COVID-19 update 2 September 2021

>> First I will hand over to Dr Bloomfield for the latest on case numbers.

>>  First thank you Prime Minister, Tena koutou katoa.

Today there are 49 cases to report in the community, all of these are in Auckland.

This takes our total number of cases in the outbreak to 725, 709 of these in Auckland and 16 in Wellington.

There are a further four cases to report in recent returnees and our managed isolation facilities.

This latest lower number is encouraging and shows our measures are working even against the delta strain. As I mentioned yesterday the numbers could bounce around a little, however the latest reassessment of the effective reproduction rate shows that, based on data through to 31 August, there was a 95% probability this was under 9. Analysis of -- under  one. 85% of contacts -- work contacts of known cases and 56% were household cases who were isolating. 56% of yesterday's cases were considered to be infectious in the communities which was higher than 25% the previous date and the Prime Minister had some last-minute information on the cases we are reporting today.

There are 42 cases in hospital, all in the Auckland area, of these, six are in ICU or a high dependency unit and three are being ventilated.

The growing number of people in hospitals, a stark reminder of the seriousness of infection with the COVID-19 virus, my thoughts are with those who are in hospital and their whanau, what must be a stressful time for them.

As of 9 AM today we had 37,359 individual contacts formally identified and our national contact tracing system. Of these 30,283 or 81% had had direct contact by our team and myself isolating. Most of the balance had already been identified in our system because they had had contact with Healthline or through being at a place of interest.

 Around 86% of all contacts have already had a test in the system. And obviously work is ongoing to follow-up remaining contacts.

Of the 336 contacts known to be located in Northland, all have been contacted by our contact races, 96% so far have returned a test, all negative, and any contacts with an outstanding test result are being followed up today by the local public health unit.

Yesterday they were 17,683 test  projects nationwide, there were 6700 swabs taken across the metro Auckland area, 3000 at community testing centres and 3700 at general practice and urgent care clinics.

We need to have higher levels of testing to give us confidence that we have the outbreak under control. If you have symptoms, any symptoms at all or have been at a location of interest or are a contact and should be tested, please do so.

This is absolutely essential for our understanding of whether the outbreak is under control and therefore having Auckland at alert level IV for the shortest time possible. ESR continues to contact whole genome sequencing with 469 genome sequence to date.

 This analysis serves many functions including investigation of the current source outbreaks in understanding of the variant that is made its way into New Zealand. We have confidence from all of those tests that we have had only a single incursion into the community.

As the virus spreads that accumulate small changes in its genome and we are using these signals to provide pointers on possible transmission pathways in the community and to link cases. For example, a recent case of an MIF worker could be definitively linked via genomics to a specific sub- cluster in the community and this infection was not acquired from other cases in the managed isolation facility where that person work. We have so far successfully sequenced approximately 75% of the notified outbreak cases to date.

On wastewater testing there are no unexpected results to report today. Importantly, samples collected from Northland, from locations across that region on Monday and Tuesday have all returned negative results. This included wastewater from local communities between 100 to almost 50,000 in population.

So far wastewater testing has been undertaking in 148 places across the country covering an estimated 3.8 Yuin people and its 95% of people covered by our articulated wastewater  systems.

Turning briefly to a couple of testing results. As you are aware there was a positive test result received from a worker at the Spring Hill corrections facility a couple of days ago. Negative results have been received from subsequent swabs taken from this worker so our investigations continue. At this stage it remains a positive result under investigation, as opposed to a positive case, however, all cautions remain in place as if this was an acute infection. All tested eight from co- workers and inmates have returned negative.

There was also a case I refer to yesterday's being under investigation, it was identified at mid central DHB region has been determined to be an historical case previously reported overseas and not link to our numbers.

 To outbreak here. A message to essential workers in the Auckland region, it is vital that if you have any symptoms at all or you have been at a location of interest that you do not go to work. Let your employer No, stay home, ring Healthline for advice on where to get a test and isolate in your bubble until you have the results of your test.

For essential workers who are crossing back and forth between the Auckland and alert level III boundary, I am asking you to get tested within the next three or four days even if you have no symptoms.

We are looking at how to put in place a system to check that these commuting essential workers are being regularly tested to support our efforts now and in the future. We will also be putting in place a system for regular surveillance testing at the moment of certain groups of asymptomatic essential workers and I have more to say about that in coming days.

There has been a great response from DHBs across the country to help their counterparts in the Auckland region and we have now 112 staff who have made themselves available to work across Auckland in a range of areas including an intensive care, contact tracing, infection prevention and control and quarantine facilities. We are working closely as a Ministry of health to support the Auckland DHBs with their needs.

On boundary exemptions, as you know there is a regional boundary separating Auckland and Northland from the rest of New Zealand.

So while the regional border is closed for personal travel, there are exceptions, exemptions available for exceptional service that -- circumstances and these are processed by the ministry. At 8 AM we had received 384 applications for exemptions. Of those that were eligible noting that some applications were for activities that are already permitted under the relevant order, about 95% have been declined. This is because even at alert level III, people should generally stay at home unless it is absolutely essential to do otherwise and a tight boundary around our alert level IV area is essential to stop the virus from spreading.

I acknowledging understand many applications we receive are difficult situations for people. However very few of them give rise to absolutely urgent necessary or essential travel.

 In terms of our vaccine rollout yesterday, 89,546 doses at an estate at 578 sites. With the opening up of booking for anyone 12 and above there were nearly 200,000 new bookings made yesterday. So 70% of all New Zealanders aged 12 and over either have a booking in the system or have been vaccinated with at least one dose.

Finally, more than 24,000 essential workers have had their first date vaccination over the last couple of weeks. More primary- care sites are coming on stream each day to help administer the vaccine to all our population across the area.

Thank you, Prime Minister. 

>> Our case numbers are moving around a little bit at this stage. It's not unusual, they did this the last time we were moving through what we would anticipate being a level IV peak.   The rolling number of cases is declining. The average 61, five days ago it was 77.

 And it has been going down over time. We are seeing fewer cases that are infectious in the community.

Today around 14% or seven of the cases reported were considered to be infectious in the community, number falling since lockdown. To be clear that does not imply those individuals were necessarily breaking the rules. The most common exposure for these seven people was visiting a supermarket and for those seven people the number of exposure events in total were nine. Overall the number of cases without exposure events already in isolation as contacts of existing cases has been increasing.

This means contact tracing is making a difference. It is identifying contacts and getting them isolated and stopping the spread to others. While we expect to see cases in household transmission, lockdown and isolation is really supporting us as we try and stop the spread beyond that.

Not only has lockdown stopped the exponential growth of Delta there is clear evidence the plan is making a difference to extinguish the last chains of transmission so that we can reduce restrictions as soon as possible.

We do however need to make sure we stick to the plan and stick to it firmly. This is where I want to add a message. If you are a contact or if you have been at location of interest and advised to stay home as a result, you absolutely must do so. If you do not, you are risking the health of those around you and you risk prolonging the lockdown for yourself and others.

While we have not seen widespread evidence of this being an issue it is such an important message and I will keep repeating it nonetheless.

A quick update on Northland you will recall that we kept Northland at level IV for an extra 48 hours because of the late cases in the Warkworth area and the last -- large worksite involved and to get extra reassurance we had not seen undetected transmission in the wider community as a result of those later discoveries of cases. 27 extra wastewater samples were taken from 26 sites across the region on Monday and Tuesday, none have detected COVID-19.

 On that basis we can confirm that Northland will move to alert level III at 11 across the region on Monday and Tuesday, none have detected COVID-19. On that basis we can confirm that Northland will move to alert level III at 11:50 PM tonight as planned. I want to thank everyone in Northland for their patience while we got that extra piece of mind that everything is contained. Within the boundaries we expect.

Northland will be treated in line with the rest of New Zealand outside Auckland with settings reviewed on Monday, September 6.

The shift to alert level III brings the northern level boundary in addition to the boundaries already operating in the south of Auckland. Police continue to engage in Wiri in regards to northern checkpoints but the purpose of that is to keep COVID out. The northern checkpoints will be set up again at the following locations. State Highway one and Monger Fire Road, north of cold Hill Road, black swamp,  Monger Fire Road and Kames Road.

Remember that personal travel between alert levels is highly limited and requires permission or exemption. The same applies to business and work travel across the boundary which are strictly limited.

These tight restrictions appear to be working well and I'm told that traffic movement on the southern boundary has been low and orderly.

Huge thank you to all those who apply for essential travel documents in advance. It really has made a difference. I am advised that overall compliance on day one of level III has been good.

A couple of reminders. Level 3 this time is different for Delta and specifically there are new requirements from masks.

Anyone working at a business that is open and outwardly facing at level III must wear a mask and anyone visiting that business or making a contactless pickup must also wear a mask as a general rule, if you are leaving the house please wear a mask on it makes all the difference.

I have also been advised that unfortunately there have been multiple reports of abuse towards bus drivers and other essential transport staff over the past couple of weeks. There is never any justification for it lashing out at essential workers, they are effectively putting themselves at risk every day to keep crucial services running. Everyone of them is doing their  best under challenging circumstances, please, I would ask everybody, be patient and be kind. I know we would be saddened and appalled to hear that essential workers have had this expense.

 Finally, I want to talk about the recent decisions by cabinet to support organisations and providers who have surged to support an outbreak. You will recall we have done this through the food and security network with an additional $7 million to support the COVID response.

Today I can announce that Cabinet has approved $49 million in additional funding to support Pasifika providers to assist and respond to the current outbreak. Especially given it is disproportionally impacting the Pacific community. This funding will also assist in the highest possible uptake of the vaccine across these communities. The extra Pasifika allocation of $26 million will go towards health and disability services, sustaining the response to the current outbreak including well for support, scaling up mobile outreach and community vaccination services and supporting ongoing engagement with specific ethnic groups in the Pasifika community.

Last lockdown, final order also rallied, adapted and evolved to meet the changing needs of the committees. They were a linchpin's abiding detriment providing not only practical support but huge comfort for committees. This time around the demand on the service has been greater. The change to the definition and widening of contacts linked to active cases means the number of people who have had to isolate has increased.

 I want to hand over to Minister Peeni Henare to set out the final funding and then we can open for questions.   

>> Greetings, one and all. Thank you Pro minister, final order has once again as the pier mentions swiftly mobilise networks and pivoted resources to provide the critical support for this lockdown. I am pleased today to announce that we have committed an additional $23 million to find new order so it can continue to provide the necessary support.

Of the additional $23 million the final commissioning agencies will receive an immediate boost of eight-point $8 million so they can continue to provide integrated support to whanau. A further 3.2 million will be allocated based on need is information on the current change and alert levels unfold. This funding will help whanau to meet increased demand for services and ultimately will help whanau enjoy these challenging times. Whanau is orally being helped with essential goods and connectivity, whanau providers have reestablished the testing sites, one 800 support lines and food banks. Whanau are working tirelessly to support the holistic needs of whanau, supporting them with material well-being, health and housing and education to get them to ensure they get the support they need. Last, I would like to extend a huge thank you to the commissioning agencies, the whanau network, navigators and whanau for trusting. 

>> Thank you. What I might do is if we have questions on the whanau ora announcement, can I bring those forward and undertake those at the beginning of our question and answer and that way we will not have too much jostling at the front.  

>> Pasifika in crisis mode before we will see these kinds of findings dropped, whanau, we know the vulnerability of these communities have been well Kevin list long before this outbreak but does it take an outbreak to see this funding get to these communities? Whanau we had increased whanau funding before we had the tragedy of COVID-19 as a pandemic. Affecting our Pacific commit communities. Absolutely not. What we also recognise is that the additional impact this pandemic is having on those communities and I would say the same for the vaccine rollout. We already had additional support for the vaccine rollout for these communities and this is on top of that once again but I will let Minister Peeni Henare talk to those numbers. 

>> Thank you, Prime Minister. The numbers of the most recent whanau order budget of 2020 was quite clear that there are two parts, the response and the resilience for whanau so we want to continue that which is why this particular announcement today is for the immediate response to whanau order that they can swing and pivoted into action right away. I would also like in respect to that response, we made it clear when we negotiated with the commissioning agencies that the money that was given for the resilience and building resilience of whanau would continue to be an agile and nimble process as we look to was responding to lockdowns like we have seen in the past weeks. I am proud of the work we have done for whanau and I will continue to support those networks. 

>> What is the funding breakdown look like? How will it be broken down? 

>> Of the $23 million announced I have orally mentioned eight- point 8 million will be distributed under the normal whanau formula and that means spread across the three agencies. I also said that a further 14.2 that a further 14.$2 million would be held back while we assess the needs of ongoing support required in this particular lockdown. The PM and Doctor Ashley Bloomfield have stated that Tāmaki Makaurau is at the heart of the lockdown so I want to make those resources are targeted where it is needed the most. 

>> On this topic come we have spoken this week about targeted incentives for young people and in order to get vaccinated, you have a ready seen the likes of and they might be doing it in the north, is there going to be a national approach in terms of rolling that out and will it be targeted specifically or would it be across the board? 

>> The most important thing is we give the ability of local providers to do what will work for their communities. They know their community is best and we want to see innovation in our vaccine rollout and people not feeling constrained that if they believe they can identify initiatives to make a difference they can do it. I have shared a number of times the things I have seen in terms of mobile vaccine clinics that vary across the country depending on whom it is targeting and who they are working for. For instance before the outbreak I was talking to 1 of our North Island providers and they were looking at providing events where they had food trucks coming in to try and create events around vaccination to try to bring in different cohorts and age groups, so we want flexibility and innovation. On incentives, we have had some work done by the vaccination team on other countries using incentives. They have been used in different ways. We have enough research to demonstrate when they work and when they do not. That is information we can make sure we provide providers so they can see what has been used overseas. 

>> Are you saying basically that is a strategy, they are able, does that mean you are going to give the additional funding to cover the cost of the fact that they think they were? 

>> I will not speak to individual initiative. What I am saying is that we want innovation, and we want providers to undertake initiatives that they think will make a difference to their communities. I don't want to get into the specifics of incentive regimes or equity issues that come about for certain communities that have not been available at other places. As a general rule, we want providers to do what works. 

>> Will that be funded? Obviously the support are making comments this week are you going to give assurances to these providers that they will actually get funding to do it? 

>> What I'm saying is that I don't know the specifics, whether or not they are doing that of their own or whether they are seeking extra support. I don't want to get too far in advance of the question. Happy to pass over briefly and there might be any more and then we can move to general. 

>> Thank you, prime minister. At the beginning of the $40 million was the budget put forward to promote and execute a vaccine rollout for Maori people and my understanding from officials is that there are still some resources to look how we might support more specific and bespoke incentives to bring young people in the population forward. Ultimately the number-one message to the population is   The messages to come forward and make yourself available for the vaccine. 

>> The community engagement hasn't been up to par to this point, is this finding by the government a way of you guys conceding that there has been a failure for Pacific app communities during the COVID response? 

>> You would have heard me say before the only person who can deem what we do is a success as the community at cell. If they tell us we need to do better, we need to do better. In the last outbreak we put in support for providers we were calling on for surge capacity, helping with welfare needs, extra testing, so those communities we call on our providers we then support with additional funding. That's what happened last time and that's what we are doing again. It is only unfortunately when that provision, when we need to do welfare checks and extra, for instance, meeting those extra needs while people are in isolation, when we need to come in straight away with funding to help support the providers to do that job. In other outbreaks that hasn't always been the case. You didn't see that in other parts of the country more recently when we have outbreaks. 

>> Allowing for that space for innovation and the vaccine rollout is that purely because the government doesn't know what they are doing when it comes to the Maori vaccinated rollout? 

>> You can't have it both ways. We have a duty to make sure the vaccination programs is available and we are working alongside providers in the community and finding them to support the rollout in community. At the same time we have to allow innovation as well. If we were too regimented on the provision you would not see the initiatives that have managed to reach into communities because those providers know their community space. 

>> As Minister Henare said, funding was made available at the start of the program recognising that both Marianne Pasifika providers would have cost to stand up the vaccination programs they are delivering and to work with them to ensure they have flexibility and also access to other support and resources we can provide from the centre including comms resources and so on. That has been in place from the start of the program. Clearly over the last two weeks we've seen a big increase in vaccination rates including amongst Maori and Pasifika and we are looking at what extra resources they need. 

>> If you could give us an update about how many negative pressure rooms we have and how many more are being added and how many more ICU nurses, and following on from that were hospitals prepared for this outbreak, if we knew delta was likely to reach New Zealand? 

>> Thank you, a correction of the numbers, it's not a question you asked but the  number I gave of 736, sorry I gave 725, that is the number of actual cases, the total should be 736 with 720 in Auckland and 16 in Wellington because we have 11 recovered. To your question about negative pressure ventilation rooms, we all have those rooms, there are a large number including on wards and intensive care units. We use negative pressure ventilation rooms where we have a few cases and the key thing is if you have other people on wards or in ICU who are not COVID positive, you want to make sure you are not putting them at risk. When you move to a situation where you have got more patients than MPV rooms you move to a dedicated ward or area for those COVID patients. That is the planning that is now ongoing, that has what has been implemented. The ICU nurses are among some of the nursing staff who have been brought into the Auckland region. When you have COVID positive patients in the intensive care unit, you separate your nursing and other staff to make sure those looking after the COVID patients are just dedicated their. This is bringing extra staff in so those DHPs can keep the streams of staff working in intensive care units. In terms of preparation there certainly was good preparation in place but what is happening now is you are seeing the plans being put into action in terms of getting an initial start from outside the region as and when needed, standing up extra quarantine facilities given the large number of cases and so on. 

>> Could there be an earlier shift for the South Island considering they are still COVID free? 

>> That hasn't been part of our plan. We have said we want to bring all of the review for all of New Zealand through until Monday. One of the reasons for that is of course while we have several hundred contacts that have been in the South Island, those are the ones we know. While they have been contact traced and tested, they are the ones known to us and our ministry team. They may well be others connected to these cases we don't know about. Level III provides an extra layer of caution. Our goal is to keep COVID out of the South Island, stepping down cautiously as the best way to ensure that when we left restrictions it stays that way and the businesses can remain free of some of the challenges we are facing elsewhere. I think we will be ensuring that the Minister will be available to answer detailed questions but what we are forward planning for is if we have schools that are disrupted by alert level III or four for a total of four weeks or more some additional changes around and CEA and they particularly relate to learning recognition credits and thresholds to receive course and certificate endorsements. It is us trying to mitigate against some of the impacts of level III and four on our students for long periods. 

>> Going back to the health workers issue, Novatel have said it is not up to company staff to look after COVID patients, how well resourced are they to adequately care for COVID patients? 

>> One of the key inputs to standing up a new quarantine facility like the Novatel and indeed the Holiday Inn coming on board today, is ensuring we have enough health staff. The stand-up of the Holiday Inn was deferred by 24 hours to ensure there were sufficient staff. I'm confident that not only do they have the staff they need to run those new quarantine facilities, they are able to provide the level of care that might be needed for people in those facilities. With large numbers, hundreds of people with COVID-19, many of those people are quite unwell, most can be cared for as if they were at home but they are in these facilities. Some will need hospital level care and when they require that they are taken to hospital. 

>> People who are in isolation, is it too late for children in isolation to wait for lunch? 

>> If I could add that the alternative for contacts being at M IQ would be them being at home which is what a large number of countries would otherwise do. By having them in our managed isolation facilities we have the care on hand and available. And able I would say to more quickly make an assessment if someone needs hospital level care than if they are spread out in their homes around Auckland. On your question, that is not usual practice within isolation or quarantine facilities. The ARHL and routine and the provision of service to those who are in our facilities and 160,000 New Zealanders who have been through our facilities would attest to that. If that is happened it strikes me as being an unusual set of circumstances and I would be happy to look into the issues that cause that. 

>> I picked that up from your question. 

>> There is distressing video of a woman in M IQ and her children are waiting for them to be fed and she has broken the bubble and gone to see staff members. Is that disappointing? What is being done in terms of the mental health impact for people in isolation with children and ensuring they get what they need, including exercise? 

>> There are different restrictions around those who are COVID positive, around their ability to move around facilities. Our teams in our managed isolation facilities do an incredible job of trying to care for families where they have children, learning packs, providing as much stimulation as they can for those kids because they know how difficult it is. 160,000 New Zealanders have been through our facilities and by and large have an incredible experience despite the tough circumstances. I would need to look into that individual case to understand what happened specifically because that is not usually the experience of most people. 

>> Wanting to comply if we have that sort of service? 

>> It is critical that people comply, critical to the health and safety of the staff and to the families. What you are explaining to me sounds highly unusual given 160,000 people have been through and I know the huge level of surface that our M IQ service people give every day. 

>> Can you please outline what kind of effect bringing staffing from other parts of the country might have on elective and outpatients and also the age of people at the ICU and their status. And can you talk more about those positive exposure events, are you still looking at stricter essential (inaudible)? 

>> On the question about stuff coming in from other districts, that is one of the things that  the DH B s would be considering to continue delivering service. Just over 100 stuff coming from around the country remembering we have 70,000 start employed around the country, it is a small proportion of our total staffing. The DHP's that are offering staff and I'm grateful to them will be thinking about what other arrangements they can put in place. For example, using staff on casual calls. The age profile on people in ICU I only have the breakdown of people in hospital in total. I know the youngest people in ICU was 18 and all are stable but anyone who is ventilated in ICU might be stable but quite unwell, that is an indication that again this is not a trivial infection, some people are very unwell in our ICUs. 

>> I mentioned of those cases we have had reported today, that seven were considered to have been infectious in the community and in total they had nine exposure events. They might have more than one per person for instance. To give you a quick insight, five were visits to the supermarket or dairy. The next highest was two visits to a health service or pharmacy. It gives you a sense that on this list, one was an essential goods and service worker, for the most part we are seeing things that people are permitted to do at level IV. Yesterday we had a higher number of people who were essential workers but in and around that it was still things like supermarkets, pharmacies and health clinics. 

>> I know there is no acceptable level of risk but in terms of those essential services and the fact people have to go to those places, are you satisfied with the rules and standards in place? 

>> Two things that are important for us, that we have the best infection protection controls in those places people are still able to go. That is one of the reasons why we have a limited number of places that are open. It means you are able to see fairly rigorous controls in place at places like supermarkets. That is one thing, reduce the risk of places people have to go to. The second thing we want to start seeing is either a greater proportion of people who are already identified as contacts and household contacts and therefore at home because you get no exposure events attached to them as they follow all of our guidelines and rules.  Homing in on some of those mystery cases, seeing if greater surveillance testing in certain areas can help us get ahead of some of those, or earlier on identify the dealings to get those numbers down, they are focuses for us. 

>> Early suggestions seem to be that where we are seeing cases often, the most common workplace cases are being brought in outside the workplace and there happens to be limited transmission in those workplaces. We have seen good responses from workplaces where that happens but the common thing is if you are in large factory style situations that might not have good ventilation, very hard in those scenarios, the best thing we can do is get people out of circulation as early as possible..   

>> Is the government in talk with private security contractors to help evacuees leave Afghanistan? If so or if not would you object to using private security contractors to get people out? 

>> I have asked our ministers and agencies to bring forward advice to Cabinet on bringing those remaining New Zealanders out of Afghanistan, you will forgive me for not wanting to talk into much detail at this stage. Very conventional options on the table obviously. Diplomatic means, working alongside international partners and of course there is a lot of discussion at the moment around other orders. I would not want to at this stage get into more detail and I do not want to talk too much about where our people are that we might need to be removing them from. Wants Cabinet has made the decision I will report back to. 

>> We have spoken to the families of a man who is dying, his brother has been granted a humanitarian border exemption by the Ministry of health. But he has been declined an emergency MIQ spot because he is not a citizen. Are we being too rigid and undermining the Ministry of health there? There is a lack of space and lack of staff to run the facility. 

>> That has been a long- standing issue around access to MIQ, you use the word citizens and therefore the person does not have permanent residence? Of course, there have always been limitations over who can access our managed isolation facilities and that has been the case since they open. Unless of course you are coming in for the longer term. Those coming in for the longer term and are critical workers like healthcare workers and so on are able to but otherwise those who can come into MIQ is limited to those who have those legal entitlements to be in New Zealand and that is one of the devastatingly sad things about what we have had to do at the borders. 

>> Is the Minister of health on humanitarian grounds? 

>> That would alter we suggest to me that health is not assessing legal eligibility. That is something that comes through our MIQ system. 

>> Do you have any concerns, so Doctor Bloomfield are any concerns about the policies in place at any of the hospitals? Some of them are more structured than others? 

>> What sort of policies? Visitor policies. A very clear set of criteria and instructions nationally but the weight that has applied local is up to the individual DHBs as long as they have absolute rigorous measures in place to reduce risk. There may be some flexibility locally but there is clear guidance nationally. 

>> Are you comfortable with the fact that free people, we are talking about flying around the country and are you totally comfortable that the hole has been plugged? 

>> Of course we have put in our expectations around really only those people who are deemed to be essential workers and who are required to move around as part of fulfilling that essential work to be accessing regional travel. It is available on limited circumstances. Without speaking to individual cases, we have had checks taking place and we have been getting airports to report what they have seen. Of course, we actually want people to do their bit as well. We need everyone to make sure they are following the rules and complying so that we can lift restrictions as soon as we can. 

>> Is that enough? 

>> I would have thought that potentially passing on COVID-19 to others would be the biggest incentive there is. And doing your bit for your community is the biggest incentive there is but of course we all is keep an assessment on the findings relevant to each other that is something Minister Hipkins keeps an eye on. 

>> Yesterday you said these were affected in the committee. That doesn't match up with a number who would be contact? 

>> On that. So, good question, and we are digging into that further but the one assumption you cannot make is that they might have not known that they were a contact for all of their infectious period so they may have been a contact of a contact and then isolated but have already made a few visits to a supermarket or may have gone to work before advised. That is the difference but we are drilling into some of those numbers and to assist whether that is the case whether or not we have issues with compliance. Generally the public health units are reporting what they believe to be overall not perfect but good levels of compliance. 

>> The last two weeks. 

>> You misunderstand. You can still of course be identified as being a contact while in lockdown but you could have gone to the supermarket or gone to the pharmacy. 

>> We are well past two weeks. Most of these cases - are they still mostly household cases? Do you have a rough idea of the new cases over the last week? 

>> We have been given percentage numbers daily and you see the household numbers increase and we see the number of exposure events attached to cases decrease. What we really need to see is those unlinked cases, those the ones you are more likely to see exposure events because they have not been advised they are at risk. That is where you are starting to see them going out as essential workers. While we are tracking in the right direction, not zero. That is what we want to try to get a better handle on and get in front of using the intelligence we have to get more surveillance testing full stop your comments on the, Doctor Bloomfield? It is the right question. 

>> The last four or five days at least 50% or between 50 and 60 have been household contacts and the other thing about yesterday which was a large number of cases, 45% of those were a result of day 12 test, so they might have been people who were still asymptomatic had the day 12 test and were found to be a case but they had been isolating. 

>> Is there a ceiling to the outbreak when you run out of household contacts, obviously with 36 hours, but surely you have an idea of how may people are in the household now? 

>> And we know the positivity rate of those households as well. 

>> We are modelling that in the person does the modelling has been off for a couple of days but we are modelling the total number of cases we might expect from the household contacts looking at the infection rate that we are seen to date which has been about 25% but it might go up a bit and then we can say we will get to a point where that is the number and this is where it is likely to finish. That is really not the focus. Our focus is on the other cases where we put our investigative capacity on the cases at the face not linked. 

>> On contacts, Hamley close contacts are still isolating? In the South Island. How many of the close contacts in the South Island are still waiting for the day 12 results? 

>> I don't have the exact number. 

>> I have got them. It is for question time as well. Sorry. We have got 512 who were identified as known contacts in the South Island. Of that now the number is down to 15 who are overdue there date of test and are being followed up, seven and I believe an addition seven are not due their day 12 test. I would just caution that those are the contacts we know about. We do not base every alert level decision just on known contacts we also identify relative risk of getting it wrong if you don't know the more. 

>> Every one of those people had had a negative test initially. 

>> How many of those are still in isolation? 

>> They have all ongoing checks to ensure they are. There was a misconception yesterday in a house that somehow the contact tracers have done absolutely their job, those 512 you can see the compliance as I, we're just chasing some test. Mark and then Ben. 

>> On mandatory, a number of academics and they have been saying that the government should legislate to protect the contact tracing theatre from being used for any other purpose. Is that something you would look at? You might this assurance could be enough will stop 

>> We intend to use it for nothing else. There would be no reason we would be worried about the additional assurance. Would you mind if we just go away and look at the fact that it might already be the case? I would have thought. 

>> Australian leaders have increasingly been talking about Delta and the chances of eliminating Delta Scott Morrison has called it absurd and Josh Frydenburg said it cannot be done. What you make of this criticism of New Zealand? Second, where is your confidence level that you will be able to do it? 

>> The first thing I would say is that Delta is different. Nobody is denying that. What you certainly see from everyone is the view that actually the focus has to be before you change your plan is vaccinating people. That is what we have always said. Elimination is the best strategy for us while we are vaccinating people and then we will continue to look at the evidence going forward and we have said that for some time. For now it is the best strategy for us. Yes I see different leaders in Australia taking different positions but I actually think you would see generally that their view would be given those cases down while vaccinating is the goal and that is ours.  

>> I will let you finish, Ben. And then I can see if I can get Jane in. 

>> There is a poll today showing 85% of New Zealand's support elimination, how do you feel about that? 

>> Really hard and. This is a strategy that New Zealand has supported it and we just need to keep going. 

>> How many positive cases in MIQ are the backup, quarantine hotels should people with Dell to be allowed out of their rooms to exercise? 

>> As I understand, we already have the capacity we need for those cases today and we are bringing in additional space as well. On the backlog I understand it has been cleared and as the new cases come in it is a matter of transferring. 

>> People should be confined because of Delta. 

>> And that has been the practice when you are COVID positive case. 

>> There is been planning a vaccination date for their students and the members and staff how is the gum going to support the rollout of the vaccine schemes? 

>> If they tell us what they need I know we would be willing to support it because that is the innovation and the kind of initiatives that we need to continue to see the role that grow in all the committees.