A group of church ministers in Fiji have resigned because they do not want to be vaccinated against covid-19.
There has been growing pressure on the clergy to get the injections since the Fiji government’s “No jab, no job” policy for public servants was announced last June.
The Methodist Church said this week 11 of its pastors had tendered their resignations.
The church’s secretary, Reverend Wilfred Regunamada, said the ministers were not forced to resign but had done so of their own free will.
“And in between that deadline, the church continued to call and ask them if they had changed their decision,” he said.
“Those who have not changed and made their decision, the church in the various circuits or the divisions that they were in, farewelled them very well. ”
Reverend Regunamada said the church respected their decision and the vacant positions would be filled by other lay preachers and theology students within the church.
Methodist Church the largest
The Methodist Church is the largest Christian denomination in Fiji, with 36.2 percent of the total population (300,000) including 66.6 percent of indigenous Fijians.
In October last year, 10 ministers of the Christian Mission Fellowship Church quit over their refusal to be vaccinated.
At the time, Reverend Regunamada, then the Methodist Church’s secretary for communications and overseas mission, said they had not laid off any of their ministers nor had anyone been forced to resign.
“Currently, we are carrying out awareness for our ministers and they are being given time, until November, to get their vaccines.
“The church’s stand is mainly to ensure the safety of its members which means that its ministers, who are servants of the people, need to be vaccinated first.
“At the moment, those that have not been vaccinated have been requested not to partake in any church services but have been advised to stay in their own homes and they are still being paid,” Reverend Regunamada said.
Reverend Wilfred Regunamada … Photo: Supplied
Remaining 8 percent tough to vax, says ministry
Meanwhile, Fiji’s Health Ministry is finding it hard to vaccinate the remaining eight percent of the adult population against covid-19.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said they continued to receive requests for vaccine exemption from people with medical comorbidities, particularly non communicable diseases (NCDs).
He said the medical condition of these people required vaccination “and granting the exemption is not an option for any qualified medical person”.
“We have noted how difficult it is to increase our vaccination coverage for the last 8 percent of our adult population, despite the increased risk of severe outcomes in this group,” Dr Fong said.
He said community support was needed to sustain the impact of their efforts.
“While we will continue to do our part to promote and deploy vaccines, we need community support to sustain the impact of our efforts especially to the vulnerable within this 10 percent.
“It is a grave concern that we continue to receive requests for vaccine exemption from persons with medical comorbidities, especially NCDs.”
Booster dose programme
As of February 14, 574,700 of Fiji’s adult population had been fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry stated.
The booster dose programme began at the end of November 2021. As of February 14, 91,414 individuals had received booster doses of the Moderna vaccine and 60 people got the Pfizer dose.
Dr Fong said for the month of February, 175,558 more people had become eligible for booster doses.
“We are targeting to cover all these eligible individuals in the days ahead. Please come forward to get your booster (third dose) vaccine if you are aged 18 or over and it has been at least 5 months since your second dose.”
Fiji has 141 active cases of covid-19 in isolation while the death toll is at 820.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Sir David, who is chair of the Strategic Covid-19 Public Health Advisory Group, said Aotearoa is much more ready than any other country he can think of to face an omicron outbreak on a large scale.
The experience of other countries has shown New Zealand that the country cannot beat omicron in the way it beat the original virus and to a large extent Delta, he said.
“I see this as a strategic withdrawal. It has been carefully planned. It shows that omicron is now getting the upper hand.”
He praised public health officials for their “Rolls-Royce” contact tracing but said there was now no choice except to move to phase two.
However, his greatest concern is the numbers who are still to get their booster shot, he told RNZ Morning Report.
Two doses ‘not adequate’
“I’m amazed that there’s more than a million New Zealanders who are eligible for the booster dose who have not yet taken up that opportunity. This is crazy.
“I think it’s time we stopped talking about people being fully vaccinated if they’ve only had two doses.”
The virus had mutated, Sir David said, and omicron was better at evading the vaccine immunity.
“So two doses of the vaccine doesn’t give adequate protection.”
He urged all those eligible to make an appointment or get it done today.
“No point having it in a few weeks after you’ve become sick.”
He referred to Denmark which has a similar population to New Zealand and is sometimes held up as a covid-19 success story.
He pointed out that it had seen 4000 deaths and was still having around 27 people die daily whereas Aotearoa’s total death toll in two years was 53.
Challenges face the country
“The next few months are going to be very challenging for this country. We are going to experience something of what those other countries had, so I think we all need to fasten our seat belts.
“It’s not just health although many of us will become sick and a considerable number will die. It’s also going to affect business, it’s going to affect social life and it’s going to affect education. The best thing people we can do right now is get boosted.”
He said people were tired of the pandemic but now was not the time to be considering removing restrictions.
While there was some fragmentation on the best way to deal with covid-19, there was also a consensus that New Zealanders did not want to see large numbers of people get seriously ill or die.
He said as an older person he would be doing his best to avoid getting the virus. He would be restricting his contact with other people while trying to live as normal a life as possible.
While there is some fragmentation on the best way to deal with covid-19, there is also a consensus that New Zealanders do not want to see large numbers of people get seriously ill or die. Image: Nate McKinnon/RNZ
Pragmatic managing of omicron
Te Pūnaha Matatini principal investigator Dr Dion O’Neale says phase two is a pragmatic way to manage the growing omicron outbreak.
He told Morning Report that the high numbers of the last couple of days were pulling the country back in line with what the modelling had been predicting for a while.
“So we’ve seen overseas and we’d expect to see in New Zealand doubling times every three days. So that’s your trend.
“On top of that there will be little ups and downs … from here they go up.”
Dr O’Neal said the country had been able to slow down the spread of omicron, due mainly to the work of contact tracers. Their efforts had “put the brakes on” a growth of cases.
However, once case numbers got high there was not enough capacity to contact trace for every case and the spread would speed up, leading to the inevitable decision to move to phase two.
New system more online focused
“It’s an acknowledgement that with these high case numbers systems and processes they won’t have the capacity to deal with the large numbers and we need to try and change how we respond to covid.”
Until now, the contact tracing system has been very personal with contact names identified and these people are then rung and given advice.
The new system will be more online focused, with a text message with a positive result sent, and then the person will be asked to fill in an online form and the information is passed on.
O’Neal said it would be important for people to pass on information on possible exposures as quickly as possible, not waiting for official processes which might be slower as systems became stretched.
Despite being trespassed from Parliament grounds a week ago, protesters remain on the Parliament lawn and show no sign of leaving in spite of a new record 981 community covid-19 cases yesterday.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Where there wasn’t one before, a brand new White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council is up and running, with 26 members advising the administration on centering equity as it tackles disaster response, climate change and the energy transition. A handful of federal programs are at work channeling 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments to “disadvantaged communities,” though officials have yet to define just what that means. Environmental justice groups are demanding more action still, such as rapid progress on the now-overdue revamp of a climate and environmental justice mapping application, which will help ensure that this investment maximizes equity and social progress by identifying frontline and fenceline communities that have borne the brunt of pollution and climate risks.
But one existing environmental justice tool, which officials have let lie largely dormant across administrations, has particular potential to bring some form of justice to communities that have experienced environmental racism for generations.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents any program that receives federal funding from discriminating on the basis of “race, color or national origin,” whether by denying benefits to or excluding certain groups from participation in public process. As the Department of Justice has emblazoned on its website, ahead of the passage of the landmark statute, President John F. Kennedy noted: “Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races … contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial … discrimination.”
The law empowers communities alleging they’ve been discriminated against by a group receiving federal funding — with environmental cases, typically state or local regulators that issue permits to industrial developers — to file complaints with whichever agency has provided the funds, or to bring a lawsuit in federal court against that entity. It also instructs federal agencies delivering funds, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to stop funding programs found to have acted discriminatorily, or to refer the matter to the Department of Justice.
Nearly six decades later, whole bodies of research reveal that government agencies, often through inaction, have contributed to the formation of “sacrifice zones” — communities where residents die of illnesses more often and earlier than others due to the superfluous siting of polluting operations nearby. In 2021, for instance, ProPublica published the most detailed map to date revealing that census tracts where the majority of residents are people of color are exposed to 40 percent more cancer-causing air pollutants when compared with census tracts that are mostly white.
“Industries rely on having these sinks — these sacrifice zones — for polluting. That political calculus has kept in place a regulatory system that allows for the continued concentration of industry,” Ana Baptista, an environmental policy professor at The New School, told ProPublica, in reference to the organization’s investigation. “We sacrifice these low-income, African American, Indigenous communities for the economic benefit of the region or state or country.”
As numerous legal scholars told Truthout, Title VI provides remedy that could begin to address this flagrant legacy by steering agencies toward serving the communities they’re charged with protecting with equal rigor.
“It’s a very powerful tool — at least on paper — for addressing environmental justice issues,” Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights told Truthout.
It’s also a tool that’s profoundly needed, but has yet to be fully embraced, advocates say. In addition to data made available by scholarly and journalistic efforts, the federal government’s own maps reveal enormous health and pollution disparities. But in spite of this documentation, and having received hundreds of complaints alleging discrimination, the EPA’s External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO) has only four times ever in its history issued a formal finding of discrimination.
The first case sat for nearly 25 years until in 2017, ECRCO determined a “finding of discriminatory treatment of African Americans” by Michigan’s leading environmental agency in considering and approving a 1994 permit for a wood-burning incinerator and power plant located in Flint, known as the Genesee Power Station. The findings included that the agency gave special accommodations to a white doctor wanting to testify early, but denied accommodations to two Black residents seeking the same option; and that the agency used armed guards — which it hadn’t done at hearings held further away in predominantly white areas — to intimidate Black residents. The siting of the facility was also noted.
“This area is predominantly black, low-income, with a disproportionate number of female-headed households,” C.S. Mott Community College professor Janice O’Neal said in 1995, according to reporting by the Detroit Free Press. “These people are at greater risk for all kinds of environmental exposures already. This ought to be taken into consideration in the siting process. If it’s not, the process is racist.”
As the complaint — originally filed in 1992 — collected dust, babies grew into adults and had their own children, all while the incinerator was allowed to pump pollutants like lead into the atmosphere and the lungs of its primarily Black neighbors. The Flint water crisis was allowed to occur. In 2015, an official from the same Michigan agency later found to have violated the Civil Rights Act said that anyone worried about Flint’s drinking water should “relax.”
Although it did find noncompliance with Title VI in 2017, EPA officials did not call on what Sellstrom refers to as its “ultimate lever”: the authority to pull funding from a group found to be discriminating. Nor have they ever.
One barrier is that U.S. Supreme Court decisions have found that Title VI requires evidence of “intentional discrimination,” which is logistically difficult, according to Albert Huang of the American Bar Association.
Yet the more troubling truth is that officials have chosen to prioritize certain laws, such as the Endangered Species Act, over Title VI. “The [EPA] has over decades internalized the idea that the Civil Rights Act is not worth enforcing,” Patrice Simms, vice president of litigation for healthy communities with Earthjustice and visiting professor of law at Harvard University, told Truthout. Simms points out that if other agencies were found not to be enforcing the laws they are specifically charged with overseeing, “it would be absolutely unacceptable.” Simms has himself worked for the EPA and the Department of Justice in a variety of posts.
Of 209 complaints alleging discrimination filed since 2014, 133 were rejected. Dozens of other complaints remained on a backlog for years, according to a September 2020 report by the Office of the Inspector General.
ECRCO’s ability to do its job is severely limited by a lack of resources, says Andrew Bashi, an attorney with the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center. ECRCO has a mere 12 staff members tackling complaints. By comparison, the equivalent office at the Department of Education has 500 people dedicated to enforcing the Civil Rights Act.
“The simultaneous unwillingness to fund the efforts of an office like ECRCO, work that could be so central to addressing some of the structural inequities impacting the very communities our system continues to imprison disproportionately, exposes the great paradox of America’s racial progress,” Bashi said.
The Title VI complaints alleging discrimination — 90 percent of which, up until 2013, were rejected or dismissed — are expansive: predominantly Latinx residents who say the state failed to protect their groundwater source when issuing a discharge permit to a facility in Eunice, New Mexico; a Black neighborhood in Beaumont, Texas, that was exposed to chemicals spewing from an ExxonMobil “sour crude” refinery for 17 years until the EPA settled its Title VI complaint, during which time the company dumped over 400 million pounds of pollution into the air; a rural community in Orange County, North Carolina, that waited over a decade after filing a Title VI complaint for the county to extend sewer and water services.
“I don’t feel anybody should fight as long as we’ve been fighting to get something that’s God-given,” Orange County resident David Caldwell Jr. told The New Yorker of his neighborhood’s sustained effort to get water and sewer services akin to others in the county.
Taylor Gillespie, strategic communications coordinator for the EPA, said over email that ECRCO’s consistent underfunding has limited the office to operating on a reactive rather than a proactive basis in response to allegations of discrimination. But the tides are turning within the agency, she noted, describing EPA Administrator Michael Regan as “committed to using EPA’s full authority under the federal civil rights laws.” In January, the EPA introduced an annual compliance review process to ensure recipients of its funding are not in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The administration has also outlined its commitment to strengthening civil rights enforcement as part of the EPA’s strategic plan for 2022-2026, which is set to be finalized later this month.
Advocates including Bashi and Simms remain hopeful. In the first few months of fiscal year 2022, U.S. residents filed nearly as many Title VI complaints as in all of 2020. The rise in volume of complaints is actually good news, says Bashi. “For the first time in a while, communities are optimistic that the environmental injustices facing them might be honestly examined and lead to the substantive changes they have been denied for generations,” he said. As of this writing, ECRCO has caught up with its backlog of complaints, according to Gillespie. Two of the four total Title VI violations have been issued by the Biden administration’s EPA.
But that number is still miniscule and an insult, advocates say. For communities in which the EPA’s historically weak approach to enforcing civil rights law has meant ongoing exposure to pollution while they wait for answers — and losing loved ones along the way — immediate action is the only adequate intervention, according to Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, a longtime climate strategist, and CEO and president of the Environmental Grantmakers Association.
“This would look like speedy settlements and reparations for failure to respond previously; fines, sanctions and an aggressive clawing back [of] funds from predatory polluters who have built their whole businesses targeting Black, Indigenous and [other] people of color,” O’Laughlin said.
Sellstrom, of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the withholding of financial assistance from groups found to have violated Title VI — which would be a first if and when it occurs — would also send a strong message that a culture shift is afoot within the EPA, and that addressing systemic racism in the agency may be, at long last, a serious priority. “That would change the mindset and the way people act across the board,” Sellstrom said.
Hundreds of anti-mandate protesters remained on the New Zealand Parliament lawn today as health officials reported a big increase in covid-19 cases nationally.
In a statement, the ministry said there were 32 new cases in hospital, with cases in Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellington and Christchurch hospitals.
None are in ICU and the average age of current hospitalisations is 62.
Plastic mats being used to cover the mud at the protest occupation are being picked up by the wind and thrown across the precinct.
A man began speaking through a megaphone at lunchtime, but demonstrators do not have the full sound system setup of previous days.
Calling for PM Ardern
Some are calling out to Parliament and asking where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, who is also the local MP for Wellington Central, earlier warned that although people had a right to protest when “they threaten, harass and disrupt people and a whole city they lose that right”.
Parliament’s buildings are largely empty with politicans not returning to the capital until Tuesday.
The playlist booming through Parliament’s loudspeakers changed about 11am, and now includes an out of tune recorder rendition of “My Heart Will Go On”, the Titanic theme song by Celine Dion.
UK musician James Blunt earlier posted on Twitter telling the New Zealand police to contact him if the Barry Manilow music, which was playing, did not deter protestors.
His suggestion has been enacted, with his song ‘You’re Beautiful’ now on rotation.
Both songs and the government’s spoken message advising the crowd to leave the grounds are being met with loud booing and chants of “freedom”.
Streets blocked by cars
Molesworth Street remains blocked by cars, campervans and trucks and Metlink has stopped all buses using its Lambton Interchange until further notice because of the protest.
Retailers say disruption to surrounding streets has also affected their trade.
Superintendent Scott Fraser said police would continue to have a significant presence at Parliament grounds and are exploring options to resolve the disruption.
In its regular statement today, the Health Ministry noted that there had been a number of rumours circulating about possible cases of covid-19 linked to the protest.
However, the Regional Public Health Unit had confirmed that there were currently no notified positive cases linked to it.
The current cases are in the Northland (13), Auckland (623), Waikato (81), Bay of Plenty (11), Lakes (11), Hawke’s Bay (8), MidCentral (3), Whanganui (6), Taranaki (5), Tairawhiti (3), Wellington (15), Hutt Valley (10), Nelson Marlborough (2), Canterbury (3), South Canterbury (2) and Southern (14) district health boards (DHBs).
There were also 18 cases in managed isolation — five of them are historical.
Police say a protester who needed medical attention within New Zealand’s Parliament grounds last night had to wait for ambulance staff to get through the roads blocked by vehicles.
The protest against covid-19 protection measures is now entering its fifth day with police saying new tents and marquees were erected yesterday while police have strengthened protective barriers.
There are now three barriers between protesters and police in some places on Parliament grounds. This morning concrete blocks were placed before the orange and white plastic barriers.
A Ministry of Health statement said daily covid-19 cases in the community had reached a new high, up slightly to 454 today.
The new cases were in Northland (12), Auckland (294), Waikato (72), Bay of Plenty (23), Lakes (8), Hawke’s Bay (7), MidCentral (5), Taranaki (1), Wellington (5), Hutt Valley (12), Wairarapa (2) and Southern (13).
There are 27 people in hospital with the coronavirus, although none are in ICU.
There were just eight cases reported at the border today, with travellers from India (3), Australia (1), Saudi Arabia (1), United Arab Emirates (1) and the United Kingdom (1).
Ambulance for protester blocked on road
In a statement, Superintendent Scott Fraser said police remained at Parliament grounds overnight to monitor the activity of protesters.
Earlier in the evening, a protester within the grounds needed medical attention, but this was delayed because an ambulance was unable to drive directly to him due to the protesters’ vehicles blocking the surrounding roads.
Molesworth Street remains blocked by more than 100 vehicles including large trucks, campervans and cars.
Fraser said ambulance staff had to walk “some distance” to get to the man, who was waiting with officers.
‘Empathy and professionalism’
“Despite the very difficult environment, our staff, and our Wellington Free Ambulance colleagues, acted with empathy and professionalism, ensuring this man got the medical treatment he needed.”
Fraser said there was one arrest overnight for a breach of bail conditions, but there had been no arrests this morning.
A deluge from Cyclone Dovi is expected to drench anti-mandate protesters.
MetService has issued a heavy rain warning for Wellington which will be in place until 3pm Sunday and strong winds are forecast in the capital today.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
More barriers have been put up at the edge of the protest site on the lawn, and last night police installed floodlights on the forecourt.
They say it will take some time to remove everyone but Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell has promised the demonstrators will not be on the grounds for another week.
Watch what is happening outside Parliament:
Today’s protest happenings. Video: RNZ News
Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell said a number of vehicles parked illegally on Lambton Quay were moved.
He said police were repeating their order to the protesters to leave the area, as it was closed to the public and anyone remaining on the grounds was trespassing.
Expert warns protest may become ‘superspreader’ University of Otago professor of public health Dr Michael Baker told RNZ Morning Report the event had the potential to increase transmission of the virus, with protesters travelling from around the country and probably mixing with others outside their family group.
“That’s really the definition of a super spreading event and we know that’s how this virus gets around the world,” Professor Baker said.
“We’ve seen that already in New Zealand with the Soundsplash Festival in Hamilton. We’ve seen it a lot internationally at big gatherings.
“Even though it’s mainly outdoors, there will be a lot of indoor gatherings associated with it, you know, shared transport and accommodation, meals, the shouting and singing, which we know generates these aerosols,” he said.
“But the big extra problem here, of course, is that these groups, almost by definition, have low vaccine coverage low mask use. And they’re probably less likely to present for testing and self isolate if they’re sick.
“So all of those are really increasing the risks for this event.”
He said that after three days the point had certainly been made and any decision about whether to break the protest up would be a complex one, but it was currently presenting a risk.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Zealand’s leading daily newspaper today published an editorial exposing the “unfairness” of global media criticism of Australasian responses to covid-19, showing statistics that demonstrate how well the two countries have done.
While Australia has lost 4243 people to covid-19 out of a population of 26 million, New Zealand has lost just 53 people out of a population of 5 million.
The omicron variant outbreak that has devastated many other countries is only just taking a hold in New Zealand with a record 306 community cases reprted today — 216 of them in Auckland.
“Australia’s announced reopening of its borders to vaccinated tourists and other visa holders from February 21 drew the expected foreign media reaction,” said the New Zealand Herald in an editorial headlined “How hard has NZ really gone on covid-19?”
But the newspaper contrasted the saving of lives in Australasia with the global devastation caused by the covid-19 pandemic worldwide with 403 million cases and 5.79 million deaths.
“The BBC noted that ‘Australia has had some of the world’s strictest border controls throughout the coronavirus pandemic’ with the country ‘even banning its own people from leaving the country last year’.
“Reuters said the move ended ‘two years of misery for the tourism sector’ and AFP summarised it as “the rules have stranded nationals overseas, split families, hammered the country’s multibillion-dollar tourist industry, and prompted often bitter debates about Australia’s status as a modern, open and outward-looking nation’.”
Financial costs, not lives saved
The Herald said that coverage had focused far more on financial costs and Australians stranded overseas than lives saved.
The newspaper cited head of Tourism Australia Phillipa Harrison as saying that Australia had been “a little bit ridiculed” for its border closures and other rules and warning that it could have an impact on its tourism recovery.
“Australia, like New Zealand, has become synonymous with strictness in dealing with the coronavirus. It is a narrative that has taken hold, but is this image fair?” asked the Herald.
Both countries had certainly made the most of their island borders and geographical isolation.
“Australia has a death rate of 163 per million people from covid-19 and New Zealand’s is 11, according to the Worldometer website, The Herald reminded its readers.
“Japan (154), South Korea (134), and Singapore (147) have also done well. Major countries with death rates over 2000 include the US, Brazil, France, the UK, Russia, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Greece.”
Australia’s closures of state borders and Auckland’s lockdown fence had all drawn attention to covid measures in this part of the world, sid the newspaper.
Australasia ‘sticks out’ in pandemic
“It has made Australasia stick out in a pandemic that has been politicised around the world, even though other countries have also used tough requirements.”
The Herald said a time lag between when pandemic events such as variant surged and vaccine rollouts occurred overseas could give the impression other countries had not also been stringent.
“For instance, when New Zealand initially delayed reopening borders, omicron was setting record case numbers overseas and vanquishing delta. France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark are just now starting to ease restrictions but their omicron waves began towards the end of last year.”
On the Oxford Stringency Index, which tracked governments’ coronavirus responses, neither Australia nor New Zealand’s ratings — 55.56 and 62.04 — were out of the ordinary.
“For instance, Canada, Italy, Greece, Germany and France are rated more stringent,” said The Herald.
New Zealand had had vaccination mandates in sectors such as health, education, emergency services, police, and defence.
“In Europe a variety of mandates target specific groups. Germany requires vaccination for the military, in Britain it is compulsory for nursing-home staff. Greece has ordered people aged 60-plus to have it and in Italy people over 50 can be fined if they aren’t vaccinated.
Extensive European border controls
“Austria requires most aged 18 and over to get vaccinated against covid-19.
“European countries have had extensive border and travel requirements. In December, France temporarily banned travellers from Britain and Germany imposed quarantine on them.
“There has also been extensive use of vaccine passports. Ireland had a night-time curfew in December.
“Several European countries have used outdoor mask mandates and required the wearing of specific types of high-quality masks. America’s most populous county of Los Angeles has had a mask mandate for large outdoor events as well as for outdoor spaces at schools and childcare places — on top of indoor mask requirements,” said the newspaper.
“Citizens in other countries have been confronted with huge death counts, infections and long covid. That’s family members and friends lost.
“Kiwi expats have drawn attention to the shortcomings of MIQ, but a new poll shows most voters steady in their views on how the government is performing.
“Once most countries are reconnecting and the pandemic eases, the figures remaining for posterity will show how countries fared in health and overall economic terms.”
Proud of Ardern’s leadership
Among letters to the editor supporting NZ’s MIQ border policies published by the newspaper today, one New Zealander living in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, wrote: “I am proud of the intelligent way [Prime Minister] Jacinda Ardern has dealt with border control during covid-19”.
She added: “Here in the US, the death toll has reached nearly a million. We have been in self-imposed lockdown for nearly two years …
“New Zealanders have never had to live under Trumpism, Hitlerism, PolPotism, or other despotic regimes. Please be worthy of the soldiers, such as the Anzacs, who fought to keep the world safe for democracy. Did they die in vain?
“Please give Jacinda Ardern the respect she deserves.”
A protest at New Zealand’s Parliament has stretched into a third day with a group camped out on the grounds and nearby streets.
Authorities have told the group protesting at covid-19 vaccine mandates to leave, but there have been no signs of that so far.
Police are continuing to advance slowly into the protest on the parliamentary precinct, with lines of officers gradually moving into the crowd and making arrests.
Well over a dozen people have been arrested so far today in the efforts to clear the protest.
Some protesters have responded with abuse, haka and hurling objects at officers.
The Speaker has authorised the closure of the Parliamentary precinct, if the police deem it necessary to clear the lawn.
Live: The anti-mandate protest today. Video: RNZ News
‘Move on’, Ardern tells protesters
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today told anti-vaccine mandate protesters outside Parliament to ‘move on’.
She spoke after visiting a covid-19 vaccination centre in Albany, Auckland.
Ardern said it was ultimately an operational matter for police about handling the protest.
“Obviously every New Zealander has a right to protest, but there are also rules around what is able to happen on Parliament’s forecourt and of course we would expect that people have behaviours that don’t disrupt the ability of others to go on with their lives as well,” she said.
Ardern said she thought the majority of New Zealanders shared a similar sentiment, to keep one another safe and live their lives and do as much as they could do to ensure they could continue to live our lives as they did before the pandemic.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Police lead away a protester from the Parliament grounds. Image: Angus Dreaver/RNZ
COMMENTARY:By Dr Mark Craig in defence of New Zealand’s dedicated managed isolation and quarantine team and facilities as the country braces for omicron.
As workers on the ground running ourselves into the ground, it’s quite disheartening to read all the reactionary criticism of MIQ, the managed isolation and quarantine system which has saved thousands of lives in New Zealand.
It’s easy not to appreciate what it has achieved, given it has prevented something awful from happening, and only see the restrictions and disadvantages it has necessarily caused by its existence.
Also, most of the people who have been spared from severe illness are not the ones who are complaining.
I am so impressed with the small and dedicated MIQ teams I have worked with — a throw-together of excellent nurses, health care assistants, well-being coordinators, security, hotel staff, police and the impressive NZ Defence Force.
These people are gold and the cornerstone of preventing a certain healthcare system crisis.
They have retained great professionalism in the face of numerous extremely challenging guests and logistics around dealing with covid positive cases while keeping them as happy as can be in a confined space.
Currently we are full of overseas border returnees from all over the world, many angry at being in isolation and taking it out on our staff, to the point where absenteeism is common and job satisfaction has dipped hugely.
Staggering towards MIQ end
We are all staggering towards the end of the MIQ system, rather punch drunk and weary.
Our staff currently receive relentless angry calls from guests who don’t get what they want immediately, currently often the investigation of potential historical covid status (of which there are dozens presently), more than one expressing “there will be blood on the walls” if their immediate demands are not met.
I can understand why to a degree — they are stuck in a room and can’t see the huge amount of work going on behind the scenes, with teams putting in long tiring days, well over their paid hours, but unfortunately it also brings out the worst in some people of certain personality types and those with mental health issues.
Dr Mark Craig … “The small and dedicated MIQ teams I have worked with are gold and the cornerstone of preventing a certain healthcare system crisis.” Image: Jason Oxenham/NZH
Also I must add that a majority of people are able to “just get on with it” and do the time, something most of us would find tedious.
There is a financial cost to saving lives in any area of healthcare and now it has been deemed the harms of MIQ outweigh the benefits, rightly in my and most people’s opinion, as covid spreads in the community and borders open up.
If only we could have the same political will and public acceptance that we have had for lockdown and vaccination programme to put preventative health measures and laws to address the two other huge elephants in the room, our chronic disease epidemic and environmental crises.
Firm beneficial health laws
We could reduce our health spending by orders of magnitude while greatly improving health if we had some firm laws for clearly beneficial proposals such as sugar and fat taxes, and the marketing of harmful, processed foods and alcohol, especially at our children.
We could equally slash our carbon emissions whilst raising health outcomes with the promotion of a plant based type of diet, as per the current international public health consensus.
We just need to be brave, follow the science and not give in to the numerous interest group detractors. Our world beating covid response has shown we can do it.
Let’s keep the momentum up and not go back to our pre-covid slumber.
Dr Mark Craig is an Auckland-based lifestyle medicine doctor working in managed isolation and quarantine facilities. This article was first published in the New Zealand Herald and is republished here with the author’s permission.
Police handcuffed three people after protesters today tried to push through a barrier on the grounds of New Zealand’s Parliament — known as the Beehive.
The group is part of a convoy which travelled to the capital Wellington yesterday to protest against covid-19 vaccine mandates.
After trying to push through the blockade this afternoon, three people were handcuffed and led away.
About 100 police formed a ring around the front of Parliament edging up to a line of protesters who had linked arms lining up in front of the Cenotaph war memorial.
In a statement, the ministry said the new community cases were in Northland (8), Auckland (135), Waikato (35), Rotorua (1), Taupō (1), Bay of Plenty (11),Taranaki (1), Palmerston North (2) Wellington (3), Hutt Valley (3), Nelson Marlborough (1), Canterbury (3)
There are 16 cases in hospital, although none are in ICU.
The ministry said there were 46 cases in MIQ reported yesterday, with travellers arriving from India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Pakistan, UK, Australia, Fiji, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, France, USA and the Philippines.
More than 50 police have formed a ring around the front of New Zealand’s Parliament today edging up to a line of protesters who have linked arms lining up in front of the Cenotaph.
One person speaking said he would walk up the Parliament steps at 3pm and get arrested, inviting others in the crowd to join, saying “see you at 3pm” to cheers from the crowd.
The group is part of a convoy which travelled to the capital Wellington yesterday to protest against covid-19 vaccine mandates.
Trucks and other vehicles are blocking Molesworth Street.
Police issued a statement late last night saying they were monitoring the situation and were talking with the Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard.
The protest scene today outside Parliament. Video: RNZ News
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Protesters have been given a letter from the Speaker setting out Parliament’s rules, which prohibit staying overnight on the grounds and ban tents or other structures.
Specific policies mentioned in the letter include leaving the grounds in an orderly manner and not interfering with traffic.
“Participants must assemble within and disperse from the grounds in an orderly manner, and so as to not interfere with the flow of vehicular traffic.”
Police forming a ring around the front of Parliament today. Image: Jane Patterson/RNZ
It also mentions that tents and structures are banned from the grounds.
“No erection of tents or any structure is permitted other than hand held signs … structures including tents as mentioned above are not permitted and if not removed when requested, are liable for confiscation.”
Protesters outside Parliament. Image: Jane Patterson/RNZ
It said if the rules were breached people could be trespassed and their equipment confiscated.
“In line with these existing policies, please disassemble any tents or structures and remove them from the grounds. Do not continue protests or demonstrations on the grounds after dark. The breach of the above policies and failure to carry out the actions may result in trespass notices being issued.”
A truck and vans from the convoy covered in protest messages. Image: Hamish Cardwell/RNZ
There are also campervans parked in nearby streets and the police say Molesworth Street in front of Parliament is not accessible to traffic, and drivers should avoid the area this morning.
It is not clear how long the protesters will be allowed to stay.
Tents set up in the grounds of the law school over the road from Parliament. Image: Hamish Cardwell/RNZ
Wellington City Council is talking with police about their options to deal with cars illegally blocking the roads and footpath near Parliament.
Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said if cars were to be removed there would be resources needed.
He said the council wants to avoid confrontation but are planning for if it were to arise.
Motorists are still being advised to avoid the area if possible.
The scene from the front lawn of Parliament. The media are no longer allowed on the grounds. Image: Hamish Cardwell/RNZ
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Several hundred more cases of covid in Solomon Islands … Kiribati records first covid death …nearly 12,000 in isolation in New Caledonia … French Polynesia records first covid death in nearly four months … Federated States of Micronesia calls a halt to flights from neighbouring Guam … a partial border re-opening in the Northern Marianas … and Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape says he is “doing well” while self-isolating at home from a covid-19 infection.
One death has been recorded — the first since October, taking the death toll to 637.
More than a third of the covid-19 cases are the omicron variant.
Four people are in hospital and one person in ICU.
The proportion of the population vaccinated is 78.6 percent.
FSM halts incoming repatriation flights The Federated States of Micronesia has indefinitely stopped all incoming repatriation flights from Guam.
FSM’s Covid-19 Taskforce said the move was in response to the high number of coronavirus infections in the US Territory.
In a statement, the taskforce said it was essential for FSM to improve its vaccination rates before restarting flights to bring back citizens stranded in its neighbouring Guam.
The government said it would provide assistance for citizens who are stuck in Guam, but not provide further details at this stage.
Covid-19 vaccines are mandatory on the islands of FSM — meaning all citizens residing in the FSM must be vaccinated.
FSM’s public health emergency has been extended until the end of May.
Partial border reopening in the CNMI The Northern Marianas has reopened its borders for fully vaccinated people.
The changes to the border protocols were made possible with 99 percent of CNMI’s eligible population now fully vaccinated, and 53 percent having had booster shots.
CNMI’s Covid-19 Taskforce said all travellers entering the territory by air or sea would no longer be tested on arrival.
Unvaccinated travellers, however, will be required to quarantine at home and get tested at a community based testing site five days after arrival.
All visitors to the Northern Mariana Islands will also need to complete a mandatory health declaration and upload their vaccination status.
Authorities say the health and safety of residents remain the top priority of the government.
The CNMI has recorded more than 6300 cases and 23 deaths.
Marape had to cut short his visit to China after he tested positive for coronavirus in Beijing last week.
In a statement yesterday, Marape said “there is nothing seriously wrong with me” and that “vaccination has really helped”.
He said he would be taking a second covid-19 test tomorrow and depending on results would provide an update on Friday on when he would resume his responsibilities.
His deputy Sam Basil is acting prime minister while Marape recovers.
The prime minister is urging fellow PNG citizens to get vaccinated.
PNG has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the world, with less than 3 percent of the population covered.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
After a record number of covid-19 cases were reported on Saturday, New Zealand’s prime minister believes the country’s omicron peak may be in late March.
The number of omicron cases in New Zealand has not yet reached the number predicted by modellers.
However, New Zealand recorded its largest ever one-day case number with 243 cases on Saturday. On Sunday the cases dropped to 208 and on Monday, there were 188 new cases.
But with the long weekend came lower testing rates. Fewer than 13,000 people were swabbed for covid-19 on Sunday, at least 5000 down on the most recent weekdays.
Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker believed the daily case numbers may not reflect the true extent of community spread.
Omicron only became a variant of concern at the end of November 2021, it was still very difficult to predict its behaviour, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told RNZ Morning Report.
“While there’s uncertainty in case numbers, if you looked at low case profiles in a place like say South Australia and you applied that to New Zealand, you would have something like 10,000 cases a day at its peak.”
High scenario
A high scenario like in New York would mean 30,000 cases a day, she said.
“It’s widely variable and ultimately the defining feature of where we will peak will be booster uptake. The more people who take a booster, the lower the likelihood of our peak.”
Ardern believes New Zealand’s omicron peak may be in late March.
Asked if she regretted not prioritising Māori in the vaccine rollout, Ardern said everything they learnt in the first rollout, they were applying to every vaccine rollout since.
She said the government has worked really closely with Māori on the rollout of paediatric and booster campaigns.
“On the first rollout, we didn’t have the supply to rollout to everyone and so we took an approach that said a whānau-based approach but also one based on those who were at the highest risk.
“And look, I stand by that, but again, as I say, every stage we’ve learnt lessons.”
90% Māori vaccinated Ninety percent of Māori have now have at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine.
Labour is on 44.3 percent, up 1.6 percentage points and National on 31.3 percent, up 4.4 percentage points.
Ardern said she would not pin Labour’s results on any one thing.
“Ultimately this is again, support for the plan we have and that has been a plan always based on making decisions that are in the best interest for New Zealanders, their health, their wellbeing and our economy,” she said.
“We are in a phase now of shifting up the way that we’re approaching the pandemic, moving to reopen, greater freedoms … and I think we see people are generally supportive of that plan.”
Anti-vaccine convoy to Parliament A convoy of people protesting against the government’s covid-19 protection measures was expected to arrive in Wellington today.
Ardern told Morning Report she would not be meeting protesters at Parliament.
Lockdowns meant people sacrificed some of their usual rights and abilities to keep others safe, she said.
“Of course New Zealanders all through this pandemic have given up something but in order to gain the health and wellbeing of all communities and it’s worked.”
She said now people were living with fewer restrictions than earlier in the pandemic.
The protest came at a time when the government was changing the way it was doing things because of the extra protection vaccines provide, she said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
As COVID-19 continues to rage, another health crisis persists — one that is decades long. In the first year of the pandemic, the United States hit the devastating milestone of 100,000 overdose deaths, a nearly 28.5 percent surge from the record numbers we saw the previous year. Now, fentanyl is the leading cause of death in Americans ages 18-45. The reaction from many of our leaders has been to call for more arrests and criminalization, but this response is rooted in fear, not science. We have spent the last 50 years trying to treat a public health issue with a criminalization response, yet people are dying of overdose at record rates. This response is clearly not working.
The evidence is clear: Criminalization worsens public health outcomes. From making the drug supply more dangerous, to deterring people from getting help out of fear and stigma, to denial of economic opportunities and supports for people with drug arrests, the associated consequences have been dire. Besides, sending someone to jail or prison doesn’t keep people from using drugs. In fact, deaths due to drug and alcohol intoxication have increased more than 600 percent in state prisons between 2001 and 2018.
It’s time for a new approach. Oregon has taken the bold step that we should adopt across the U.S.: Decriminalize drug possession and increase access to health services. In the year since the state decriminalized drugs through a ballot initiative (Measure 110), and with only about 10 percent of the allotted funding distributed to 70 community-based organizations so far, Oregon has already been able to provide peer support, harm reduction, evidence-based treatment, housing and job assistance to more than 16,000 people.
Prior to this measure passing, Oregon ranked last in access to treatment and recovery services.
And yet, since the passage of decriminalization, many local media outlets in Oregon have fixated on a lack of citations from police for drug possession. (Under Measure 110, people found in possession of small amounts of all drugs receive a citation and $100 fine instead of being arrested.) This is a distraction, and the wrong way to measure the program’s success.
In fact, decriminalization efforts shouldn’t involve police. Police involvement often harms people who use drugs. Addressing drug use through the criminal legal system has contributed to mass incarceration and family separation, and has saddled people with criminal records that affect their ability to get housing, employment and live full lives. It has allowed public officials to neglect their responsibility to support people, and instead inflate police departments to become military-style operations while continually divesting from health and support services that people desperately need. Even some police will tell you that their options for response are limited and that a different set of tools are needed. Since decriminalization has taken effect in Oregon, thousands of harmful drug arrests have been avoided.
Some call Oregon’s efforts an “experiment,” but they are already grounded in evidence: They’re largely based on the successful model adopted in Portugal over 20 years ago. Within a few years of implementing decriminalization in Portugal, the number of people voluntarily entering treatment increased significantly, while overdose deaths, HIV infections, problematic drug use and incarceration for drug-related offenses plummeted. And Portugal is not an anomaly. Many other countries, including Switzerland and the Czech Republic have implemented varying degrees of decriminalization with similar success.
The logic is simple. When people are given access to health services and no longer fear being criminalized if they seek them out, they are more likely to do so. And if we address the full range of people’s needs — including harm reduction services, housing and even job assistance — versus just mandating abstinence, we are able to actually get people on solid footing and better address the underlying factors that contribute to chaotic drug use. We’ve seen this in Portugal and are getting a glimpse of it in Oregon.
Even though Oregon’s move is a huge step forward, there remains more work to do, such as removing quantity thresholds and police altogether, inclusion of expungement and resentencing for past drug arrests and convictions, and ensuring access to things like overdose prevention centers and safe supply. As we work to decriminalize drugs in other states and federally, these additional provisions, such as increasing the amount of drugs that would qualify as personal possession — should be strongly considered, in order to truly embrace the public health alternative this is meant to be.
Decriminalization is a shift a majority of people want to see. According to the latest polling, 66 percent of Americans support removing criminal penalties for drug possession and investing in health services. While Oregon may be the first in the U.S., it certainly won’t be the last. Since this measure passed, we have seen over half a dozen other states and Congress introduce legislation that would decriminalize drug possession.
Amid the twin crises of overdose and criminalization, we owe ourselves and our communities a different approach — one that empowers people to live healthy and free lives. Decriminalizing drugs and creating access to care are necessary steps in that direction.
A public health expert is urging New Zealanders to keep up the testing momentum, as testing rates take a dive over the long weekend.
Fewer than 13,000 people were swabbed for covid-19 in the past day, at least 5000 down on the most recent week days.
University of Otago senior lecturer Dr Lesley Gray is encouraging anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms, no matter how mild, to get tested for covid-19.
“We know that for those people that will get symptoms, it may start as simple as sneezing, a scratchy throat, a bit of a runny nose as if it were a run-of-the-mill cold,” she said.
“So, if you do get any of those symptoms, especially a scratchy throat, please do go forward and see if you can get tested.”
Gray said anyone who is feeling well should make a habit of regularly checking the Ministry of Health’s locations of interest, to see if they have been exposed to the virus
“It could be that if people are acquiring omicron, assuming there are more cases in the community, then we’ve got to accept that some people will not actually have any symptoms.
“So unless they identify that they may have been at a location of interest, or that they may be a close contact, they may be completely oblivious to the fact that they may also have covid-19.”
Several new locations of interests have been added to the Ministry of Health’s website, including Air New Zealand flights, a Wellington restaurant, a Taupō cafe and a mosque in Hamilton.
Gray said it was important New Zealanders kept up the public health measures that had served the country well throughout the outbreak, such as masking, physical distancing, keeping a record of movements and staying home if unwell.
“If people identify their symptoms early, then take the steps to see if they’re a positive case, it makes a huge difference. We’ve all got families and nobody wants to be transmitting this to other family members, especially our young tamariki.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
About 67 percent of the total population of 272,000 is fully vaccinated.
Last week, Paris declared a health emergency in New Caledonia but the French High Commission in Noumea decided against imposing another lockdown.
Some restrictions were introduced after last month’s detection of the omicron variant, limiting the size of meetings and upholding mask wearing obligation.
Protest over masks in schools
Defying the policy, hundreds of people demonstrated on Saturday to show their opposition to mask wearing obligations in schools.
Since last Tuesday, antigen tests are no longer free but cost a minimum $US27.
The change upset some traditional leaders in the Loyalty Islands, who then demanded the suspension of the health pass, needed to board flights.
The dispute briefly closed the airport on Lifou, and tests for flights to and from Noumea are now free again.
In September, the territory’s Congress passed a law making vaccinations mandatory, but its application has been repeatedly deferred and is now not expected to be enforced before the end of the month.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A team of four experts from China have arrived in Honiara for on-site feasibility studies on two projects amid the surging case of covid-19 in the Solomon Islands.
The experts are here at the invitation of the government for studies on the upgrading of the national referral hospital and a new water plant.
Sogavare said this was within 20 days of the country’s first case of domestic transmission of the virus, reports RNZ Pacific.
He said that on Friday alone, health officials had identified 430 cases.
Sogavare put the official death toll at 32 but other deaths are believed to have occurred at home.
The prime minister said all but three provinces have reported cases, and transmission was now widespread in the capital, Honiara.
Many of the local lockdowns that had been in place has been lifted but a curfew from 6pm to 6am will still be enforced.
Movement out of Honiara is not allowed.
The prime minister has repreated calls for people to get vaccinated.
Boost for bilateral relationship
The arriving Chinese expert team said in a statement: “Hopefully our arrival can help Solomon Islands strengthen infrastructure construction, improve medical conditions and livelihood, and boost development of bilateral relationship.”
The team, which has strictly complied with Solomon Islands’ quarantine procedures, said its arrival, work and persistence would promote the country’s anti-pandemic work and improve the public medical environment and infrastructure.
In the spirit of “Umi togeta against covid-19”, the team vowed to deliver its best in the fight against the pandemic in Solomon Islands.
“Our team will stand firmly with our friends in Solomon Islands, defy difficulties and dangers, work hard, and build a modern diagnosis and treatment place with advanced technologies for Solomon Islands with the latest construction technologies in the foreseeable future,” the team added.
Robert Iroga is editor of SB Online. Republished with permission.
New Zealand has recorded its highest number of community cases in one day, with 243 new cases reported today.
The previous highest number of cases reported in one day was 222 during the delta outbreak in November.
In a statement, the Health Ministry said the continued increase in cases today was “a reminder that, as expected, the omicron variant is spreading in our communities as we have seen in other countries”.
The ministry said getting a booster dose as soon as it was due was one of the best steps to take.
“Boosters lower your chances of getting very sick and being hospitalised. Being boosted also helps slow the spread of the virus. If you’re over 18 and your booster is due, please get it now.”
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today’s record numbers were expected and would continue to grow in the coming days and weeks
“I urge people not to panic but to plan for that,” he said.
‘Get your booster’
“The best thing you can do to prevent illness is to get vaccinated, and get your booster. Wear a mask when you’re around others, cough into your elbow and wash your hands regularly.”
It was a record day for boosters yesterday, with 66,864 booster doses given. There were also 876 first doses, 1780 second doses and 4440 paediatric doses given.
There are 10 people in hospital with covid-19, including one in ICU. Two are in Rotorua and one in Christchurch, with the rest in Auckland hospitals.
Today’s new community cases were in Northland (21), Auckland (165), Waikato (34), Rotorua (1), Bay of Plenty (8), Tairāwhiti (2), Hawke’s Bay (6), Nelson/Marlborough (3), Whanganui (1), and Wellington (2).
The 21 new cases in Northland include 14 cases in Kerikeri, two cases in Kaeo, one case in Kaikohe, three cases in Whangārei, and one case in Taipa Bay-Mangōnui.
Less than half of the 34 cases in Waikato today are linked to previously reported cases. Nineteen of the cases are in Hamilton, five in Ohaupo, two in Te Kuiti, two in Ngāruawāhia, one in Tirau, and the remaining with locations under investigation.
Both of the Wellington cases are under investigation for links to previous cases, but a JetStar flight between Wellington and Auckland on January 29 has been added as a location of interest. More details are available on the ministry’s location of interest page.
There were also 26 cases reported at the border today, with travellers arriving from Singapore, Australia, UK, India, Egypt, Lebanon, UAE and Ireland.
Air travellers were left stranded and fuming country-wide as airlines Air Niugini and PNG Air hit a rough patch in operations due to wet weather and a large number of their key staff falling sick and unable to be at work.
Flight cancellations were the order of the day yesterday at many airports with passenger backlogs and frustrations growing.
Air Niugini, especially, has had flight cancellations since last November.
The airline has issued an apology saying wet weather conditions and staff absenteeism had caused the situation.
In a media release, both airlines apologised for a number of flights in recent days which have been disrupted due to a much higher number of crew than usual falling sick, as well as the current bad weather conditions across the country impacting on the airlines’ operations.
Both airlines say they are doing everything they can to manage the situation, but will not compromise safety operations.
Stranded passengers had to rebook flights and spend extra money for accommodation and transport.
Backlog mostly tertiary students
Most on the backlog of passengers are tertiary students and parents who have been asked to rebook flights for four to five days as of last Wednesday.
While the airlines have not publicly stated if staff were infected with covid-19, reliable sources from within companies have informed the Post-Courier that a majority of those sick and absent from work were infected with the virus.
They included aircraft engineers, high-end ground staff, pilots, cabin crews and protocol staff.
One of the stranded passengers from Lae, former EMTV senior journalist Scott Waide took to social media to comment on the crisis, which attracted a lot of responses and complaints from passengers who were in a similar situation.
They describing the customer service by the airlines as poor.
Waide was asked to rebook his flight more than once and finally made it into Port Moresby late yesterday evening.
An unfortunate incident happened at Nadzab Airport in Lae yesterday when an airline staff member allegedly insulted a female passenger.
Staff member ‘tears up’ boarding passes
Josephine Kawage claimed the staff member tore up her and her child’s boarding passes.
Kawage said in a video recording that they had been stranded for four days and were finally put on the flight yesterday. However, the check-in officer was only able to produce two boarding passes for Kawage and her son.
She said that she was humiliated when she asked for the boarding passes for her other family members.
A disappointed husband, Captain Henry Nilkare from the North Coast Aviation, condemned the alleged actions of the airline staff member when he spoke to Post-Courier last night.
He said he would take the matter up with Air Niugini to have the officer penalised.
“I do work in the airline industry and understand the nature of his job at situations like this, but his actions were uncalled for and no passenger, or any woman with an infant, should be treated as such in front of many people,” he said.
“That is a bad image for Air Niugini and I do not wish to see this happen to any other passengers.
“If he can do this to my wife and child, who knows how many people he may have treated badly.”
Captain Nilkare said he would be flying to Lae himself to pick up his family today.
Melisha Yafoiis a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
With the arrival of the omicron variant on our shores, it is hard to believe, judging by the media coverage — particularly on MIQ, that the Aotearoa New Zealand government has got anything right in its pandemic response.
One important feature that has been missed in the debate on New Zealand’s pandemic response to date, however, is our very low death rate. At under 60, it is 0.5 percent of the rate in the United Kingdom – approximately 10 per million, compared with more than 2000 per million in the United Kingdom.
This is a very important metric that has been given too little regard here and overseas. The number of people dying of covid-19 in the UK is well over 150,000. This figure is confirmed by the data on excess deaths estimated against the long-run average; the two numbers closely correspond.
In other words, the deaths wrought by covid are on a scale comparable with a major outbreak of warfare. And yet too many commentators and decision-makers have become inured to this death toll, concentrating instead on the performance of the health system and the enjoyment of individual freedoms.
If we had suffered the same rate of covid deaths as the UK has, that would make the number of deaths not 50-60 but 10,000, not far short of the number of New Zealanders dying in World War II (just under 12,000).
The scale of death — or the potential for death — therefore needs to feature more prominently in the coverage of the politics of the pandemic.
‘Let the bodies pile high’
For example, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is said to have stated that he would prefer to “let the bodies pile high” rather than pursue another lockdown.
True or not, that reported statement had almost no impact on his popularity compared to stories of his attending parties at Downing Street when the UK was under firm restrictions on gatherings.
This blind spot in the media coverage and cultural resonance of the pandemic came home to me when a columnist in the left-of-centre publication New Statesman pointed out that, pre-omicron, her friends in Australia didn’t know a single person with the virus, and yet their state and federal governments at that time were pursuing far stronger public health measures than were being applied the UK.
The same could have been said of New Zealand since the two countries have followed similar policies.
Yes, most Australians — and New Zealanders — pre-Omicron were unlikely to know anybody with the virus; but neither were they likely to know anybody who had died of it, which is in many respects a far more important metric both ethically and politically.
Arguably, New Zealand — like Australia — is a more communitarian country, with “two degrees of separation” and all that. Thus, it might matter that bit more to us whether or not our neighbour, friend, or relative dies of a pandemic disease.
In larger, more anonymous societies there is less proximity to death.
Pictures of morgues
At present anyway, pictures of morgues piled high with the dead from the pandemic would be socially unacceptable in our culture. Added to this is the special place of Māori, who could suffer disproportionately with a premature opening of our borders.
This is something that Grounded Kiwis, the expatriate New Zealanders’ group pushing the legal case against the government, may have missed. If it forces the hand of the government to open our borders before we have been able to achieve acceptable levels of both vaccination and infection protection — such as masking, ventilation, distancing, and self-testing against the onslaught of omicron – then the consequences may also be an increase in the likely death rate in New Zealand.
For example, New South Wales at the peak of its omicron outbreak recorded rather more deaths in a single day than New Zealand had recorded over the near-two years of the pandemic, despite the supposedly milder and less impactful character of this variant.
Is that really what we want?
It is also as well to remember our responsibility to all vulnerable populations, including the elderly, Māori and Pasifika, and all those with relevant underlying health conditions. These groups have suffered disproportionately in the pandemic so far.
Few of us have experienced over a short time and in a proximate way significant numbers of deaths in our circles. Half a century ago, it was more common for people to die at home, often surrounded by family, but this has become much less so.
These days it is more likely to be professionally and medically managed, with much of our experience of death otherwise coming packaged via mass and social media.
The government — and New Zealanders — have done well to keep pandemic death at bay. This is not to justify draconian measures without considered trade-offs against wider societal costs and benefits.
But it is to argue for a more balanced discussion of our pandemic response, and to show greater respect for the more communitarian style of it.
Peter Davis is an elected member of the Auckland District Health Board, and emeritus professor in population health and social science at the University of Auckland. His article was first published at Stuff and is republished on Asia Pacific Report with permission.
As of early December 2021, nearly 70.4% of Indonesians had received one dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Particularly considering the arrival of the Omicron variant in Indonesia, this is certainly cause for celebration. But this figure obscures important sources of discrepancies: while nearly all eligible adults in Jakarta are reported to have received at least one dose, less than a quarter of those in Papua have done so, for instance.
Geography is only one axis of inequality, however: other sources of vaccination inequity are less easy to measure. Part of the problem may stem from inequality in access, as some people may simply continue to have a better chance to get the jab than others, owing to connections or willingness to pay. Over the last year, governments across the world were embroiled in scandal as they offered differential access to vaccines to wealthy individuals. Looking at Indonesia, in particular, Lila Sari has documented how political parties in Indonesia have played a crucial role in vaccine delivery—doling out jabs to supporters as a means of shoring up votes. [related article]
Data availability is a major difficulty in adjudicating the extent of these problems: while publicly reported data indicates the overall uptake of vaccines according to region and occupation, we know very little about the sorts of individuals receiving these jabs. More concerningly, we know even less about those individuals who do not wish to receive a vaccination. Identifying and reaching these uninoculated populations is particularly crucial as the pandemic continues to drag on, and vaccination remains the best tool for combatting serious illness.
To fill in these gaps, we analyzed data from two nationally representative surveys of Indonesian adults conducted in March (N = 1,064) and October 2021 (N = 981). These data offer a unique window into how Indonesia’s vaccination campaign is being received by the individuals it intends to reach. We seek to answer several related questions. Firstly, which groups are getting vaccinated? Secondly, which groups are expressing an interest in getting the vaccine, but not able to do so? And finally, why is it that some people do not want the vaccine? We take up these questions and consider the implications for the equitable roll-out of vaccines in Indonesia.
We home in on one particularly concerning finding: as of October 2021, older Indonesians, the most vulnerable segment of society, are the least likely to be vaccinated and the least interested in seeking out the jab. The role of misinformation looms large in this finding, as it appears the tendency for older Indonesians to resist inoculation is a function of their lower levels of education than younger cohorts. Developing strategies to reach this population is particularly crucial for stemming the tide of the pandemic.
Who is getting vaccinated in Indonesia?
Our survey finds that in early October 2021, 42.1% of adult Indonesian had received at least one dose of a vaccination—slightly higher than officially reported statistics. In Figure 1, we show the percentage point increases for individuals in different subgroups—according to income, education level, age, and geography. In March 2021, no subgroup reported more than 5% vaccination rates. As the roll-out of vaccines took place of the past 6 months, however, stark differences in vaccination rates have emerged: richer and better educated Indonesians have outstripped their poorer and less educated counterparts in the rush to obtain vaccinations. By October 2021, for instance, 71.2% of college graduates had received at least one jab, compared to 15.4% of those with no formal education.
In surprising contrast with other countries—where vaccine rollouts targeted older citizens first—Indonesians under 30 are significantly more likely to be vaccinated (51.6%) than their older counterparts. Given that COVID-19 is more likely to result in severe illness or death for the elderly, it is particularly concerning that only 33.6% of Indonesians older than 60 had received a dose of the vaccine by the fielding of the survey.
To get a better grip on whether these differential rates of vaccination reflect access or interest, in Figure 2, we also look at the share of respondents in each subgroup who expressed interest in getting a vaccine if offered. Here, we see the same trends observed in which respondents are getting vaccinated. A full 88.8% of university graduates, for instance, expressed an interest in getting vaccinated in October 2021 if it was made available—approximately twice as high as the percentage of respondents with no formal schooling (44.5%). Worryingly, the largest upticks in vaccination interest between March and October 2021 were among those who were, from the outset, more interest in getting vaccinated. Among individuals who make more than 4m IDR/month, interest in getting vaccinated increase by 51% over the seven months, compared to an 19.2% uptick in interest among individuals who make less than 1m IDR a month.
Why don’t some people want the vaccine in Indonesia?
What explains the lack of interest in getting vaccinated on the part of those respondents who indicated no intention of seeking out the jab? Recent accounts have placed considerable weight on the role of misinformation that has been circulating on social media. Looking at ten countries across the Global South, a team of researchers found widespread evidence of vaccine hesitancy motivated in part by false information held by respondents about the vaccines. Indonesia is no different: rumors have swirled on social media that the Chinese Sinovac vaccine is not halal, despite official statements to the contrary.
We therefore quizzed respondents who indicated no interest in getting vaccinated about their reason for opting against the jab. Respondents were able to choose from one of several reasons. In Figure 3, we show the percentage of the population indicating any one of the reasons listed. First, we find little evidence that a concern over vaccines not being halal is driving vaccine hesitancy: only 0.5% of respondents in our sample indicated this reason. Instead, the most common reason cited for not having an interest in getting vaccinated is respondents stating that their underlying comorbidity’s make vaccination unsafe—a concern likely motivated by concerns over side effects of the jab. In one sense, this is a line of misinformation that should be easily targeted with educational campaigns—as compared with more malevolent forms of misinformation regarding the providence and intention of vaccines.
Finally, we consider why it might be the case that older respondents indicate the lowest interest in vaccination in Indonesia. This is particularly puzzling: it is well documented that the older individuals are at greater risk of severe illness if infected with COVID-19. In theory, risk ought to be an important motivator to seek out vaccination. Indeed, it is precisely this tendency that has undermined the vaccine rollout in the United States, where many young people have opted to not get vaccinated, wagering that they are at lower risk to experience serious illness in the event they contract COVID-19.
We examine the possibility that Indonesia’s geriatric bias in vaccination reflects the tendency for young people to be, on average, more educated than their seniors. It is well-documented that access to education has expanded over the past half century in Indonesia, and it may be that this expanded access has led to greater confidence and literacy in the recommendations of medical and scientific experts.
Indeed, consistent with this expectation, we find that education is the strongest predictor of interest in vaccination—above and beyond the role of age. Individuals who obtained at least a university degree—including those older than 60—are significantly more likely to express a desire to receive the jab than their less educated peers.
These findings provide important cues for policymakers looking to boost the overall rate of vaccination in Indonesia: for one, concerns over misinformation suggesting that vaccines are not halal appear to be overstated, and health authorities should instead focus their attention on remedying the notion that vaccine side effects are more dangerous than COVID-19 itself. Of course, this analysis is also subject to certain limitations. For one, the data are collected from a specific temporal point in the pandemic and vaccine rollout. Although we anticipate that many of the trends continue to hold, our research attests to the importance of conducting routine studies of the sources of vaccine inequity in Indonesia
New Zealanders in Australia will be able to return home by the end of the month under a five-stage reopening plan announced by the government today.
The first stages of the plan would see returning vaccinated New Zealanders able to go into self-isolation and taking a test on arrival, rather than going into managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ).
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed the plan in a speech to Business New Zealand this morning, in which she defended the government’s use of MIQ and pledged there would be “life after covid”.
“It’s easy to hear the word MIQ and immediately associate it with heartache. There is no question that for New Zealand it has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic,” she said.
“But the choice to use it undeniably saved lives … MIQ meant not everyone could come home when they wanted to but it also meant that covid could not come in when it wanted to, either.”
The five stages:
11.59pm 27 February: Self-isolation opens for New Zealanders and eligible travellers coming from Australia
11.59pm 13 March: Open to New Zealanders and eligible travellers from the rest of the world; skilled workers earning at least 1.5x median wage; working holiday visas
11.59pm 12 April: Offshore temporary visa holders who still meet visa requirements; 5000 international students; consideration of further class exemptions for critical workforces that do not meet the 1.5x median wage test
By July: Anyone from Australia; visa-waiver travel; a new Accredited Employer Work Visa opens and skilled worker exemption is phased out
In October: Border reopens to the rest of the world, all visa categories fully reopen
Unvaccinated travellers would still go into MIQ, but with less demand the Defence Force would begin withdrawing and some facilities would return to being hotels. A core quarantine capacity would be maintained and scaled up, to become a National Quarantine Service.
Self-isolation period
The self-isolation period for returning travellers would match that for close contacts under the government’s phased approach to Omicron: 10 days under phase one, seven days under phase two and three.
Today’s media briefing at Business New Zealand. Video: RNZ News
All arrivals will be given three rapid antigen tests, returning results on day 0/1 and on day 5/6, with one extra test. Positive results will be confirmed with a PCR test.
Ardern said the tools used to help battle the health crisis had not stayed the same, and while some may feel anxious about the reopening plan, the isolation, testing and high vaccination rates would help keep the virus from spreading too quickly.
Ardern said the government would be continually monitoring the value of self-isolation, and it was possible it may not be needed in the “not too distant future”.
She also confirmed she would lead trade delegations this year to Australia, Asia, the United States and Europe.
“New Zealand is in demand.” … How the New Zealand Herald reported the border opening policy today before the formal announcement. Image: APR screenshot
‘New Zealand is in demand’
“New Zealand is in demand. Our exports are at record highs, people want to live and work here, international students want to study here, our friends and whānau want to return,” she said.
“Covid laid bare our unsustainable reliance on temporary migrant labour. Immigration will continue to be a part of our economic story, but we have the opportunity now to build resilience into our workforces while also attracting the skills and talent we need.
“We have a chance to do things differently.”
“I hear much talk of a return to business as usual but we are better than business as usual … we must now carve our own recovery. On our terms.”
“We are vaccinated, increasingly boosted, and continue to prepare ourselves at home and work with a plan – and so now it is time to move forward together, safely.”
The critical worker border exemptions under Step 1 of the border reopening would cover:
Critical health workers
Dairy farm managers and assistants
Shearers and wool handlers
Deepwater fishing crew
Rural contractors
Veterinarians
Teachers
International students
Major infrastructure projects
Tech sector workers
External auditors
Government-approved events and programmes
Other short- and long-term ‘critical workers’
147 new community cases – 13 in hospital
The Ministry of Health reported today there were 147 new cases of covid-19 in the community and 44 at the border. Omicron is already the dominant strain.
In a statement, the ministry said the new community cases were in Northland (14), Auckland (90), Waikato (15), Rotorua (8), Taupō (1), Bay of Plenty (8), Hawke’s Bay (7) and Wellington (4).
A person admitted to Wellington Hospital has tested positive for covid-19, Capital and Coast DHB confirmed this morning. The ministry said there were another 12 people in hospital in Auckland, Rotorua and Hawke’s Bay.
There are no people in intensive care.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Three new covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the kingdom of Tonga bringing the total number to five as the country went into a five-day lockdown.
In a press conference in Nuku’alofa yesterday afternoon, Tonga’s Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku said that a woman and her two children had tested positive for the virus.
The two men were port workers and are currently now confined in isolation at Taliai Camp, a Tongan military base.
The pair had been collecting emergency supplies from foreign aid ships arriving in Tonga and were among 50 frontline workers who had been tested for the virus.
The prime minister did not reveal which ships the men had collected supplies from, leaving the source of the transmission open to speculation.
Nuku’alofa harbour is reportedly full of supply ships laden with aid, including the Australian ship HMAS Adelaide, which had confirmed before arriving in Tonga that 29 of its crew were in isolation on board after testing positive for covid-19.
Source of virus unclear
Tonga’s Parliamentary Speaker, Lord Fakafanua, told RNZ Pacific today that it was not clear how the two men contracted the virus.
Tongan Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku … Image: Koro Vaka’uta/RNZ Pacific
He said that the covid-19 outbreak could not have happened at a worse time with covid-19 restrictions interfering with much needed aid deliveries.
The kingdom is still in the early stages of recovery from the devastating Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami, that left hundreds of Tongans homeless and properties damaged last month.
“The Prime Minister has reassured me this morning that the aid that is currently being distributed in Tonga will continue, the work that His Majesty’s Armed Forces is doing on the ground will continue under the lockdown because they are an essential service,” Lord Fakafanua said.
Tonga’s Speaker Lord Fakafanua … “The aid that is currently being distributed in Tonga will continue.” Image: Koro Vaka’uta/RNZ Pacific
The country is polluted with volcanic ash that has fouled water supplies and carpeted the land with dust.
Two weeks after the disaster, telecommunications are yet to be re-established in most of Tonga, with no outsiders being able to make mobile or phone calls into the Vava’u and Ha’apai group of islands.
Lord Fakafanua also said there were worries about a potential covid-19 outbreak in Vava’u, as a close contact of one of the new covid-19 cases in Tonga had visited Vava’u over the week.
Contact tracing stepped up
The government has stepped up contact tracing measures in order to ring fence community transmission of covid-19.
Lockdown rules in Tonga will require everyone to remain at home, to practise social distancing, and to wear face masks in public.
Essential workers are exempted from restrictions of movement, such as Red Cross and aid distribution personnel, who would be allowed to operate freely.
According to Tonga’s Ministry of Health, more than 83 percent of the population of the eligible population (over the age of 12) have been fully vaccinated.
Exactly 73,938 people (over the age of 12) have been vaccinated at least once, representing 96 percent of those eligible for testing.
The Tongan government said at last night’s press conference that the lockdown would be reassessed 48 hours after its enforcement.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Zealand is shortening the gap between second and third doses of the covid-19 vaccine from four months to three, the government has announced.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield made the announcement this afternoon.
Ardern said Cabinet made the decision on the advice of the Vaccine Technical Advisory Group, and it would mean a million more New Zealanders would be eligible for their booster shot.
The shorter interval, which only applies to the Pfizer vaccine, will take effect on Friday, February 4.
“It now means a total of 3,063,823 people aged 18 and over — two thirds of our population — will be eligible for their booster from this weekend. Over 1.3 million people have already got theirs,” Hipkins said.
The change would mean more people, especially Māori, would be able to receive a booster before omicron took hold, he said, urging anyone who was eligible to get their booster as soon as possible.
Ardern said an extra 100,000 Māori will be eligible for a booster, representing a 59 percent increase in Māori eligibility from Friday, while an additional 52,000 Pacific people will be eligible, representing a 47 percent increase.
Ardern said the reason for getting the booster was clear — Omicron was usually more mild, but it could be severe for some.
“So don’t think getting a booster is just about keeping yourself safe, it’s about ensuring our hospital and health system is not overwhelmed so those you love and everyone in our community who needs our hospitals can get the care they need,” she said.
Watch the government announcement:
Today’s media conference.Video: RNZ News
Hipkins said New Zealand was one of the top-10 most vaccinated countries in the OECD, and the earlier booster would also help reduce the impacts of omicron on workforces and supply chains.
“We have given ourselves a head start that we cannot afford to give up,” he said.
People can check their eligibility on MyCovidRecord, by referring to their vaccine appointment card, or calling 0800 28 29 26 between 8am and 8pm seven days a week.
Ardern said today that 94 percent of New Zealanders over the age of 12 were fully vaccinated.
“A year ago, achieving that level of community immunity would have been considered incredibly ambitious, but the overwhelming majority of the team of five million have done what they’ve done best this entire pandemic, banded together and turned out to get vaccinated not just for themselves but to keep their loved ones and communities safe.”
The high rates had helped stop a delta outbreak and given New Zealand a head start against omicron, but now the number boosted needed to get as high as possible, she said.
The government would create a big booster campaign during February, with details to be provided by the Ministry of Health next week, Ardern said.
Significant boost in funding
Dr Bloomfield acknowledged the work put in by vaccination teams across the country in achieving 94 percent vaccination. Māori vaccination rates were now up to 90 percent first dose and 85 percent second dose, he said.
Ardern said there had been a significant boost in funding for community organisations which was helping support the efforts to help vaccinate Māori around the country.
“What we’ve had to do is make sure that we’ve stood up a system that worked for delta, now we need to make sure that we are able to expand to deal with what will be a larger number of cases but actually the majority of cases won’t need the level of care that delta may have required. So that has been an ongoing programme of work with our Māori providers,” she said.
Dr Bloomfield said the impact of waning protection over time from the vaccine had been seen.
“The good news is that there is clear evidence with that booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine, that people’s protection goes back up to a similar level to what it was for delta with two doses, and that is well over 90 percent protection against hospitalisation or serious illness.”
He urged everyone to make a plan, and said there was excellent capacity for vaccinations across the system.
“While we can’t administer boosters to everyone in that one million this Friday, I can assure you we have excellent capacity across our system and we certainly have a good supply of vaccine.”
Important for vulnerable people
It was even more important for vulnerable people and those working in higher-risk settings to get the booster, and considerable work was under way to make boosters as available as possible to those people, Dr Bloomfield said.
New Zealand data so far was similar to that overseas — we had not seen an increase in side effects, and overall adverse events after each additional vaccination had declined, he said.
He had asked for advice on when 12 to 17-year-olds would be able to get booster doses.
Ardern said the reason behind the delay until Friday was the government needed to make sure all the infrastructure was stood up.
New Zealand was still relatively early on in its omicron outbreak compared to other countries, and there was still time for people to get their booster in the coming week and have the benefit of it before the variant spread widely, she said.
Dr Bloomfield said New Zealand was an early mover in reducing the booster interval from six months to four, and was moving to reduce the interval again to three months before the omicron outbreak, which was something many other countries did not have the opportunity to do.
Ministry of Health Chief Science Adviser Ian Town said bringing it forward to three months, which had been done in the UK and in many Australian states, meant New Zealand could get the level of antibodies at a peak before it was facing widespread transmission.
No downside
There did not appear to be any downside to reducing the interval to three months, he said.
Dr Bloomfield said he wanted to emphasise that the evidence was clear that while two doses was great for delta, that was not the case with omicron, “so we will be pushing really hard to vaccinate”.
This morning, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson defended the government’s approach to pregnant journalist Charlotte Bellis’ emergency MIQ requests, and its acquisition of rapid antigen tests (RATs) ahead of an expected rapid increase in Omicron variant cases across New Zealand.
Cabinet yesterday discussed its plans for reopening the borders, and Prime Minister Ardern is expected to make announcements about that tomorrow. A staged timeline was outlined late last year, but was quickly delayed because of the risks posed by omicron.
The government this morning announced it would adding $70.7 million to its Events Support Scheme, and extending coverage to events scheduled for before 31 January next year that were planned before being cancelled by the red traffic light setting.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Within a month of the first community exposure to omicron in Aotearoa New Zealand, the variant has already become the dominant strain of covid-19.
We are yet to see the rapid and steep rise in new omicron cases that has been predicted. This could be because of asymptomatic transmission, but it is equally likely because public health measures included in the first phase of the “stamp it out strategy” have been effective.
For now, managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) at the border is successfully stopping hundreds of cases from entering the community.
The best way forward is to limit widespread transmission for as long as possible. This reduces opportunities for the virus to replicate, which is when mutations occur, potentially extending the pandemic.
As shown below, omicron quickly replaces earlier variants.
The graph shows the rise of Omicron (red) in the UK, displacing earlier covid-19 variants. Our World in Data, GISAID, CC BY-ND
Omicron’s transmission advantage is thought to be due to its ability to evade immunity (acquired through infection or vaccination) and quickly infect the upper respiratory tract.
The risk of reinfection also appears higher than for delta, particularly in the unvaccinated and those with lower viral loads during previous infections.
Symptoms to watch out for Omicron symptoms include a runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and a sore throat.
However, New Zealand’s high vaccination rates mean some people may not have any symptoms at all. The danger here is that they will still be able to pass on the virus to others, unaware they have omicron.
Given a choice, would you rather enter a room with Delta or Omicron?
Modeller, Professor @MichaelPlankNZ uses this scenario to explain differences between the #Covid-19 variants, while UC Health’s Dr @hobbs_PA reminds us Omicron isn’t ‘mild’. @UCNZMathshttps://t.co/4dgnOSZUJC
It is best to assume that any symptoms, especially a sore throat, are covid-19 until proven otherwise through a test.
For omicron, this may require saliva swab tests as recent evidence suggests they are more sensitive than nasal swabs because the viral load peaks earlier in saliva than nasal mucus.
Compared to delta, omicron has caused lower hospitalisation and death rates in many countries. This may be because it reproduces in the upper respiratory tract instead of the lungs.
Omicron is also meeting populations with immunity acquired through previous infection or vaccination.
Vaccination is especially important in New Zealand as we have had minimal prior exposure to covid-19 in the community.
This graph shows the geographical and ethnic difference in the uptake of booster vaccinations. Author provided, CC BY-ND
Where to from here
Omicron is a “double-edged sword”. It is vastly more transmissible but less severe. However, it is not a mild infection and there is no guarantee the next variant will be less severe.
This should still be true even now (with the right measures)
The kicker is that with omicron, lots of HCW sickness will drop the capacity line lower. This will be much more pronounced for the fast red surge than the slow blue wave so in fact the red surge is worse than modelled pic.twitter.com/5hfk4uSMCt
Healthcare workers are already over-burdened and exhausted from previous outbreaks, which have distracted from other services and exacerbated entrenched inequities.
There are several things each of us can do:
Anybody eligible should prioritise getting boosted
we should all continue using the COVID-19 tracer app
we should keep indoor spaces well ventilated by opening windows and doors
mask wearing remains important, especially where physical distancing is difficult.
and anybody who feels unwell, should get tested and isolate.
Data out of Australia indicate children aged five to 11 tolerated the vaccine well, with fewer side effects than adults.
Unfortunately, our analysis, along with other evidence, documents a concerning trend with lower childhood vaccination rates for Māori and Pasifika, as well as large variation between regions.
This graph shows the geographical and ethnic difference in the uptake of childhood (five-11-year-olds) vaccinations. Image: Author provided, CC BY-ND
This is concerning as some countries, including the US, have seen increases in childhood hospitalisation rates for covid-19. In the UK, one in eight pupils have missed school as covid-related absences rise.
The success story of the delta outbreak Unfortunately, there’s been little time to celebrate the rather remarkable demise of delta. Even as Auckland opened up, hospitalisations and case numbers dropped.
Summer will have helped as people spent more time outdoors. However, public health measures such as border closures, managed isolation and quarantine and contact tracing have no doubt helped stamp out much of delta, allowing a relatively normal summer holiday period for many.
Continuing to keep delta low also means we should not have to deal with a “double epidemic”.
This success may also fill us with some hope that, just perhaps, we might be able to avoid the worst of omicron during this next phase of the pandemic response, with robust and continually refined public health measures in place.
The kingdom of Tonga will go into nationwide lockdown from 6pm tonight.
Speaking via Tongan radio, Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni and Minister of Health Dr Saia Piukala held a media conference last night to announce the news.
They confirmed that two cases of covid-19 had been detected through routine testing at the wharf in Nuku’alofa.
Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku ordered the lockdown.
Dr Saia Piukala said 50 people were tested as part of routine surveillance and the two positive cases were found.
Tonga’s Speaker of the House, Lord Fakafanua — who is currently in Auckland waiting to return to Tonga — told RNZ Pacific the positive cases and their families were now in isolation at an army base.
Tonga reported its first positive covid case last year after an Air New Zealand flight arrived from Christchurch.
Recovering from volcano eruption
Tonga is currently recovering from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption on January 15 which triggered a tsunami that destroyed villages and resorts and knocked out communications for the nation of about 105,000 people.
Three people died as a result of the disaster.
Several countries, including New Zealand, have sent aid but have observed strict covid-19 protocols such as contactless delivery.
According to media reports, more than 300 nurses are leaving their jobs citing poor employment conditions including suffering from stress, fatigue and lack of compensation.
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali said those who were resigning amid the covid-19 crisis were not speaking out because they feared victimisation by the health ministry and the government.
The latest figures have pushed the number of cases since the September 2021 delta outbreak to more than 20,000 with 21 people in hospital, including one in intensive care.
The seven-day average has neared 500 cases after being under 20 a month ago.
The virus has spread to all three provinces and most communes.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
South Seas Healthcare Trust chief executive Lemalu Silao Vaisola says people are tired of covid-19 rather than complacent after two years of the pandemic.
He said he had seen fatigue set in which could explain the low uptake of the booster shot in the Pacific community.
“People are just covid-fatigued where everything is all about self-isolation, traffic lights and the lockdowns.
“I think it is just fatigue, people are just tired. So I don’t know if it is complacency, but it’s been ongoing and two years is a long time to go through changes.”
Lemalu said the South Seas Healthcare team were preparing now for omicron to hit communities just like they had done in the past two years of covid-19.
He said the team intended to use the Manukau Insititute of Technology campus for a booster vaccination drive to get rates up.
“We’ve still got the MIT sites that’s during vaccinations and we’ve got a drive through vaccination for increasing the boosters and five to 11 [year olds] and on top of that we’ve been training our staff in terms of outreach into the homes.”
Front and centre
Lemalu said his organisation was front and centre fighting the delta strain and the experience stood them in good stead.
“We’ve got a good template to respond, but again every variant so far provides its own set of challenges,” he said.
“I’m happy that we’ve sort of almost had two years experience that will position us to hopefully be ready for this, but like I said before it’s different from what we are seeing overseas.
“We plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
He is encouraging Pacific families to get a booster shot.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This month, the Biden administration launched aprogramto deliver four COVID-19 rapid tests per household to people with an address across the country. While the program will deliver 500 million tests, advocates say it innately disadvantages houseless people, multigenerational households, and those who live in apartment buildings that may be subject toa glitch in the systemthat only allows one set per building. Ultimately, the program is most helpful for those who fulfill the traditional American nuclear family, leaving out the populations most at risk of contracting the virus because of their inability to afford living on their own. The demand for testing comes when community spread is rampant, and the country is stillaveragingclose to 700,000 new cases a day. The Biden administration’s first direct testing response leaves a lot to be desired two years into the pandemic.
“There’s clearly a very myopic view of how to handle this rollout, which has consistently been a problem this entire pandemic,” said Dr. Imani E. McElroy, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “[The rollout] directly benefits those who have the privilege of high-quality access.”
McElroy lives in an apartment building in East Boston with about six units in a neighborhood with aLatinx populationof 52.9%, which she says has been severely impacted by COVID-19. Soon after the program was announced, she read that people who lived in apartment complexes could not order their quota if someone else in the building had already placed an order. She has held off on ordering her own until she confirms that her neighbors, including a multi-generational family, can apply for their tests. As a physician, she has access to COVID-19 tests through her department.
“I didn’t want to affect their ability to get their test,” McElroy said.
According toGenerations United, an estimated 66.7 million adults, or one in four people in the U.S., live in a multigenerational household. While some live in multigenerational households for cultural reasons, many people have been forced into them because of the rising cost of living across the nation. In October last year, theFederal Register reportedthat the cost of living for 2022 would increase 5.9%. InBoston, where McElroy lives, the cost of living is 51% higher than the national average. In a 2016Pew Research study, Black, Latinx, and Asian families were more likely to live in multigenerational households than white families. For these households, quarantining and self-isolating during a pandemic is much more precarious than usual. According to apublic health studyon multigenerational households in New York City, overcrowded homes and multigenerational housing are independent risk factors for COVID-19.
“The largest affected populations by COVID have been populations that can’t afford to live on their own and can’t self-quarantine,” McElroy said. “You’re getting rapid transmission throughout these communities.”
McElroy suggests that the federal government use census data to send more tests to households that may need more, and have an efficient way of requesting more tests as required. She also suggested having the option to send them to a P.O. box if needed. The U.S. Postal Service has not responded to a request for more information on any future distribution programs.
“There has to be a way to petition to be able to get more tests,” McElroy said. “There’s a lot of stopgaps that could have been used to prevent the issues that we’re consistently seeing in this response.”
Houseless people, who do not have a permanent address to include on the form, have also been left out of the current program.Referred to as “the invisible victims”of COVID-19, few resources keep track of the number of infections and deaths among the houseless community.
Even if houseless people were to have access to at-home rapid tests, David Peery, the founder of Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equality, says it would be difficult to keep them in their possession. Many houseless people who live in encampments are subject to frequent street sweepings that trash and destroy all of their possessions.
“[The government] can give out a testing kit on a Monday, and the City can come and do a sweep the very next day and destroy everything and throw all your stuff away,” Peery said. “It’s very hard to keep possessions when you don’t have a home.”
According to Peery, a more comprehensive solution would be to expand non-congregated emergency shelters by contracting and renting hotel and motel rooms. He says that more private rooms used in cities across the country since the start of the pandemic for isolation purposes,including Atlanta, should be expanded as emergency shelter alternatives as opposed to the traditional emergency congregate shelters that pack people into a dorm room. Apublic health studysupports Peery’s idea, suggesting that isolation hotels help mitigate the spread of Covid-19 among houseless populations.
“Non-congregate settings have proven to be much more effective in getting people off the streets. Now you have a roof over your head, you have a door you can lock, and you can store your possessions, including these at-home testing kits,” Peery said. “They’ll also be protected from infections and it will provide a path to permanent housing.”
Before the government launches another program to distribute tests or personal protective equipment, people across the country say considerations should be made to reach the communities most vulnerable with the least amount of access to these mitigating measures.
Prismis an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.
Omicron has ripped through the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria, exposing testing regimes, decimating supply chains and causing the country’s deadliest days of the pandemic despite high vaccination rates.
So is that New Zealand’s fate as well?
RNZ News spoke to a trio of experts in Australia who say Aotearoa can and should do better.
When omicron arrived in Australia in late November, governments followed through on plans to relax restrictions.
University of Sydney epidemiologist Professor Alexandra Martiniuk said that was the first mistake.
“If we had gone a bit lower and slower on our curve we would’ve put the pressure on our systems over a longer period of time — yes, but it would’ve been slower so we probably would’ve experienced less of the crises we did experience and importantly, this is hypothetical I suppose, more people might have been saved.”
As the pressure built on the health system due to the number of cases, it affected the quality of care across the system.
It also removed vast numbers out of the workforce as they isolated awaiting test results or from infection itself.
The key to suppressing the curve was:
getting vaccinated and a booster as soon as possible
wearing a quality mask
thinking about physical distancing and preferably meeting people outdoors
scanning in
getting tested and isolating if symptomatic.
New Zealand epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely, from the University of Melbourne, agreed, saying the elderly and at-risk needed to exercise extra caution over the coming weeks and months.
University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely … Image: Billy Wong/University of Auckland
About half of New Zealand’s population was likely to contract omicron during the outbreak and that was okay, Professor Blakely said.
The key to minimising death and disruption was about who caught it and when.
“The two tricks are: having accepted that burden of infection coming through, to squash it and spread it out over time so it doesn’t overwhelm health services.
“And the second is to try to tip away the infections from the people who have the highest risk of morbidity and mortality. So people who have comorbidities, are immunocompromised, or who are elderly,” he said.
In essence, the pair believed New Zealand should look to prolong the outbreak, which might sound counter-intuitive, but a steady stream of cases over months was going to be better than a flood over weeks.
Much in the same way the tide coming in over six hours did not cause a problem, but a tsunami did.
Another thing on Aotearoa’s side was the rate of Delta.
Australia was still dealing with 1300 cases a day of the far deadlier variant when Omicron arrived.
Professor Blakely said as a result Australia had been fighting two epidemics.
“It’s utterly clear – omicron is less severe than delta. The vast majority of people who get omicron don’t even know they’ve had it – they’re asymptomatic.
“Yes there will be deaths – that’s unfortunate. But it’s a lot less than had it been delta with this amount of infectiousness.
“Data is patchy — but in New South Wales two-thirds of people in ICU were omicron, which means one-third were delta and probably half of all deaths two weeks ago in New South Wales were among people with delta.
“So what’s happened? Delta is perhaps only 2-5 percent of all infections out in the community but because it’s that much more serious at every step — converting you from asymptomatic to symptomatic, symptomatic to quite sick, quite sick to going to hospital, hospital to ICU, ICU to death — at every point along the way it means even though delta is a tiny proportion of infections out in the community it’s causing a reasonably large fraction of all the hospitalisations and deaths.”
So what does that mean for New Zealand? “The lesson here for New Zealand is keep delta squashed down,” Professor Blakely said.
As omicron spiralled in the community, contact tracing should focus on delta cases, he said.
He described the New Zealand government’s plan to deal with omicron, released earlier this week, as brilliant.
“I really like the way that they’ve laid out what’s going to happen and how close contacts are going to change, the number of days will get less as you go through before you can go back to work — it’s exactly like I would’ve designed it if I’d been asked to design it. It’s very good.”
However, a degree of flexibility was needed as the pandemic had shown it could throw a curveball even at the best-laid plans.
Stock up on supplies, meet loved ones Australasian Epidemiological Association president Associate Professor Brigid Lynch said it appeared omicron was potentially as severe as the wild variant identified in Wuhan in late 2019, but far more contagious.
However, unlike in early 2020, there were effective vaccines that drastically curbed serious illness and death.
Far more was also known about the virus’ transmission.
Disposable KN95 mask pictured above a surgical mask. Image: RNZ/123rf
To that end high-quality masks, especially inside, and quality ventilation could reduce transmission, Associate Professor Lynch said.
“Workplaces and settings like education and aged care, we really should have had good ventilation measures – HEPA filters and things that will improve the air quality. Those are things that will be important going forward over the next few years.”
A large and readily available supply of rapid antigen tests could also help in reducing transmission in high-risk or high-density settings, like schools, aged care and health facilities.
Professor Martiniuk said another thing for people to consider now ahead of widespread infection and while time was still on your side was to get ready at home.
Putting some pre-prepared meals into the freezer, stashing some electrolyte drinks and having enough paracetamol and ibuprofen for a week might make the difference between a testing or a terrible time at home with the virus — especially if people had children to care for and consider as well.
Now was also the time to do some last-minute things for self-care, she said.
“It’s silly but it’s actually quite useful, but now is the time to go get your haircut, to go see your loved ones in aged care residences, to get your kids together with their friends – still outdoors preferably, to get a doctor’s appointment for your chronic illness that might need a prescription refill.
“Get it all done as if you’re going on a big vacation because in a month or two if cases are very high, those are the kind of things you won’t want to be doing.”
But all three epidemiologists agreed – while omicron was already here, New Zealand did not need to suffer its worst effects.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
We’ve been hearing a lot about masks this week, fabric, medical and N95. They’ve all got different layers of permeability.
