News article
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will provide an update at 1pm today.
>> Good afternoon, everybody.
I will shortly hand over to Dr Bloomfield to run through today's case numbers and then, after that, I will give a brief update on the economic support measures that we have in place before taking all of your questions. J
ust before I do hand to Dr Bloomfield, I have some positive news on the vaccination front.
Yesterday was our best day ever for vaccinations and the first time that we have had more than 60,000 in a day. In fact, 63,333. This is a tremendous result and an incredible effort by our vaccinators working under Level 4 conditions. I genuinely want to thank all New Zealanders who are part of the vaccination program. Ramping up our vaccine roll-out is an important part of our plan. We have got to stamp out this outbreak of the virus, vaccinate our population and move forward in our Reconnecting New Zealand Plan as we laid out last week. Getting vaccination results like this is an important step forward.
Dr Bloomfield?
>> Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister.
So today I can report there are 41 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the community.
So our total number of confirmed cases associate with the Auckland community outbreak is 148.
Of those cases, 38 are in Auckland and three are in Wellington.
All three in Wellington are known close contacts of existing cases. These cases in Wellington were actually first identified two evenings ago but only appear in our numbers today. All cases are being transferred or have been transferred to a quarantine facility. So of our total cases, 13 # are in Auckland and 11 in Wellington.
No cases anywhere else including in Coromandel.
89 have been epidemiologically linked to far to the remaining aut break. The remaining 59 are still to confirm an epidemiology link but it is clear they were a household or close contact or they were at a location of interest. We will have more information on that late other in the day.
There are eight COVID-19 positive patients associated with our current community outbreak who are in hospital. None are in ICU. All are in negative pressure ventilation rooms in the three hospitals across the Auckland region.
Further to the community case, there is just one case to report in managed isolation today.
So as each new community cases reported, isolated and investigated, we are learning more about the spread of this outbreak. With our latest cluster, we do know what actions will slow the spread of the virus and we expect to see that slowing will begin to happen during this week. So each identified case is asked about where they have been during their infectious period and from later today we are wanting to start to put up information as up-to-date as possible about how many of these cases may have been out and about during their infectious period as we move beyond the first week in Alert Level 4.
The whole genome sequencing is continuing to play a key role and ESR is rapidly sequencing and analysing genomes on a daily basis. We have now 80 genomes sequenced all linked to the outbreak and there are several mutations that are appearing that are helping to identify sub-clusters an again help us get around those particular sub-clusters.
The majority of cases in the outbreak are now of some ethnicity. In large part that is a reflection of the largest sub-cluster which is centred around the Assembly of God Church in Mangere which has to date 58 cases linked to it. Investigations are ongoing there.
I would just like to sincerely acknowledge that Samoa community and indeed the wider Pacific community for their response to their request for testing and that is proceeding very well.
The second largest sub-cluster is the network of cases that surrounded our very first cases. We are calling that the Birkdale social group. That has approximately 23 cases in it. The number of contacts continues to increase.
As of 9am tlood were 15,741 contacts who have been formally identified. Most of those are classified as close contacts. For comparison, at this point in the outbreak in August last year in August land there were around 1500 close contacts. So more than ten times the number of close contacts identified. 9,757 have been followed up and are self-isolate and obviously there is ongoing work to contact the remaining contacts.
We have a big increase in our contact tracing capacity that started to come on board from last night from other government departments and indeed from the private sector as well. So there are now nearly 900 frontline contact tracers in call centres and other places around the country.
I do have some of the key metrics already from our contact tracing and these are focussed on our - what was formally known as close plus contacts but I would call them the very closest contacts. There are 369 of them. Of them, 90% have been contacted. That was at 8am this morning. 100% of people had - this is some other metrix. 100% is the time from notification to case interviewed. All of our cases are interviewed within 24 hours.
Likewise, of the contacts recorded in the NCTS, 89% were contacted, of the contacts were found and traced within 48 hours of the case notification. That's of our very close contacts. And the time from exposure event to contact identification, the metric is over 80% within 24 hours and that is sitting at 75% at the moment.
On locations of interest, since the last update there is an additional 100 locations of interest appeared now over 400 across the two
. I do again encourage people to continually check the ministry's website. There is obviously the functionality with the map and the ability to search to identify locations of interest that may be relevant to you.
Now, last evening I spoke with my counterpart in Australia, the Department of Health secretary Professor Brendan Murphy. It struck me, he remarked during that conversation that combatting Delta in the community is like dealing with a whole new virus.
That is our experience in New Zealand too. Delta is unlike our previous experience. As we know, it is high Lynly infectious and transmissible and as we have seen, spreads rapidly.
This re-enforces just how critical it is that people follow the Level 4 rules, staying at home, only leaving the house for essential reasons like getting a test or vaccination, going to the doctor, pharmacy or supermarket. Exercising safely close to home or going to work, if you are an essential worker. If you have been in contact with someone who is infectious with COVID-19, you will be given more detailed advice by Healthline or by public health officials on what that means to you. In some cases f there has been a high risk of infection, it means everyone in the household must stay home and not leave the house until the person receives a negative test at day five.
This means staying home by everybody, full stop.
There is support available if people need food or other essential services and that can be achieved by, if you haven't already been referred, by calling the Ministry of Social Dwomment 0800, 559, 009 or calling health line, who will refer you.
The purpose of the daily check-ins for our close contacts and cases is to make sure that they are both well and that they have all their welfare needs being met.
Testing remains a priority. Yesterday there were 35,376 tests processed across the country. To everyone who has turned out to be tested, thank you very much. The waits are getting less certainly in Auckland with primary care back doing a large number of tests. The waits were much lower around the community testing centres of which there are now 22 across the Auckland region. 26,500 of the swabs taken yesterday were across Tamakimikoto.
In Wellington there were 2500 tests processed yesterday. There are 11 community testing centres open yesterday.
As well as primary care general practice doing testing. When you go for a test please do try and take your NHI number with you. It may be on a hospital letter or you may have it loaded on the app you can also use the ministry 0800 855 066 number to find that out O
wastewater testing, there are no unexpected detections and our most recent test results available. And the only one outside of Auckland is Moa Point here in Wellington, as we have seen over the last three days. The second sample from Walkworth has come back negative.
ESO were able to isolate the R avrnd A from the wastewater sample and had a enough of the match on the whole genome sequence to show the link to the current outbreak. It is likely this was someone who was transientl in Walkworth but as I say the follow-testing has been negative. Hospitals across the Auckland region are doing well this morning.
All the testing of the staff at both North Shore Hospital and at Auckland Hospital is complete with no positive tests there.
And finally, the Deputy Prime Minister has talked about the record number of vaccinations done yesterday and the great progress enter.
On a separate but related note, yesterday at 8:03 in the morning our COVID vaccination Healthline took its 1 million inbound call. This was taken by one of the operators Sarah who studies and works from home in Christchurch but the person was from the Central North Island requiring assistance with rescheduling their appointment, doing exactly the right thing because they felt unwell. There are more than 2,000 people working on the COVID vaccination Healthline. That is in addition to all of the people we have on contact tracing and more than 50 are Todao Pacific language speakers.
On the busiest day, 19 August, the service spoke to more than 24,000 people. We can see that flowing through to the number of vaccinations being done.
Thank you Deputy Prime Minister.
>> Thank you very much Dr Bloomfield. I would just note that Dr Bloomfield has to attend to the Select Committee this morning so we will finishing the press conference to enable him to prepare for that. As Dr Bloomfield has indicated, we do have a wide range of supports available to people to be able to deal with COVID-19. I want to speak briefly about those now. The first one I want to mention is the Leave kavp support Scheme. This is a scheme available for employers including self- employed to help pay employees who need to self-isolate and cannot work from home. This support is paid as a lump sum for a two-week period of $600 per week for full-time workers and $359 per week for part-time workers. It is important that employers and employees work together to make sure they are making use of the Leave Support Scheme. We also have the Short Term Absence Payment. This is available for businesses including self-employed people who help pay workers who cannot work from home while they wait for a COVID-19 test result. Again this is paid at the same rates as the other scheme, so $600 for full-time worker and $359 for each part-time worker. I would advice anyone who is in a situation where they are required to work, they cannot work from home and they are required to be at home for self-isolation purposes to be talking to their employer about those schemes. They are very important. In addition to that, at 8am this morning the resurgent support payment scheme kicked in across the country alongside the wage subsidy which came into effect on Friday. The resurgence payments helps and supports businesses affected by New Zealand's move to Alert Level 4. Both schemes are designed to offer certainty in what is a very uncertain time. The resurgence payment is available nationally to any business or organisation that has experienced a 30% or greater drop in revenue, or a 30% decline in capital-raising ability over a seven-day period due to the alert level increase. This payment can help with things like rent or fixed costs and you can apply whether you are a business or self-employed. It is paid at a flat rate of $1500 per business and then $400 per full-time equivalent employer up to 50 full-time equivalent employees. This means the maximum amount payable under the scheme, which is a one-off payment, is $21,000. We urge anyone who thinks they may be eligible to go on to the Inland Revenue Website and find out more. I can say as of the first four or so hours of operation of the scheme today, 26,000 applications have been made for that payment. In addition, we also have the wage subsidy scheme. This came into effect on Friday. We have processed 127,935 applications, totally just over $484 million that has already been paid out to businesses to support them to retain their workforce. MSG generally aim to see process an application in three working days but managed to get some payments out the door on the very day the scheme opened. And I want to acknowledge again the hard work of the Ministry of Social Development staff in processing so many applications in such a short period of time. I wanted today to provide just a little bit of a profile of the types of businesses that are applying for the subsidy because I think it paints an important picture. The vast majority of applicants so far are soul traders or small businesses rather than big companies. Just over 72% of employees covered by the wage subsidy are employed by businesses with between 1 and 19 staff members. Nearly 10% of total applicants following the March 2020 lockdown with companies with 1,000-plus employees. While it is early days, I can say that at this point we only have one employer with over 500 workers who has applied for the scheme. To all businesses, I want to say today thank you for how you are adapting to the lockdown and adjusting your systems. There is a lot of resilience that has been built up in the New Zealand economy. Rest assured we are here for you if you need us to support you. I recognise an asem ambulance of normality is not the case dpor many businesses or workers right now. Anyone operating in the hospitality or tourism sectors has been hit hard by this lockdown, as they have previous ones. We are paying out the wage subsidy and the resurgent support payments to support just these types of businesses and we do encourage those businesses to tap into the scheme. As I have said many times before, for every business in New Zealand, no matter what type, size or location, a strong public health response is still the best economic response and it is worth remembering the strong position we are in going into this outbreak because of that approach. By the September quarter last year, New Zealand's economic activity had already risen above pre-COVID levels and we were one of only four economy to see rebound so quickly. By the middle of this year our unemployment rate was down to 4%, lower than when we actually went in to lockdown in 2020. And the economy overall has been performing more strongly than before COVID reached our shores. So I want to end by saying a huge thank you to everybody who has made that happen. Everybody is playing their part in New Zealand in this challenging time but I want to acknowledge today one group in particular, the staff and in our managed isolation and quarantine facilities. There are more than 4,500 people working 24 hours a day seven days a week at these facilities, which is not the easiest nor the most usual of workplaces. They are the people who work to protect us from COVID-19 and they have not only supported more than 164,000 people to re-enter New Zealand, but they are now also supporting those who have tested positive in this current outbreak and have been moved into quarantine. To everyone working in MIQ, whether it is the hotel workers, bus drivers, security staff, health practitioners, police or defence force, you are doing a great job and it is much appreciated by all New Zealanders. Questions, yes.
>> REPORTER: Do you have a $62 billion pot of money available to help the economy through COVID. How much of that is sitting there available to help businesses?
>> So, at the moment we have got enough money to be able to deal with the wage subsidy scheme and resurgent support payments and still have a considerable amount left over. What we did was set aside money and the budget was about $5 billion, but in addition to that we have money that has not been spent on other business support programs that we have had. So, for example, we had -- we have $2.1 billion that wasn't used or hasn't been used in the small business cashflow scheme. Around about another $1 billion in other support schemes. So in total we have a significant amount of money still available within that fund.
>> How long will that $5 billion last us for?
>> Well, it is more than $5 billion. That is the point that I'm making. The estimate that we have in the Treasury is using the uptake of the previous wage subsidy em schoo. We are talking about a $2 billion level for those fortnightly lump sum payments but it is likely to be less than that because as I said before, those larger businesses are not at this stage applying for that. But I want to stress, the $5 billion is merely the amount that we had set aside for resurgents. There are under-spends in other parts of the fund that mean we have significant resources available.
>> So how much is left in that overspending? You have got $5 billion. How much can you add to that?
>> As I say, there is at least $2.1 billion in terms of the small business cashflow scheme. Around about $1.5 billion we ar wear of. That takes us far into the future. I also want to say and reassure people that is not the only funding available to the government. The economy has recovered sufficiently well. Our fiscal headroom, that is the amount of money we have that won't set our debt get back to where it had been projected to be is much greater. So there is no shortage of funding here. The New Zealand economy has been incredibly resilient. That is a result of the strong public health approach we have taken and we can reinforce that approach by continuing to go obey those Alert Level 4 rules and, also, continue to support people to be able to stay attached to their jobs.
>> Dr Bloomfield bloom, there is concern that vaccination rates are really low. What is the government doing to help lift them specifically because this outbreak seems to be affecting the Pacific community snp
>> Well, before the outbreak started we already had an idea of what the vaccination rates were by each age group. Actually, for Pacific they were similar to or slightly higher in each age group in the Pacific population compared with non-Maori or non-paveng Pacific. For 55 and over for Maori they were comparable as well, approximately the same or higher. It was the younger age group of Maori where the focus needs to go. There has been from the start and there are increasing efforts to reach into both the Maori community but also really engage with the Pacific community, especially in Auckland. The rates were lower in South Auckland for Pacific than in other parts of country. As you would anticipate, there is a big effort going on now to target that community.
>> They are pushing for a first approach with Maori, they will be prioritised with first doses, is that something you would look at?
>> It is certainly something we have already had a bit of a look at. In fact, one of the reasons why we advised and my government decided to extend the interval from three to six weeks was to allow a greater number of people to have that first dose sooner and that has already paid dividends.
>> Bear in mind, from 1 September everybody is now able to book their vaccinations and that's when a lot of that targeted work to get alongside Maori and Pacific community groups really kicks in. Because that's that younger population where we know there is a higher percentage of Maori and Pacific people within those younger populations. So you can expect to see those groups really ramping their work up. I will just come down to Joseph.
>> Dr Bloomfield, last week on Friday the Prime Minister said the peak of this current outbreak is going to be this week. Today we have seen the highest amount of cases. Are you anticipating today being the peak of what we are seeing or are you expecting to see it escalate up over the next couple of days?
>> Just before Bloomfield answer, I listened and watch all of the press conferences and I have heard the Prime Minister say a number of times it is tieth 10-day period. Sewed we are not there yet in terms of where we would expect the cases to peak up. Just be clear that that is the time frame she has been working on.
>> Thanks, Deputy Prime Minister. So the first comment I would make is yes, we have seen an increase today. But reassuringly, we are not seeing an exponential growth in numbers, that is good. We are also seeing the vast majority in Auckland with all the Wellington-based one linked to close cases. We are likely to see further increases over the next three or four dachlts the modelling suggests that and if you look at the epidemic curve it suggests that. However, we will be moving into a position where we will have identified all the cases that have arisen before we went into lockdown. So then we would expect to see all the new cases be known contacts of existing cases and/or associated with - we may not be able to make a direct person to person link but we will be able to link them to an exposure of interest. That is what we will be looking for specifically in the coming two or three days.
>> Just of the 148 so far, have you got a number of how many have been partially and fully vaccinated?
>> No, I don't have an update on that but e- would will see if we can collect that information.
>> Just a couple of questions in terms of the source investigation. Have the other two people been found? Where are we at with testing those people? And also, Dr Bloomfield, in terms of that vaccination centre in that building, how are experts like Michael (INAUDIBLE) suggested that perspex does not cut mustard. So what is your personal take on that as an acceptable standard to have in the facility or thereabouts?
>> What I would say is that I am confident in the infection prevention control procedures that will be in place at the vaccination clinic, and I know that we have very strict protocols around vaccination in Alert Level 4. One of which is actually when a person is vaccinated they turn away, as you would have seen me in the photographs. It wasn't that I was squimish about the needle. I'm confident that the people people running the centre will be taking appropriate precautions. It is in a location convenient for people living in the City of Auckland. Unless there is an obvious problem then I don't have particular worry about that. Around the source investigation, yes, there were two people who were still being looked for who were throughout to be in that atrium area. There was a tweet from someone who thought they might be one of those people overnight and that was brought to my attention so the team has reached out to that person this morning but I don't have the follow-occupy whether that person was one of those.
>> Joe, I don't believe we got the results
>> To follow up, in terms of the vaccination sdr, the issues around the ventilation and the fact the perspex will have windows open for parcels an things, my question remains, if you have house experts who are vigousing covering how this virus is transmitting, how are you comfortable when they are not, that there is no concern with people standing in the queue to get vaccinated, are they potentially at risk.
>> Well, I suspects that the health experts like me haven't actually been at the venue and see it on the ground. So I'm happy to put my confidence in the health experts who are running the centre and have very good understanding of what the appropriate infection, prevention control measures would be to be needed under alert Level 4 and indeed to prevent any potential that people would be infected while making for their vehicles nations.
>> Dr Bloomfield, the church cluster that you referred to of about 58 people in it, is that the number of people who were at the church who now have COVID or also their household contacts appeared stuff like that? Do you have more of a detailed breakdown of that? Also, is there any indication yet of where the AUT cases came or any other smaller clulsz sters which have ballooned up to be cluster?
>> On the church cluster, that is a combination of people who were both at the service on 15 August and household and close contacts. For example, of our seven cases in Wellington, six of those are either people who were at the service or are household and other close contacts. I don't have a breakdown of that but that is information we will be able to provide. I'm sorry, I don't have any further detail about the AUT associated cases. What we do have is about six locations of interest or I guess what we would call sub- clusters. The two biggest ones are the ones I talked about, the Birkdale associate grouping and the AOG grouping. The others are much smaller.
>> Dr Bloomfield, with the pressure on testing labs, how long is the delay between a test being taken, someone being swabbed and a positive result and the public being notified. Any of the cases we learnt about today, were they tested as far back as Thursday or Friday last week?
>> What I can say is that anyone who is a close kookt or who has been in a high risk setting, thattesting it is prioritised. That is one of the reason yz there are five - I was going to ska exclusive but there are five testing stations around Auckland that are sort of invitation-only where people from those high risk settings or who are close or very close contacts can go to be tested with a specific code. Those tests are expedited. Certain lit with that high level of demand, at the moment the turnaround can be around 48 hours and there are some that are just over 48 hours but obviously the labs both in Auckland and across New Zealand are working together to make sure we are getting through any backlog. Just to reiterate, any tests of high risk people are turned around very quickly.
>> It would be fair to say we have a considerable focus on making sure we are using all the testing resources available across the country. Als Dr Bloomfield alluded to, obviously with Auckland being the centre of the outbreak, the testing capacity there or the processing of the testing capacity there is somewhat stretched. So we are using right around the country, including talking to people like universities about whether or not there is resources there that can be brought on board as well.
>> (INAUDIBLE) 600 contact tracers. How overburdened is the contact tracing system and why was that capacity not prepared ahead of time instead of during an outbreak.
>> Yes, just on the latter point, there was quite a lot of surge capacity identified and some of that surge capacity is needed for the out-bound calls, not so much to make those initial calls but the follow-up calls. For close contacts, our approach has typically been daily follow-up calls. It is really to get the extra capacity to do those follow-up calls. With our public health unit folk and our existing staff, we had about 300. We are surging that up to around 900. In fact, people were being trained already last night from a number of government department call centres and they are already on board today. I guess the other comment I would make just genre flekting on the comparison with August - - again reflecting on the comparison last year, we had anticipated in our preparations for a possible Delta outbreak that there would be aI higher surge but here we have got ten times the number of close contacts than we had in August last year. Actually, at this point in the outbreak, a larger number of cases. You never know quite how many cases are going to get. We do have a number of cases but I'm confident our contact tracing will be able to deliver what is needed to get around the outbreak. Ment
>> With the contact tracers, how many are you short? Nearly 900. How many do you need?
>> Not so much short but we are getting more people on all the time. The other thing I would say is that Healthline provides quite a bit of our surge capacity. They have had, in the last few days, the highest number of inbound calls that they have ever had as well as, of course, they have people doing the - 2,000 people doing the vaccination line as well. So they have people who cross- trained. So one of the things is because they have had such a volume of inbound calls to health line around testing, they haven't been able to free as many people up as they normally would to assist with contact tracing and that's why we have gone elsewhere to get that additional support.
>> Also worth noting the comment Dr Bloomfield made yesterday about electronic welfare assistance. When someone is contacted for the first time and they say, "I'm feeling good" they can move to a system emailing in each day to confirm they are still feeling well that. Reduces the amount of people undertaking that and we can move people on to the contact tracing.
>> Just on the church service, how many people were at that service and how many of those people have been tested? I guess how many cases do you expect or how big do you expect that cluster to grow to?
>> Yes. So we are still working with the church to get a nirm number. The reason for that, it was essentially an assembly of the assemblies. There were I think 27 different church groups who metaphor that service, include something people who had travelled up from Wellington. So it is quite a bit of work to get the denominator. What I I can say, there are well over 500 people who have been tested as part of that cluster. Then, in fact, in addition to those who were actually at the service, there is getting a handle on all their close contacts, particularly the household contacts. Buftd that work is proceeding just to get that denominator for that cluster
>> To make sure we get everybody, we will go down the front and come back to you guys.
>> Where the report said (INAUDIBLE) worker positive to COVID (INAUDIBLE).
>> The only reference I think you could be making is to the case that has been mentioned at the Novotel and Ellersley. A staff member at the Novotel and Ellersley did test positive yesterday but they didn't test positive at work. They were a close contact p of one of the clusters that we have been discussing today. I believe they were at work for one shift an all of the people who worked that day on that shift are all now doing exactly as all other close contacts are doing - they are isolating and getting a test. It is not related the other way. So the infection didn't come from MIQ, it was a person who had it and wept and worked there.
>> On the 148 total cases, do you have a breakdown of age ranges (INAUDIBLE). Any thought on pulling the date forward to try and prioritise young people as it seems they are the ones impanthed by this outbreak?
>> So, on the latter, no thought at this stage to bring the 1 September date forward. Although, of course, there is that opportunity for anyone who is currently Ellage toibl book in children who are still dependent and living at home to be vaccinated with them. From late this afternoon, we will have demographic information up around the specific outbreak. At the moment the data around our cases is still cumulative data for all the cases since the start of the pandemic. I have asked for a desperate description with key demographic data of this outbreak as it unfolds. The first will be up later this afternoon and then we will update it with all the information on a daily basis.
>> All the ministry released CCTV images of the two people remain unidentified at the crown plaza. If not, why not?
>> I can say it is like an Oao response. I can't release because the ministry doesn't have T the investigation is led by Auckland Regional Public Health Service. They have got a team working with employs that CCTV footage. I would have to go back to them and see whether or not releasing that footage may help with identifying people but it may or may not be helpful. What they have released of course is the place and time and that may well be what spurred a person to self- identify overnight and that person has been followed up.
>> I think you can be assured, Luke, that the New Zealand Police are involved and they will be using all of the abilities they have to help follow this up. I'm quite sure between them and Auckland Regional Public Health they feel if they are not going to identify the people they will make use of whatever they can to get there. We will see. But the police are involved T has been done thoroughly.
>> I will go to Ben.
>> Just on crown plaza. Based on the images of this walkway through crown comblaz that you were seeing, as the Director- General of Health, does that look to you like it cuts mustard?
>> Well, let me just remind - we should remind ourselves, we have had nearly six months, we have had no COVID in the community and that managed isolation facility, along with our other more than 30, have been serving the community well in terms of keeping COVID out of the community. What I would say is - and I think we can go back to the case we had last December with the defence force MIQ worker, appeared we found a student who got infect that had we could not place him any closer than six minutes and 400m to that defence force worker but the person got infected. That predated Delta. I think all our arrangements are incredibly solid. The fact that the virus escape odd this occasion does not mean that there is a problem there. So saying, of course every MIQ we will be going back and looking and making sure what can we learn from this particular incident and is there anything we dock to strengthen the security?
>> And we have done that all the way through. Bear in mind, whenever there has been an issue we have taken another look at the way MIQ has operated. For example, the ventilation systems in pretty much all of the MIQs have been updated as a result of what we learn. So we are constantly looking at what we might need to tweak or change to make things work. As you know with the crown plaza, it is emptied out from the current cohort. That gives us an opportunity to look again at how that is going before any new people might go in there.
>> Can I draw you to the interview this morning with Rodney Jones. He basically forecast three parts. Queensland, ACT maintaining or Victoria-NSW part. One thing he said was crucial in that was how many cases there are of essential workers. That is, is there evidence of spread during lockdown beyond households? So is there?
>> So this is one of the questions we are asked specifically. In fact, when we asked the Auckland Regional Public Health team this morning, not any essential workers as yet. So saying, we had the case in fact of the worker in the MIQ who is an essential worker and who is associated with an outbreak and that person had isolated immediately, been identified. What I would say is that our contact tracers are able to and do prioritise any essential worker to get them isolated. One of the pieces of information we are collating and we will start to report is how many of our new cases are essential workers. How many of our new cases were in the community while infectious and under Alert Level 4? They are likely to be our essential workers and then, of course, how many locations of interest might be arising out of those essential workers? But this is exactly the problem or the issue that we are aiming to hit off.
>> (INAUDIBLE) might be a bit unsure as to whether elimination will work this time, do you see any evidence that the lockdown is not working as plan?
>> No, it is not. The point about Alert Level 4 is that we are asking everybody to stay home unless you absolutely have to be somewhere else, either to work or to get a test or to be vaccinated or to go and do your shopping and for a brief period of exercise. We don't have any evidence that there is a problem there. Every day we ask about compliance issues and we received this morning assurance from the police and others that people are by and large being compliant. The odd little case that pops up here or there. So no, there is not an issue there. But Dr Bloomfield's answer does emphasise just how important it is that everybody follows the rules. When we are dealing with Delta, it is more important than ever that people limit non-essential movement and that's why we are strict about our rules. I'm just going to go Amelia.
>> Thank you N real terms, what impacts has this Delta outbreak had on spaces in MIQ?
>> In real terms?
>> Yes. So how many spaces have been affected by this Delta outbreak through the crown plaza coming offline through one of the facilities being made available for cases?
>> I will have to come back to you with the specific numbers. Obviously the cohort that was in the Crowne Plaza has effected. There wasn't a new cohort going in there until 9 September. So there is a sflas for us to sort things out there. In terms of the other facilities, we have got the one facility here in Wellington. I'm going to give it the wrong name. The Grand Mecure on the Ter answer. Then one in Christchurch. We have reconfigured those to be able to deal with potential quarantine cases. They are relatively small numbers involved there but I can come back to you about what the specific number is there. But it is not a massive reduction but it is a bit of a recalibration that is going on.
>> To follow.
>> Just very quickly.
>> Do you think that the pause was good because it means that people can take a break it the site.
>> MB has apologised for that message they put up. We all understand that people who are looking for places in MIQ offshore that it can be a very stressful experience. They have apologised for using that fraising. The pause is to allow us to recalibrate ourselves at this point in the outbreak.
>> Minister, when it comes to paying or those big retail outlets who are still operating online, is it fair that they are still profitable and yet they are paying their workers a reduced wage?
>> Look, the whole point of a wage subsidy scheme is to support people to be able to work, to be able to stay attached to their job. Nothing changes about employment law though when it comes to if you are in receipt of the wage subsidy scheme. We obviously try to encourage people to keep paying their workers at the level that they always have done but the subsidy scheme provides a base for us to work from. If somebody is actually working, then they are working their hours and they should be paid for the hours that they are working.
>> Are you still comfortable with the strategy of vaccinating older people first and going down in the age brackets. I mean, we have seen young people are a lot more social. Do you regret that start in
>> No, not at all. We took the best possible health advice when it came to the way we did our vaccination program. We started off with our border workers because that was our greatest area of vulnerability to COVID coming in and then our health workforce and then those with health conditions, those who would be the most vulnerable in an outbreak. That I think was a very sensible way to deal with it. What you are now seeing is that we are really ramping up that vaccination program with those 63,000 vaccinations yesterday. Of course, from 1 September it is everybody and we will then see an even greater increase. So we are not going to change that plan now. It was the right plan. It has worked well for New Zealand. But now our job collectively as a country is to ramp that up so that we do get that highest possible vaccination level. The just debating the border workers and elderly but when you come to healthy New Zealanders, should you be prioritising young people first and will you look at that? Because it is not too late to change that strategy?
>> I'm happy to let Dr Bloomfield make some comments on this. But as he said before, we are nearly there. We have got good levels of bookings, good levels of vaccination here. This is also Alert Level 4. So bear in mind everyone should be at home at this point. Everybody should be making sure they obey those rules. So 1 September is not far away. And for now, if people are staying home and only going out if they absolutely need to, then we are still in a good position.
>> Just one comment. The approach we have taken is exactly the approach that most other countries have taken, including those with high rates of infection in their community like the USA and UK.
>> I will just come to Maori TV. Snool (INAUDIBLE) came out criticising vaccination roll out. Sapg there has been no real gee u ien engagement from the start. One even going as far to say this latest outbreak should have been prevented from happening. What is your response to that?
>> I have got a different view on the first comment there. There has been enormous engagement with Maori providers and Pacific providers with Maori and Pacific communities right from the start of the program. That has been a big focus for us. I recognise the concern about Maori and acknowledge and agree with the concern about our Maori and Pacific communities. Because they have high rights of pre- existing conditions. We have seen already, for example in the outbreak last August, that they are more severely impacted if there is an outbreak. We are seeing in this outbreak over 50% of our cases are Pacific. So it is very important these communities get vaccinated and that's why we have had initiatives right from the start designed to ensure that they can access the vaccine.
>> What do you require close contacts of the cases of the AOG church given the stats for overcrowding in South Auckland?
>> Yes, we discussed this with the public health unit today - that every one of those families that is involved in that cluster, so who has got cases, there is very specific up support going to ensure that first of all - in the first instance all cases are taken to the quarantine facility so other mechanics of the household can isolate safely. Second, that their welfare and support needs are met. Third, if they can't isolate at home safely we have a dedicated managed isolation facility that can be used as well.
>> Just down here.
>> What assurances Dr Bloomfield can you give to the Pacific community? I think when you revealed yesterday more than half were Pacific, a lot of the Pacific community were kind of the outraged like, "Here we go again." What reassurances can you provide to say that is not the case?
>> Well, what I can say is that the reason we have a large number of Pacific cases, particularly Samoan, is because of this particular cluster around the AOG event. What can I say is both this time and also as we have seen in the past the Pacific community is very good at responding to the call to test an isolate and we have seen great engagement with all those churches to actually identify who was there and isolate and get those people tests. So I can provide an assurance to the Pacific community that not only have we and will we continue to work with you, but secondly, based on the track record of the Pacific community, we will get to the bottom of it and we will make sure that we get rid of COVID in that community.
>> We are just going to take a couple more. I will go to the back and then we will take a couple more.
>> Dr Bloomfield, I have a really quick question. Can you confirm if any of the cases have been affected after the lockdown begins. Snoolt yes, some of them have been but as contacts of cases that were infected prior to the lockdown. As we go through these next few days, we will be looking to make sure - we will be looking to see that all of those new cases are essentially arising since the start of lockdown. We are still identifying cases that were infected pre-the lockdown. We should see that shift now.
>> Were any connected to essential workers in terms of close contact p
>> Sorry, I didn't hear the first part of question
>> How many cases.
>> I don't have the specific number but as I said earlier on, we will be aim to go provide that detail towards the end of the day each day. Because of the new case dmz in overload and are loaded into the system at # in the morning, then the interviews commence. So by later in the day we will have a fuller picture on the cases that announced this morning, just how many are essential workers, how many are exact of existing cases and/or linked to a location of interest.
>> To be clear, the case I mentioned before the MIQ worker at the Ellersley Novotel that person we know about. That person has been compliant with the testing and orders and did exactly the right thing in terms of isolating.
>> Just in terms of we have been talking about the potential leak into the community from the Crowne Plaza and the atrium discussion. That is just one of many working thoeries. Can you actually explain what other working periods there are and what else you are investigating?
>> One comment I would make, from our discussion the this morning - and I just want to emphasise - the source of investigation is very much of secondary concern. We are very confident that that is where the infection came from and came out into the community. 99% of our focus is on controlling the outbreak. So saying, we are still open- minded about how the virus got from the person who was in the hotel, the Crown comblaz for quite a short period of time before -- in the Crowne Plaza for a short period of time before transferred. Our testing of staff suggests, because they all returned negative tests, it doesn't seem it has been a virus with a staff member but it is still possible. It would have been through one of the people who was passing by at the time and the six people of particular interest. There is still a very outside chance that the virus could have been introduce reasonable doubt into the community through another source. In other words, someone who had a very similar genome sequence because there are a number of people with a similar genome sequence still back in NSW because of the time it was with the outbreak there. So that has not been ruled out completely but highly unlikely.
>> Just to reinforce what Dr Bloomfield said earlier, in previous outbreaks we have had we don't always get a 100%. It is just the nature of these kinds of investigations. And vent lid you reach a point, I'm told, from a public health perspective where the utility of going further and further and further there is not actually that grate because actually you have run down all of the possibilities. So clearly we want to identify to the people who were in the vicinity because that is an obvious path to run down. But eventually it is possible we don't get 100%. I will just take Jenna.
>> We are seeing another flurry of mis-information around the dangers of COVID-19 and likening it to influenza. What do you say to the people who are spreading that mis- information and what do you say to the people that are perhaps susceptible to them...
>> What I would say - actually, just on the subject of mis- information, I gather there have been some scam test results being texted around to people telling people they have returned a positive test. I don't know if you have heard about this. What I can say is anyone whose test is positive will receive a phone call, not a text. Negative results are texted. On the issue around mis-information around the seriousness of COVID-19 many, the comparison that was made by Professor Skigg a couple of weeks ago is apposite. Scotland, similar situation. If we had followed the route they had we would have had around 10,000 people die now in about 20 months. Annually we have 600 influenza-related deaths. There is a magnitude of difference. That is not counting all the people who may have been infect the. Many we are seeing from studies around the world may have ongoing symptoms, like long COVID. It is a far more serious illness. Even in the UK now with the rates of infection they have with a high vaccination rate, it would be the equivalent of around nine or ten deaths a way in Early Edition into. So ex-trap owe late that out, that is still way -- extrapolate that out, it would be way more deaths with COVID than influenza.
>> The first one I will go quickly
>> Put them in one question.
>> The first one, there have been issues with people travelling out of Auckland to get their test to try and avoid those long queues. They feel like they have no other option and would rather drive to Thames for example. What are you doing to address that?
>> Clearly significant additional testing capacity has been put on in the Auckland region. Dr Bloomfield may want to talk about that further. There is ample opportunity for people to be tested both through the community testing centres and also through their GP as well. There is no way that it is a good idea to get in your car and drive to Thames. All manner of things could occur. You could break down, there could be other issues that happen there. We just ask people to be patient. We recognise there will be a wait sometimes when you are getting tested. Those wait times have been coming down because we have added significant capacity.
>> That's correct
>> Last question.
>> Can I please get the latest on Afghanistan as well?
>> I don't have a particular amount to add on Afghanistan. Obviously we had our first cohort of people return yesterday and they are now doing their managed isolation, as you would expect. The New Zealand contingent that is involved is continuing to work as part of a team with those from other countries to get the New Zealanders and those associated with us out from Kabul. You will realise everyone will realise that the area around Kabul airport is significantly strained and it is making it a very, very challenging exercise but we continue to work closely with our partners and we will have more to say, I'm sure, when we have further cohorts. We are going to have to leave it at that. Thank you everybody.