Level 3 in Auckland extended for 12 days, wage subsidy extended
The cluster is not metastasizing so the current lock down of Auckland at level 3 and the rest of the country in level 2 will remain in place for 12 days.
The virus DNA suggests that it’s not from a border quarantine breach.
The Wage subsidy has been extended.
No decision on moving the election date, that will be decided over the weekend and announced Monday.
Jacinda has created some breathing space and the country has been reminded of the importance of her leadership while National have done little more than spread conspiracy theories.
If this is frightening for you, check out the following diagram to help you cast your vote.
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Ha ha great graph
National are stunned by the precision of labour’s “go hard go early” strategy that is stopping the Covid19 outbreak to ringfence it and contain it before it takes off.
Sad for National boo hoo!!.
Sorry National get used to loosing again.
Excellent chart, hehehehe. I saved it for future reference Lol.
Anyone who asked me Friday morning WTF I thought that Winston Peters was on about when he went on Australian TV thursday night to claim an un-named journo had told him that the current kiwi covid bubble was down to incompetence/breach at Aotearoa’s borders, I would have said “Electioneering. that is what Peters lives & breathes. He imagines that a border failure can have been the only possible vector for infestion so he has dreamed up an imaginary journo to put himself at the front of the queue making himself W Peters the 1st pol to reveal the truth”.
However after the Ardern/Bloomfield Friday presser where it was revealed that genome analysis of the coronavirus from the current ‘bubble’ was revealed to have no commonality with any other coronavirus found in Aotearoa, either from previous community transfers or anyone found to be infected at Aotearoa’s border, it indicates that the odds of this virus having been the result of a compromised border are pretty much nil.
So then one is left to ponder if perhaps Peters’ announcement was actually inspired by a healthy NZFirst election donation from Americold a US based corporation, who claim to be the largest temperature controlled logistics corporation on the planet.
The fact that the latest case discovered today & yet to be fully traced, is that of a GP whose surgery is close the the Americold store where at least four members of the current cluster work, adds more evidence to this hypothesis.
As does the fact that it has been abattoirs & their associated cold stores which have been revealed to be the primary common location of many clusters in both the US and europe.
Of course covid 19 already had rabid community transmission in the US & Europe so there was no indication that cold stores could be a major vector for infection spread, but as we all know Covid had been eliminated from Aotearoa.
However when the remains of some infected US worker’s sneeze clung to a box of meat cuts sent here, a kiwi worker picked that box up to move it then absent-minded brushed his gloved hand across his face, Aotearoa caught covid again.
This is really bad news for globalisation but it need not be bad news for Aotearoa. The bubble will eventually be fully uncovered, quarantined & cured, after which Aotearoa will be entitled to promote all products as being from “covid free NZ” a label which will add a lot more cachet than “nuclear free NZ” ever did.
Meanwhile frozen/chilled products from covid ridden states will get rejected at most borders.
More billions of debt to be accrued, in blind hope that this will be the last lockdown. Madness.
And your suggested solutions? Please enlighten us.
Let fossil fuel economy based and tourism based businesses go to the wall, send workers to WINZ and give them the usual Jobseeker Payment, not the privileged Covid kind of benefit the government pays. Prepare policies to reset the economic and social and ecological framework, so all will have to be sustainable what is done as business or government. Meanwhile keep testing, tracking, isolating and distancing, hand washing, bla bla bla, so to contain the infections and deal with them. Lockdown are a harsh and blunt instrument that cause too much economic damage. New solutions are needed.
Brilliant graph, thanx for the laugh.
@ Clean Green: “loosing” rhymes with goos-ing .
Losing doesn’t. Correct spelling aids comprehension.
Elimination is still the best strategy, September 19 is still the best date for the election.
New Zealand is at a crossroads.
There are two crucial matters at issue: one is our public health response to the Corona Virus. The other is our democratic norms.
Will we go for elimination?
Will we go for elections on the 19th of September?
The two questions are inextricably linked.
Tomorrow, at 10am, the Prime Minister will announce whether the New Zealand General Election will take place at the scheduled date of Saturday, 19 September 2020.
How can an election be safely held if the Sars Cov3 Corona Virus is still circulating in the community?
The fact is it can’t.
There is only one way that the 2020 New Zealand general election can be safely held on the scheduled date of Saturday, 19 September 2020.
That is when the virus has been stopped from circulating in the community.
To hold elections on the stated date the virus must be eliminated from our nation before that date. We did it once we can do it again.
As some commentators have asked, if we don’t have the election on Sept 19 when will we have it?
If we don’t eliminate the virus now, when will we eliminate it?
The science says that going hard and fast now is the best strategy to avoid having to do it again, later.
The Prime Minister has stated that the Government is prepared to drop alert levels, even if the virus is still circulating in the community, such a step, if taken, would signal that the government has given up on ‘elimination’ of the virus in favour of ‘suppression’ of the virus.
However experts say that elimination is still the best strategy.
To eliminate the virus from circulating in the community by the 19th of September, – a Level 4 Lockdown must be scheduled to start at the latest, on the 24th of August, (a week from now), and finish on the 18th of September. (the day before the election).
To go to Level 4 for a second time the Government must have the people with them.
Already people, especially small proprietors, are hurting under Level 3 restrictions. As much as possible the government must alleviate this economic hurt. The 2nd Level 4 Lockdown must include measures to alleviate people’s economic suffering as much as possible.
The continuation of the wage subsidy has already been agreed.
But more is needed.
A total moratorium on all rents and mortgages for the period of the second Level 4 Lockdown is a must.
Cabinet Member and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has resolutely refused to support any sort of rent relief measures. Describing them as using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
If Peters still refuses to allow rent relief for suffering New Zealanders, then the Deputy Prime Minister must be removed from cabinet and relieved of all his ministerial responsibilities by majority vote in cabinet and/or government. The government will continue as a minority ‘caretaker’ government until the election is held on the scheduled date.
All campaigning to be on line, and on Broadcast TV and radio. As most people will be stuck at home with their devices, the level of public engagement debate, and the ability to cast an informed democratic vote will be at the highest levels ever.
Stay safe. Be lucky.
Eliminating coronavirus remains the best approach for New Zealand, experts say, despite coronavirus lockdowns testing some people’s resolve.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300082182/coronavirus-elimination-of-covid19-still-best-strategy-for-nz-experts-say