COVID-19 update, 26 August

>> (SPEAKS TE REO MAORI). Good afternoon everyone.

Before I hand over to Doctor McElnay I thought I would share some good news. Another record day for the vaccination program with 87,772 doses administered. We also had another key milestone. Now more than 3 million doses having been administered since our vaccination campaign began.

Yesterday also sought the largest number of bookings made in a single day through bookmyvaccine.nz with more than 270,000 bookings entered as we opened up the 30+ age group.

That means 73% of New Zealanders aged 30+ have now either booked or had at least one vaccine. If you have not booked yet, please play your part in keeping New Zealand say from COVID-19 by going to bookmyvaccine.nz and make your appointment now. It is free and there are places available.

I will now hand over to the director of public Alf Doctor Caroline McElnay to talk us through the latest numbers. 

>> Thank you. (SPEAKS TE REO MAORI)

To date we are reporting 68 new community cases since 9 o'clock yesterday.

 There is also one new case in a recent returnee in managed isolation. One a previously reported community case has been reclassified after being confirmed as a false positive.

This takes the total number associated with this community outbreak to 277.

Of those 277 cases 263 are in Auckland and 14 are in Wellington. The two new Wellington cases are household contacts and have been in isolation throughout their infectious period.

There are currently six sub- clusters identified with the outbreak and the two largest being the Brookdale social network cluster -- Birkdale Social Group which is associated with the original case A and that has 35 confirmed cases and the other cluster is the man Jerry church cluster which has 114 confirmed cases.

The remaining clusters have fewer than 10 people associated with them.

Since I last updated there has been an additional 20 locations of interest identified. That brings us to a total of  495 locations of interest but only three new locations of interest added today.

One location, rugby game was added to date that was pre-lockdown.

We have had two supermarkets identified as post lockdown.

Please remember to regularly check the ministry website and we are updating the locations of interest automatically on a two hourly basis.

On contact tracing, the number of contacts continues to increase as expected as we identify more cases and continue to test in large numbers. Public health staff across continue to focus on high risk locations. As of 8 o'clock this morning, 25,402 individual contacts have been formally identified. Of these contacts, 65% have been followed up by contact tracers and the individuals are self isolating. Approximately 71% of all contacts identified have had a test and that reflects the high level of testing particularly in some large settings like schools. In these instances, committees have been directly informed by the local public health unit that they are contacts and need to have test. Work is underway to contact the remaining 8647 contacts. Half of those contacts were identified yes they. It is a timing issue.

We also continue to significantly increase our contact tracing workforce and yesterday an additional 100 additional contact tracers were trained across government agencies and call centres. More staff are being trained today and we expect to have in total nearly 1400 contact tracers in the call centres across New Zealand by the end of the day.

On testing, yesterday it was another big day on the testing front and laboratories processed 41,739 swabs nationwide.

 In Wellington that number was 3303.

In Wellington there are 11 committee testing centres operating today including around 32 GPs open for testing.

Testing centres in Auckland also had another busy day with over 20,000 swabs taken across the city. With around 7000 community testing centres and around 13,000 general practice and urgent care clinics.

In Auckland today there are 23 committee testing centres open for testing and that number includes five restricted access testing centres that are for invitation only for high risk groups. That allows us to prioritise essential workers. There are six regular community testing centres and an additional 12 pop-up testing centres. Including a new pop-up testing centre at to coincide Auckland. We are expecting it to be a busy day today so please be kind when you go for your test for the hard-working testing stuff.

 I would remind you that testing is available at a general practice and urgent Claire clinics and just remind it that wherever you go COVID-19 test is free. To help speed up the process at our testing centres, it is helpful if you know your NHI number and you bring it with you. You can find that number on a hospital letter or on a recent prescription or you can call zero 800 855 0800 8550 66 to find out what your number is.

A reminder that it is essential that people only get tested if they are a contact or if they have visited a location of interest at the specific dates and times and have been told they need to get tested or if you are symptomatically cold or flu symptoms.

Genomics sequencing, ESR has run whole genome sequencing on samples from 152 community cases and the analysis of those samples has determined that they are all linked to this community outbreak.

On wastewater testing, ESR has also analysed or is in the process of analysing samples from 97 locations. Taken from 70 locations in the North Island and 27 locations in the South Island. That covers an estimated population of 3.8 million people and more than 90% of New Zealanders connected to reticulated wastewater system. COVID-19 has been detected in samples from the Christchurch catchment on Saturday and Monday. That follows previous negative results last week but ESR does stress that there are three active cases in Christchurch managed isolation facilities and that is consistent with the virus being shaded from these cases.

 Further sampling from around Christchurch is being undertaken today and we will  

Further samples are being collected from Warkworth, and back to Wellington, COVID 19 continues to only be detected at lower points and this probably reflects the known cases shedding the virus into the catchment area. There are no new results to report from Auckland since yesterday's update.

And lastly, we are adding another way for people who have been vaccinated to monitor any symptoms and that is the post vaccine symptom check. We already monitor reactions to vaccines and medicines through the Centre for adverse reactions monitoring, which  works closely with med safe but today the vaccine team will start sending out text invitations to around sample of people who have had their vaccination around six days ago. That invitation asks the person to participate in a short survey. These messages go out every day to a different group and if you receive a text message I encourage you to participate, as this really helps get us better understanding about the use of the vaccine and the effects of the vaccine in the New Zealand context. Any information that we collect will be gathered and published on the website, the website med safe.

Thank you back to you prime Minister. 

>> As you heard today we are in a similar place to yesterday, with Delta these numbers are not necessarily unexpected. It is more infectious and we know it moves faster. So even though we moved into lockdown quickly, once we discovered it we should expect to see the impact of it in our community for roughly a week or more prior for a time to come. I will speak more or less in a moment.

 First, while we can't give a lot of detail around today's cases as they were awarded this morning, I want to share more about the ones that were reported yesterday to give you more insight into what is happening with the outbreak, and we will look to try to do that on the 24 hour cycle as well. Of the more than 60 cases logged yesterday, I am advised across those cases there have only been three new reported exposure events. Places where the individuals were while infected with COVID. That tells us something important, people are following a level IV and we are beginning to reach people who have become infected since lockdown began.

We also know that 37 of the cases were from within households that already had a case. As we have said with Delta before, the rate of transmission and households appears to be high and that is what is happening here.

 Also, of the 60+ cases, a public LT and have linked the majority. 16 remain under investigation since the interviews just taken yesterday.

Finally I can report that across the roughly 400+ locations of interest that I reported on the Ministry of health website, 13 currently have generated additional cases, so to give you a sense of why we have a large number of locations of interest, and we want all of those individuals who are connected to those locations of interest to follow the health advice, at this stage roughly 13 has had cases at those locations of interest. We will share more detail in the future as well.

While we have had a number of new cases today, it gives you a sense of the pattern that we are now starting to see. Overall lockdown is having an impact.

Firstly, we have not seen spread beyond Auckland and Wellington where there is a known link to the Auckland outbreak. If it were not for lockdown I am sure we would have seen cases spread further. Lockdown is having an impact on location of interest. While our cases are continuing to grow, these locations of interests aren't continuing to grow alongside them and that is because people have been staying at home.

Finally we are seeing lockdown impact on our numbers. But there is no doubt that Delta is changing the way the numbers look.

Previously when you went into lockdown, anyone who might have had COVID, but was not infection -- infectious was put behind closed doors in this stop trains of transmission but with Delta people are infectious must sooner and they appear to give it to more people.

Lockdown helps to stop transmission outside of us -- households but we can expect the lag time to be longer and bigger. Nothing at the moment appears to us to be necessarily unexpected. We need to be incredibly vigilant. 

You will have heard our say many times before, Delta has changed the rules of the game. This is why we changed our game plan. We moved straight into level for within roughly half a day, a massive increase in testing. Mask wearing requirements. We treat a large number of people as contacts, 24,000 people. COVID has changed and so have we.

 Part of the reason I think that team has managed COVID as well as it has because we have been willing to listen to experts and willing to adapt. Right now the experts are telling us to take on Delta differently. They have also told us to stick with the elimination strategy for now. In their view it is not only possible, it remains the best strategy and I totally agree.

Elimination means continuing to stamp out COVID where ever it emerges. All the while ramping up our vaccine program and ensuring every eligible New Zealander takes up the opportunity to be protected. That is because vaccination provides everyone with their own individual armour. Previously when we did not have vaccine on offer, we relied on turning our borders into the protection. And when there was a check in that we use lockdown is to get control.

Our goal is to move away from using these measures in that way, and vaccines help us do that. No one wants to use lockdown is for ever and I can tell you it is not our intention. We have new tools for managing COVID and we will use them. But for now, while we vaccinate, elimination is the goal and we can do it.

I know there has been a lot of commentary on our strategy versus other countries strategies, and you might have heard me respond to those questions by saying I am not fussed by such debate. For me and I am sure others the measure of suggest success is not what happens in August 2021 but what has happened since February 2020 when COVID arrived.

We had three goals, we want to save lives, and we have, we want to try and have lives lived as normally as possible, and even now we have had some of the shortest periods of restrictions in many countries. We want to save jobs and the economy with unemployment at 4% and the economy performing a pre-COVID livers we have done this too.

The battle is not over and will not be for some time. We will keep changing our strategy with those three things in mind, people's lives, livelihoods and the ability to feel as normal as possible. On those measures the team of 5 million has done an amazing job. Nothing about this a break change that and it strangers -- strengthens our resolve.

 Today everyone is doing well with a level for four and compliance is impressive so thank you. But case numbers of the daily reminder that we cannot drop the ball. Please minimise your contact with others, any interaction you have someone you outside your bubble could be someone who becomes a positive case. Unless you are an essential workout you should only be going out to get food and to exercise.

Obviously if you are symptomatically want you to be tested and if you have a vaccine booking we want you to take that up. If you are awaiting a test pleased, no departing from your home. In both cases across the board always act as if you might have COVID.

 If you are an essential workout we need you to constantly check the locations of interest and check for COVID symptoms. The worst thing you can do is go to work without realising  you are a con close contact or take over to your website. If you need any help in isolation please let those making welfare checks know and ask family friends or neighbours to get your shopping and drop it off in a contactless way.

As a team we must stick together to get the job done and most importantly what you can do to avoid future lockdowns is to get vaccinated. And then support everyone you know to get vaccinated. If you are 30+ and not vaccinated please book today, we need every member of our team to play their part.

We are happy for questions. 

>> Given you have said that Delta is infectious and it seems to be sticking around for longer, do you think that you are going to keep at a higher alert level? 

>> We are looking to make decisions on Monday. As you can see a high rate of cases and that is not because there is any issue with lockdown and its success. We can see it as having an impact but Delta is very tricky. We know it appears to be and researchers tell us, you have an earlier period of infectiousness than what we had before. We know it is more infectious. It is to be expected that we would see a bit of a lag before necessarily seeing the full impact of our lockdown. .Dr McElnay? 

>> Certainly what we are seeing with the cases coming in are completely justified the lockdown because these people were infected before lockdown, they were not aware that they were a case but they would have gone on to infect others had we not had a lockdown as a control. 

>> Definitely making a difference, no question. 

>> The fact we have not seen cases in the South Island, are you confident COVID has not made its way there? 

>> We are pleased at this stage to see the swift move to level IV has meant that whilst we have a mobile country, we have not seen cases down in the South Island. But we look for other measures of course, we have good race of testing.  The wastewater, and are we confident that we can safely move in that area. Those decisions were used with the latest data and we will look to make those decisions tomorrow. 

>> You have said that New Zealand won't use lockdown for ever. While currently vaccination, but what level of vaccination across the country will we get to before we abandon lockdown? 

>> I want the highest number of people vaccinated as possible, not only because it gives us the best chance at maintaining a level of normality in our lives. That is what protects those people's lives. That has to be a collective goal. Look after the team of 5 million, to every extra person that gets vaccinated saves them, someone in their community, and events the risk of outbreaks. People have asked us for numbers, experts have advised us to stay away from a single number, because that won't necessarily give you the level of detail you need around what percentage amongst an age group and if a profile or town or community. We need the numbers to be high across all measures. 

>> Knowing that one of the people with the COVID 19 virus being less than one year old, what you say to parents that may be worried when you say a lot of luck down for their children? 

>> The reason we want everyone eligible to be vaccinated to be vaccinated, they can form a barricade for those who are not eligible to be vaccinated. The more of us who can be who are means we act as a form of protection for those too small and young to be vaccinated, and that is why it is so important. 

>> Vaccinated people are still in lectures. 

>> Keep in mind we don't have widespread vaccination yet so as not fair to judge about movement under those conditions and why we have breakthrough transmission which is not unexpected, you don't see those individuals incredibly unwell as you might see in our vaccinated individuals but I will ask Dr to comment. 

>> What we see from international research is you can get infected if you have been fully vaccinated but the likelihood of being infected is dramatically reduced. 

>> The question is that those that can be effected may pass it on to younger children and what do we know about that? 

>> Your likelihood of becoming infected when you have a large portion of the population vaccinated is much reduced. We have a duty, not just to look after ourselves but to protect other people who are not eligible for vaccination by being vaccinated.  So our plan is clear, for now elimination is the best strategy for New Zealand. We will continue to look at the best evidence and expert advice possible as we transition into the New Year with a vaccinated population. We will make changes to our plans. But always based on the measures, how to save lives, live normally as possible and keep the economy to come along.  

>> What you are saying at the beginning about the lag period, correct me if I am wrong, you were talking about the virus being active in the community for one week. What we're seeing now is the impact of it being in the community for a week.   

>> I will explain two things, the level of infectiousness of Delta strain and we believe that the case came into New Zealand on the seventh somewhere between the seventh and the ninth somehow entered the community. Of course we went into lockdown some eight or so days ago. Yes, there was a lag. That is one thing. The other thing there is evidence to suggest is that previously there were variants like alpha and from the time someone was exposed to someone who had COVID, like they got it at an event to the time they might potentially infect others with somewhere like five days. That gives a lot of time for testing, contact tracing and removing people who might infect others. We see data that suggest Delta it might be more like three, some public health units reporting shorter windows. That is another reason why actually a lockdown while it takes people out the number of people they may have infected in those windows will be greater as well. 

>> What we see now is what you are talking about, last week the peak and so from now on you are you expecting to see fewer and fewer cases? 

>> We have seen the effects of the lockdown in the sense we see fewer locations of interest and you still see household contacts of course. Of course I do not feel ready to make a judgement yet on where we are in the cycle in part because certainly it does not so I am hesitant to do that myself. Perhaps Doctor McEnany can hedge their bets. 

>> The modelling we have suggest that that period will start to see the peak number of cases and we would expect that  to flatten and start to go down because we are washing out of the system the people already infected. 

>> From today or tomorrow we will start to see the level plateauing? 

>> Unfair specificity you are asking for. 

>> I would not like to make a prediction. 

>> One thing I am mindful of is that we have a large number of households even just yesterday 37 from within the households. A number who have not yet tested positive. As grim as it is, I would not be surprised if we see numbers continue to be high because of the household contacts. 

>> If I just go around a little bit and I will come back to. The modelling is not suggesting that but we will see. 

>> The cases this morning there had been an update in terms of the source investigation, are you able to give details about what the link is, what the person in the cluster and where it might've come from and any other information? 

>> What he referred to was a possible link between someone who was very early on in the outbreak who has tested positive and has been connected to a number of locations, and potentially than another missing link that connects to the Crowne Plaza. The person the theory says might be the missing link has tested negative twice. And their entire household has also tested negative. It is not something we are canvassing widely because at the moment the evidence is not strong because the theory does not necessarily demonstrate the evidence required to show a link. It is hard to say the person is the link when they have tested negative twice. 

>> Can expand by that person was identified regardless of the fact that they identified negative why have you honed down on them. 

>> Because of the connection to the Crowne Plaza. No one in the household has tested positive. They have tested negative twice. They have undertaken serology to be sure but it was a theory that at the moment some say are calling unlikely. This demonstrates that we are following every lead because we really want to figure out what has happened. 

>> To add to that. It reflects the detective work that happens so we have a case that has the earliest onset in the community and that is where the public health unit explores all possible avenues, connections that they might have been. And that is when they follow that up to see what evidence we can get. 

>> The best way to describe it is the person that the doctor is describing, early at a location of interest someone else is connected to the Crowne Plaza but that person has then tested positive to COVID. That is the explanation I can give at this time. If we have other evidence that provides greater support for that theory, we will share it with you. We are waiting for serology at the moment. Luke, . 

>> I think you said yesterday there were rooms and obviously 206 to 3 cases, how many more hotels are you able to bring online, the total number of rooms you can throw at this? And if there are more cases in a room is, what is the plan? 

>> We treat households, in some cases there will be households were people I sleep together and in some cases make people isolate together and then we will isolate the contact severally together. We have an additional facility brought on to house contacts in order to separate them. We are bringing another facility online tomorrow in order to give us greater capacity. While I cannot give you the specifics of those numbers I can tell you we are bringing extra facilities online, and will do a stock-take of the numbers and how they look over the next 24 hours to assist what else might be needed. 

>> -- 

>> Can figure out the capacity of the system and if there isn't enough, what is the plan? 

>> An additional facility the household I cannot give you a number but that is a specific facility for that purpose and we have an additional 200 rooms tomorrow. 

>> Can you confirm that there have been no cases of transmission from one person to a person outside their households in the lockdown? 

>> Some of the cases that we are detecting were infectious free lockdown so will have passed it on free lockdown. But would have been detected after lockdown. 

>> Any cases -- any evidence of cases passed on post lockdown? 

>> Infected post lockdown and passed it on post lockdown. 

>> We are not aware of any new cases who have been infected in that location after lockdown. 

>> The church at the centre of the cluster in Auckland, the ministry could do better with its commune occasion with some people, do you agree? 

>> If someone from the community is telling us we need to improve communication I take them at their word on that. There are obviously things we can do to improve. I know there has been a lot of work particularly with some of our fantastic Pacific providers doing a lot of work to improve the welfare response and improve the communication and ensure that those families we are working with have everything they need. 

>> I have spoken to the public health unit and they are aware of the need to have really good engagement with the community and they are using all the resources to help them do their job but also to ensure that the community understands what is required of them. 

>> Why has it taken until now, we have orally had an outbreak affecting the Pacific community, why did you not learn from that? 

>> There has always been communication that we get feedback that it needs to be improved. We take on board that feedback and we will of course look at the situation to keep doing better. One thing I will say is that we have individuals across multiple congregations and that has posed complications but it is no excuse. We always need to try to do the very best we can to make sure we get information to those who need it as quickly as possible. I have heard some heartening things in the last few days about how some of those relationships have really strengthened over the last few days. I will let you finish. 

>> On the Auckland case mentioned yesterday, any more details on that, does it have links to Auckland and if so how? 

>> It is linked to the cluster. 

>> The information I got this morning is that there is a link with a large cluster, still a couple of potential links but they definitely identified links to the cluster. 

>> Locations of interest listed and they have not gone anywhere? 

>> They are still working through with that case. So that may not yet have been any locations of interest but they are working through the interview. 

>> They were infected in Auckland so that was a factor in when they went back to Warkworth. I meant to come to you. You always sit in the corner of the room. 

>> Will you be releasing the 13 locations and also do you know how many of the cases outside of Auckland and other regions have contested so far? 

>> Of course we do record how many of those who have returned tests and of course some have different dates they are meant to be tested on. I would have to ask the ministry to break down the data by those who have an address in the South Island. 

>> We can provide that data. 

>> We will look at that as we consider decisions for Friday. On the 13 locations of interest where we have had and we know we have had transmissions at those locations it is our intent to share those but the only reason we have not is what we want to do is some analysis as to whether or not where that transmission occurred they were noncontact. For instance were they sitting next to each other? Were they at a social event together? Some of those different events might be large and we don't necessarily want to trigger everyone to react if they don't need to just because they were at that event. We will build a bit more of a picture around those locations and then share that information.  

>> The organisation says there should be booster shots for several reasons allowing to be fully vaccinated to get people to access the vaccine in principle do you support that position? 

>> You would have heard me and everyone really in the government say and of course the Ministry of health and all the exports -- experts, we are not safe in New Zealand until everyone is safe. We know that variants thrive in areas where you have low rates of vaccination and significant outbreaks. We are all going to be better off once we have a good level of baseline vaccination globally. On the issue, that is one reason. On the issue of boosters I know people are very interested in the evidence around whether or not we have issues with vaccines, the jury is still out. We will keep analysing the data and information.  And we keep up our conversations with the drug companies regardless because actually we will have an ongoing need for vaccination programs for those who become eligible. That is one reason we keep those open. 

>> If you want a booster shot, do you intend to, to prosecute the idea. 

>> We have always tried to do both. Serve the needs of the population as we have a duty to but at the same time make contributions to Co-vax so the rest of the world has access to vaccines. -- the developing world. Donating as we have in our own region as well full stop helping facilitate the rollout in the Cook Islands and Tokelau and we have supported the vaccination programs and even out we continue talks over ongoing need as they roll into some of the younger populations. 

>> On the locations of interest one escaped at a time that the supermarket not open to the public, can you clarify if the counter worker was infectious on shift? Has the Ministry of health looked at introducing rapid at- home tests as they are in NSW to get ahead of Delta? 

>> On the question about the supermarket I will not be able to answer that detailed question here but if you send it through we can provide the details for that. There have been a number of supermarkets identified post lockdown as locations of interest. In relation to your last question, we continue to look at the evidence around all sorts of testing including rapid antigen tests and we have not yet provided a conclusion. The evidence is emerging. Around the world. We continue to keep a close eye on things. 

>> One thing we were advised about is that with the supermarket worker they were infected in the cluster in the outbreak as opposed to being infected by the pace of work by someone else full stop 

>> How many cases have there been in essential workers so far? 

>> Forgive me if I do not have a number but we have had as you would have seen the reporting around the nursing workforce, obviously we have a supermarket worker and we have had some who work in level IV, restricted number able to work so some are not customer facing but who work in food and beverage production and those are all places of work that in order for them to operate at level IV have to have quite strict prevention controls.    

>> Under a level IV arrangement there was preparatory work to make sure settings are safe for the essential workers because  that has always been realised, that as a potential that one could have someone who is an essential worker who is infectious whilst they are doing their role. That has been something we have emphasised from early last year, we need to have a good mechanism in place to make sure that those workplaces are safe. Not just for the workers but for people who may be using those workplaces for example supermarkets, which is why we have procedures in place in supermarkets for example. 

>> With unlinked cases, are these giving you cause for concern at level IV, that we may not stop transmission outside of bubbles? 

>> We heard from yesterday, we have been notified and I cannot put these into that category or not but generally we have been told from yesterday, given I have only had 24 hours and things might be linked later, we have 16, but every time we ask the public health unit if they have concerns with level for not working I have had an answer back that is no. So linking to a person or location of interest, it is not unusual for that to take longer than 24 hours. LUC? 

>> With the benefit of hindsight, would it have been better to target Auckland for the shots in the vaccine program rather than rolling it out across the country, given if the borders were posted will come to Auckland? 

>> We did, in the phased rollout plan, when we said we want to target our border workers, healthcare workers, those who are working at myths, and we bought fought the age groups, into counties before but if any other part of the country.  This was to try and target those at the most risk which by default meant more in Auckland. The other thing that I would add, keep in mind we are pleased we have not seen it spread into the South on this occasion. But we have in Wellington, 9000 people in the 48-hour people run Mac. After we called the lockdown who came back to Auckland from other parts of the country. As a highly mobile country, having resilience and other part of the country was important. 

>> By our account there has been five locations around the country where Labour Party volunteers have continued to breach lockdown, it looks to us like your electorate is amongst them. Why is so difficult for the Labour Party to get on top of this and how embarrassing is it? 

>> Very disappointing, we do not want this situation. We want everyone to model exactly what we need at level IV.  We have taken a number of steps and unfortunately our leaflets are delivered by volunteers. Wonderful volunteers. But we have communicated with them via phone trees and email, text message, we had the president 48-hour was ago sent out a reminder to cease delivering pamphlets that they might have. Unfortunately we have not been successful reaching everyone we need to because we have thousands across the country who spare their time delivering leaflets. We have asked to stop. 

>> Politically engaged volunteers not getting the message? 

>> There are thousands of people across all walks of life, and I would not necessarily say, don't put everyone into that category. We must try to reach the people, and we have done a lot, MPs have engaged individually but there are thousands of volunteers. It is frustrating and disappointing and we have worked hard to send a message to people. Human error amongst volunteers will happen from time to time, no excuse just the next full nation. 

>> A couple of things, first a follow-up from the Pacifica and Maori community, say the outbreak could have been avoided if government engaged directly with these communities. That tell us that the vaccine rollout has failed? 

>> I look closely at the vaccine data. Particularly across age groups but also Maori and Pacific, we know we have to make sure we are working with our providers to reach our communities there. What you see at the moment is actually across those age cohorts, a really good uptake. Where we have opened up early on you will see for the Pacific community, the same rate of uptake almost in almost all areas as you have the general population. The issue for us now is to keep it consistent. As we rollout we must keep making sure that no matter what your age we are reaching those members of the community. We are not done yet. Keep holding us to account, but make sure we are also doing it once we're further into the campaign. 

>> We asked the Ministry of health around the data around vaccination rates for the homeless. Your response was it is unlikely that vaccination rates for homeless will be available to be monitored through data internationally because no single dataset or database set is held for the homeless and it cannot be easily developed, is this good enough? 

>> You would have been provided with the different providers who are undertaking vaccine campaigns. We have Auckland city Mission, likewise, and they will have  their own individual is vaccinated and I have seen the numbers. I believe we may have provided them, but what we don't have is a national dataset that categorises people as homeless. That is because no such dataset in that way exists, people move in and out of housing but they will be known by the housing providers. That is why we work with them who know the community and know who they need to target. They have been targeting men with their backs on nation. 

>> Do you have any data 

>> We do have the numbers, forgive me, I thought we have provided them but we have numbers for the social providers on how many we have got so far. These are chronically homeless. I believe there will not be privacy issues. 

>> I will come back to you and see what we can provide. 

>> Jason. 

>> I am sorry but what is the plan for the mass vaccination at MIT, is that going ahead as planned? 

>> That was due on 9 September, and I have not seen anything further on that. Would you mind if I come back to you on that? Thank you. 

>> Can we get an update on the rescue mission in Afghanistan and how it is going in terms of numbers so far? 

>> Our intention was to provide the final numbers at the conclusion of the campaign. The reason is so we can consolidate because we have worked with other international partners. Some have arrived in summer en route. The other reason is for safety. You will see a lot of international reporting on concerns of safety around the airport. We have wanted to be careful about what is being communicated about NZ EF movement and the movement of people coming home. 

>> A lot of people are stuck near the airport that in the past were without defence Force and does not look like they can get on the plane, what is the advice for them? 

>> We have three groups of people that we need to continue working on our plans around Afghanistan and the first one is once we have a final consolidation of those we can support, we need to look at how many New Zealand citizens or Visa holders may not have been able to be evacuated. And the evacuations we have undertaken so far. It may be because they are in provinces where it was impossible to get to Kabul airport. The second full in the category of having supported our agencies may not have been able to reach the flights. In the third is a wider humanitarian group who may wish to seek to be refugees in a number of countries that will be seeking to support those affected by the conflict. Cabinet intends once we have a final consolidation of those we have been able to evacuate to work through a plan for those remain. 

>> To follow on their with a 30 to 40 families applied urgently for visas through immigration last week who met the criteria but have not heard anything back yet. Why have these fees is not been approved. 

>> I simply cannot speak to whether or not they did or didn't. We had clearly defined criteria that we will working to. Focusing on getting New Zealand citizens, permanent residents stuck there and those who supported our agencies and defence Force.  For those we buy and large new and had awareness of who those individuals were. There will be those Visa holders who had been issued visas but were in Afghanistan. 

>> Is that now too late for those people who have applied for visas to get there Visa? 

>> To be clear, there will be those who had visas and were citizens who we have not been up to get out of the family start. The window was short, the number of people seeking to leave was enormous. It will be clear at the conclusion of this mission that every country will have some people they were not able to bring out. Most of us will look to what the next steps need to be. 

>> How does that sit with your conscience that we have people over there that we cannot bring home. 

>> No one has gone on with the intention of leaving anyone behind, but the reality of the situation has been extraordinarily difficult. Not only did we have a very small window in which to try and evacuate people, we literally across all international partners, there have been tens of thousands of people seeking to leave in unsafe circumstances. Some of them have been in provinces where it was not even possible for them to travel to Kabul. We have always known that we were going to look at what would happen after this emergency mission. 

>> What are families are waiting for is someone in immigration to sign up on the visas, is that good enough? 

>> That is not a correct characterisation, there are some that have visas, some have passports who would not have been able to get out. That is not an issue of processing, it is because they are in absolute trauma oil in the country right now. 

>> Is that open to someone living overseas, and they are coming up against Barrick is -- barriers because we don't have the documents? 

>> The Ministry of health has a manual process with a issued documentation for people who apply and we have a number of people who do apply. 

>> Is that good enough though? 

>> Different countries and different ways of presenting data so if you are in New Zealand and you are back cemented by Pfizer we won't necessarily produce Wright brothers vaccinated by Pfizer, something that sits in the act of the New Zealand government. But we want something recognisable across a number of boundaries because someone are not using it just that borders, but within countries. 

>> How come it took six weeks for those to come to the public attention and does it help the convent is of the rollout (inaudible) and the Ministry of health going to approve a drug for that? 

>> Saliva testing has been used in our system, and the thing to note is it takes as long to process a saliva test if it is PCR-based. It takes as long to process as a nasal swab. There are other rapid forms of testing but they do not have the same level of accuracy as a saliva testing that you process as PCR. I am more than happy for the dialogue to start, the more testing we could do the better. On the issue of say line, the most important thing here is that this was not an issue of anyone's safety been compromised, however, it was not good enough that it took that length of time to tell people what happened and to offer them options. The reason for the delay was health was concerned about notifying people about something that had happened to a small number of people without having finalised what the best option was for them. They continue to seek clinical advice on the options for people but in the meantime they have a contact with everyone or in the middle of doing so. 

>> About the effect on public confidence? 

>> This has not compromised anyone's safety. This happened on a small scale and no one came into any danger as a result. Dr mac and A? 

>> As Dr Bloomfield outlined yesterday, the event  highlighted checks and balances that needed to be put in place and those have been put in place and that is part of a continuous improvement to make sure we are minimising any potential for any of these unfortunate situations to happen. 

>> Jumping intranet, in fairness to everyone else 

>> On contract tracing we have a standing capacity of 3000 contacts a day in the Ministry of health, across the lockdown it has been averaging 1500, there have been four reviews of the contract tracing, there has been an un-milling -- unwillingness from the Ministry of health to increase. Can you check this, when it is so far behind?   Working across just the call centres even at the time those reports were written,  are reporting in order to give them the advice they need and then of course our practice has been to have regular phone calls, 25,000 is a large number of people to be dealing with. 

>> Just to agree. What we have seen is that surging happen and that has happened in 24 hours since when we saw the existing capacity in the system needed some extra help and that is part of the planning in place, the ability to pull in others and get that surge happening quickly. 

>> You are suggesting that you will have 6000 which you have not. 

>> That we have had?  

>> Surge capacity is 6000 contacts so are you suggesting that it has reached 6000 contacts at some point? 

>> As reported. 

>> There are over 20,000 contacts. 

>> I'm talking about one day. 

>> Except some of those will come from, the locations of interest, some of them will have thousands all reported in one day. The fact that we can bring in that capacity, you will see that in one day of reporting we had 4000 come in just yesterday. 

>> It is the ongoing management that is important, the daily calls to the contact, not just registering them in the system. 

>> These are your numbers. The Ministry of health numbers. Are you trying to suggest that the Ministry of health is at surge capacity and is contacting 6000 of those cases per day? 

>> One thing, and forgive me, I am just try to understand I have your question correct. Some of those contacts, they will be contacted on a regular basis because they will be triaged as individuals may be symptomatic or of greater concern than others. Others, they will be triaged by the Ministry of health to determine whether or not we can maintain once contacting them, given instructions whether or not they can maintain contact with one of those 25,000 through other means, not necessarily a phone call. The practice of our call centre and our contact tracing callers has been to maintain regular contact with 25,000 people across multiple days, that is a lot of calls. They are adapting. That is why I am concerned that giving you a blanket answer on treating a specific 6000 people per day is not an accurate way to deal with that question. I will ask health to give you a breakdown of the number they are contacting daily or doing symptom checks regularly. Just some final questions please because. Sorry. 

>> Do you have an update on how many contacts there are how many have not been reached yet without test results? 

>> Test results are coming through quickly now. 

>> Are you talking about the number of close plus contacts who we are waiting for test results from? 

>> The breakdown you gave to the select committee the other day. 

>> You want an update on those. 

>> I'm not sure I have those figures with me but we can give you them because they are regularly reported. 

>> Andrew, perhaps we can do that on the editor group. 

>> An update on the number of cases that are vaccinated? 

>> I saw that in the update this morning, one thing I would add is that some people suggest that if you have a vaccine we should have more people vaccinated showing up in cases. Ideally you don't want vaccinated people becoming infected. That does not mean because we had more that somehow that is a reflection of a failure of the vaccine campaign. It is perhaps indicative that the vaccine is working. Last I saw, over 14 but I will search through and asked for another question. Ben. 

>> To take you back, obviously to get out citizens and wartime allies, after that that deadline, where is your thinking at in terms of refugee intake? Is this the sort of significant moment that could cause and take more? 

>> This is the question that we as a cabinet want a discussion about because I talked about the three groups, those stuck we need to help and support to get out and there are those who we already identified as having worked with New Zealand that we may not have seen come through already and broadly the humanitarian effort. There is work to be done across the international community to see that there is going to be that support but we will have a particular I on those who because of perhaps they are doing Human Rights Watch Carruthers we would have concern and that does involve the UNHCR so that is a longer process and we want to work on that. 

>> (INAUDIBLE). We have also doubled our intake so no decision on any of that made that would be premature for me to say anything. Last question. We have had 34 with the first vaccination, 10 on second. 

>> A follow-on. 

>> If I may I will ask another question here because we haven't had many on the side. 

>> A question for the doctor, how many nurses are we short around the country as many as 100? Second, does the Ministry of health know exactly how many doses of the vaccine have been discarded or unused for whatever reason following citing that we were using 99.5% of the stock? 

>> Just answer the last question first. I don't have the specific percentage but it is a very small percentage of discarded doses. Very small. I would say about 1% or less. 

>> We are well under the international wastage rates from memory and we also order and factor in what we saw as average wastage rates across the globe. It is very small. You are looking for intensive care nursing. 

>> I do not have the figures as to the number of intensive care nurses but it is part of the planning the Ministry has been doing to be able to make sure we have the staff as well as the facilities for intensive care provision, that is certainly part of the planning and it is ongoing work with the DHBs. 

>> What is the gap you are planning for? 

>> I don't have those particular figures. That reflects my area of expertise which is public health, not in the intensive care treatment side that we can get those figures for you. 

>> The mystery of health gets almost daily reports what our capacity is across the hospital network including the intensive care system so he is constantly looking that we have the capacity we need particular during the winter. We know that there was a surge. He suggested that we were starting to see that abating. Particular concern to make sure we have the paediatric care we need because we have single centres of excellence for that in New Zealand. An area we keep an eye on. 

>> You will be my last question. 

>> The youth and young adults are particular because that is the age range are they a targeted approach to those age- group? 

>> With our vaccination campaign I will speak specifically to the Pacific program, $16 million to support both building Pacific capacity so we have the workforce we need working with the specific providers to build capability to lead on those programs. Communication efforts. The likes of the course collective and others involved in building some of those campaigns. There has been a lot of work to reach out to community to build those programs in the last time I visited a vaccination site, I saw some of our Pacific providers helping lead the delivery of vaccination programs in the area and it meant they were bringing in innovative ideas on how to rollout. Anything further? I think we will wrap it up there. 

>> The US plans to withdraw by next Tuesday and the Taliban says it will not extend the deadline. When will New Zealand troops be out? 

>> As you can imagine for safety and security reasons around the specific date of withdrawal but it is fair to say we have security concerns and there have been reports that you will have seen around potential threats around the operation and we are very alive to that and we want to keep people say. It was always unfortunately going to be a very short window that we have done the best we can to maximise the time we had. Thank you come everyone. -- thank you, everyone.