers of a large wing, or, Tamarau coming to meet Rongo-ue-roa. Their symbolic and literal joining is represented along the public concourse by a brightly coloured tukutuku panel traditionally, a woven wall panel that depicts an iwis stories.

The spine of the building is oriented to represent the journey from the mountain to the river the main ancestral walking track in this area, and while visitors may notice these aspects of the architecture first, there are many subtle stories told through the details.

Manaakitanga the Mori concept of hospitality also influences the design.

Campbell Craig, the projects architect and associate for design at firm Beca, said the project attempted to challenge western architectural practices that do not bear any relationship to Mori design.

It was important for Puketapu to welcome and take care of guests in a place that is in many ways the gateway to the region, said Craig. The faceted curved forms of the building at the entrance and airside embrace travellers, to shelter them from the elements.

In 1960, the land the airport sits on was confiscated from Mori, under the Public Works Act to build an aerodrome. This was a major source of grievance for the hap, who had urup [burial grounds] on the site.

Honouring the iwis story is meant to be the first step in righting this wrong.

Kipa said: For the most part, we have been invisible in our own landscape for 160 years, so its amazing to have the chance to influence, and give life to, some of the things that make us who we are.

For Craig, the most heartening aspect of the project was the intensive collaboration between Mori, the airport and the architects, which enabled a sense of collective ownership over it.

The experience at Te Hono provided a blueprint for working with tngata whenua [people of the land], he said, adding that it would be an approach embedded into all of their future projects.

The airports chief executive, David Scott, said the co-design process had resulted in a building that was both functional and of cultural significance. It demonstrates what can be achieved when we work together as true partners, he said.

The winners of the Prix Versailles Airports 2021 will be announced at Unesco headquarters in late November.

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Tiny New Zealand airport that tells Mori love story in running for global design award - The Guardian