The world is now in the throes of another wave of Covid-19, with another surge in infections, sickness and deaths, this time due to the more infectious and apparently more lethal Delta variant.
Are there lessons to be learned from the previous waves of Covid-19 that might help us now?
There are, and they were evident long ago, but in the West, they have been largely ignored. Up to now, for example, the US has suffered over 617,000 deaths; China in contrast has suffered fewer than 5,000 deaths in a population four times as large as the US. Could there not be some lessons that might serve us in the West now and in the future?
In the US and throughout the West, the response to China’s success has all too often been to ignore or deny it.
All of New Zealand will remain in lockdown until at least Friday, while Auckland will remain in level 4 until at least 31 August with 35 new community cases taking the total to 107.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement this afternoon saying delta had “got a headstart” in New Zealand before the lockdown.
She said early modelling suggested that the country would not reach the peak of the outbreak until day eight to 10 after lockdown started and currently New Zealand is only at day 6.
Ardern said known contacts are spread across New Zealand and there may be more contacts that are still not known.
She said Cabinet made the decision to extend the lockdown on the basis that the safest option now was to hold the course for longer.
Cabinet has decided all of New Zealand will remain at level 4 for an additional four days, until 11.59pm, Friday 27 August. Ardern said these settings would be reviewed on Friday.
Auckland will continue to be the main location of the outbreak and will remain in alert level 4 until 11.59pm on Tuesday, August 31, Ardern said. The level of Auckland’s setting will be reviewed next Monday.
Ardern said the extra time by delaying the drop in alert levels gives New Zealand additional data and information and time to test.
Parliament suspended for a week Ardern also this afternoon announced that Parliament would be suspended for a week but said select committees would continue online.
She said asking ministers to make themselves available to appear before select committees “will allow us to balance safety and scrutiny”.
Parliament can be postponed up to a month during an epidemic under section 55 of the standing orders, but the leaders of all parties must be consulted first and it must be on the written recommendation of the Director-General of Health.
Opposition parties have been calling for Parliament to begin again in alert level 4 conditions, or reinstate the Epidemic Response Committee as a minimum, saying suspension of Parliament is undemocratic.
National leader Judith Collins said important questions needed to be answered about how the delta variant got into New Zealand, and suspending Parliament meant the government would avoid that scrutiny.
ACT leader David Seymour said it was very different from having an opposition-led Epidemic Response Committee as was seen in the previous lockdown and – far from all parties agreeing – the decision was one “dictated by Jacinda Ardern alone”.
Covid-19 stats: 35 new community cases In a statement the Ministry of Health said there were 35 new community cases of covid-19 today – 33 of them in Auckland and two of them in Wellington.
That brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 107 with 99 of them in Auckland and eight in Wellington.
There were also three new cases today announced in managed isolation.
The ministry said it was continuing to add locations of interest as interviews from confirmed cases were completed by the public health staff.
As of Monday night there were more than 400 locations of interest listed on the ministry’s website, the bulk of them in Auckland.
Promoting the NZ Covid Tracer … system under pressure. Image: RNZ
Māngere church cluster The Ministry of Health is urging members of a Samoan church to isolate and get tested after multiple covid-19 cases have now been identified as having attended last Sunday.
That includes anyone who went to the Samoan Assembly of God Church in Māngere on 15 August between 9am and 3pm that day.
The cluster has also spread to Wellington with three of the cases now in the capital.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the church represented the single event with the most number of cases.
Dr Bloomfield said that more than 50 percent of this outbreak’s covid-19 cases are of Pacific ethnicity and a further breakdown of cases by ethnicity is being prepared.
Crowne Plaza investigation At the briefing regarding alert levels, Ardern said the public walkway at the Crowne Plaza MIQ facility in Auckland had not been established to have been a problem.
She said it had barriers between, and ventilation, and had been assessed by infection control experts, but “we’ve ruled nothing in or out right now”.
They say if transmission had occurred in the lobby it would have been on Saturday, August 7, between 10pm and 11pm.
The Ministry of Health has been trying to track down six people who were in an adjacent walkway at the time.
Of the six, four have been identified using CCTV and three of them have tested negative. Two are still to be identified.
Contact tracing system under pressure By Monday evening, there were more than 400 locations of interest and more than 13,000 close contacts in the Auckland outbreak.
Contact tracers are working around the clock as they try to track down people who potentially came into contact with the virus at running events, in supermarkets, at fast food outlets and on public transport.
Laboratories, testing sites and vaccination centres are also straining at the seams as the health system struggles to keep pace with the delta incursion.
Dr Bloomfield said the country’s contact tracing system was working at 100 percent, with its covid surge plan in full use.
Ardern said she had not heard of an instance where contacts had not been home when contacted by tracers. She said it is very heartening to see a lack of cases which had been infectious in the community, compared to what had been seen in New South Wales.
Police ‘pleased’ with lockdown compliance despite breaches People are generally complying with the lockdown though a small number of incidents are still cropping up, police say.
By 5pm yesterday, 29 people nationwide had been charged with 33 offences related to breaking the lockdown rules since it came into effect at 11.59pm on August 17.
Those arrests were primarily the result of lockdown protests.
Another 85 people had been given a warning.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the public’s behaviour was generally good.
“Officers will remain out and about in our communities, particularly at high-demand locations such as supermarkets and covid-19 testing and vaccination sites,” he said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Fiji’s Ministry of Health’s clinical scoping team on the remote southern island of Kadavu has begun to put together a response plan to help escalate its response to an expected wave of severe covid-19 infections and deaths.
On Friday, a total of 47 cases were recorded outside the main island of Viti Levu — 46 on Kadavu, and one at Nabouwalu, Bua, on the second largest island Vanua Levu.
The government also confirmed five people had died, bringing the death toll to 438 – 436 of them from the outbreak that began in April this year.
A key part of the Kadavu response plan is to identify people vulnerable to severe covid and to “pre-emptively engage them in a care plan that allows early identification of danger symptoms and signs and access to clinical care in a timely manner”.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said the situation in Kadavu remained a major concern and they anticipated their plan would be a challenging exercise.
“Another important part of the response to mitigate severe disease will be community-wide engagement to establish specific plans that help maintain oversight over vulnerable persons, and facilitate their timely transfer to a health care facility when required,” Dr Fong said last night.
Screening continues
He said the public health team was also continuing with screening and isolation protocols.
Dr Fong has also reiterated calls for maritime islanders to refrain from engaging in any unauthorised travel to and from Viti Levu.
All the current protocols to regulate domestic movements must be adhered to in order to prevent spread of the virus beyond Viti Levu, he said.
“We repeat our call to all village leaders and elders to support our current efforts to protect our maritime islands and to immediately report any suspicious movements into your community.”
Timoci Vulais a reporter with The Fiji Times. Republished with permission.
New Zealand health officials are concerned about a cluster of covid-19 cases linked to a Pacific church in Auckland’s Māngere suburb.
The Ministry of Health is urging members of a Samoan church to isolate and get tested after multiple covid-19 cases have now been identified as having attended last Sunday a week ago.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has highlighted this as a location of particular importance to the outbreak.
“Several of the new cases announced to date are linked to a church service at the Samoan Assembly of God Church in Māngere last Sunday, August 15,” Dr Bloomfield said at a media conference yesterday.
The cluster has spread to Wellington, too.
“There is a number of cases now around that event, including three of our cases down here in Wellington who had been at that event in Auckland.”
The attendees at the church that day (33 Andrew Baxter Drive, Māngere, between 9am and 3pm) are being asked to isolate for 14 days from the exposure date.
Another busy day
That means they have to stay apart from other members of their household, as well as get tested, which they have been heeding.
“Another busy day – 1023 swabs all up. We’ve had a lot of the Pacific community come through,” said Michelle Tukia, lead nurse at South Seas Healthcare which runs the Ōtara testing centre.
In addition to those swabs, a special pop-up centre set up at a nearby Samoan Assembly of God church took 500 swabs yesterday.
Auckland councillor for the Māngere ward Alf Filipaina is urging people to comply for the sake of their family.
“Because you don’t want to get them infected. This is even more important to do because of the variant. Protect your family by protecting yourself,” Filipaina said.
“Look it’s hard – with the extending aiga whanau I’ve got, and many other Pacific and Māori [do] – you just have to be very careful.”
While it is only one of a number of large events, it is a top focus for the Ministry of Health.
Contact tracing priority
“This is a priority for our contact tracing efforts. What we have seen in the past of course is that Pacific community leaders are very good at mobilising the community to get tested.
“This is coming through in our testing results – by far the highest rate of testing is among our Pacific community, and we want to encourage that.”
Filipaina said the community has squashed covid-19 before, and it can do it again.
“When it happened at Mt Roskill, and hit South Auckland, Papatoetoe High School, we ended up getting through that … if we just follow the same [procedure].”
Testing centres are open again today.
Lockdown plus decision today
Meanwhile, RNZ reports that New Zealand will find out today if the covid-19 lockdown is going to be extended.
The government will announce any lockdown changes at 4pm but it has already signalled Auckland is likely to remain in lockdown a while longer.
The number of community cases of covid-19 grew by 21 yesterday, 20 in Auckland and one in Wellington, taking the total number in the current outbreak to 72.
The Wellington case was first reported yesterday but is included in the national tally today. There are now six confirmed cases in Wellington
Dr Bloomfield said there were 8677 contacts that had been formally identified and virtually all of those were considered “close contacts”.
“The number of contacts has increased significantly, something we had expected as we identify more cases and locations of interest. As of 9am this morning, 8667 individual contacts had been formally identified and we expect that will continue to increase through the day as further records are fully processed,” he said.
“From today, contacts who are self-isolating can choose to send their daily health and wellbeing information via an electronic survey, that is email, rather than phone call daily. These people are all initially contacted by phone and if they opt to go for email welfare checks they can do so, which helps free up capacity in our contact tracing teams and further speed up the process.”
Samoan church linked cases
Dr Bloomfield said several new cases were linked to a service at the Samoan Assembly of God church last Sunday. Those who attended and who had not yet been tested were being asked to.
From today new locations of interest will be published on the Ministry of Health website every two hours. Significant or urgent locations will be published immediately.
New Zealand’s Crown Research Institute ESR is now testing wastewater from 14 sites.
There have been positive results in Auckland and Wellington. The positive result in Wellington was from Moa Point and other Wellington locations were negative.
Hipkins said yesterday was a record day for weekend vaccinations with more than 50,000 doses administered.
Hipkins said more than a million New Zealanders were now vaccinated and 73 percent of New Zealanders over the age of 40 were either vaccinated or booked in to get the jab.
Another 382,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in New Zealand tomorrow, Hipkins said.
‘Excellent’ PPE stocks
Dr Bloomfield said the health system had “excellent” PPE stocks to deal with this outbreak, with national PPE supply chain holding 18 million n95 masks, 285 million medical masks, 18 million isolation gowns, 1.6 million face shields and 280 million nitrile gloves.
Dr Bloomfield was just one of the more than 500 doses they were giving out today at that centre alone.
He said he barely felt it.
“Feeling great actually. It’s really nice to have got to this point,” he said.
“I’ve been talking about the vaccine for months. My age group came online just a couple of weeks ago, so I used ‘Book My Vaccine’ last Sunday and was able to get a slot today.”
Pukekohe High School staff link
Meanwhile, a staff member at Pukekohe High School has tested positive for covid-19, meaning seven Auckland schools now have confirmed cases linked to them.
The other six schools are: Western Springs College, Avondale College, Northcote College, Lynfield College, McAuley High School and De La Salle College.
After being halted at the start of lockdown, the vaccine rollout is moving up a gear with 56,843 vaccines administered yesterday – the most in a single day.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said 72 percent of New Zealanders aged 40+ were either booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose.
A drive through mass-vaccination centre is open today in Auckland to make up for appointments pushed out due to the alert level 4 lockdown. The centre, set up at the park and ride site at Auckland Airport, will be open for a week and is expected to immunise 2000 people a day.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Dr McElnay said the total number of community cases linked to the current Auckland outbreak was now 51.
All cases have been or are being transferred to managed isolation facilities using strict infection prevention and control procedures, Dr McElnay said.
More than 5000 individual contacts have been identified and the Health Ministry expects that would grow and increase by another 5000 by the end of today.
Dr McElnay said covid-19 had been found in waste water testing in Warkworth, north of Auckland.
Hit two records
Ardern said New Zealand had hit two records yesterday, with the most number of vaccines and tests carried out.
There were 56,843 vaccines administered yesterday — the most in a single day. Ardern said 72 percent of NZers aged 40+ were either booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose.
“This is great progress,” Ardern said.
More than 150,000 vaccination bookings were made yesterday.
Yesterday was also the day the most covid-19 tests were processed in a single day, with 41,464 tests completed.
“The fact we have achieved both these results on the same day is extraordinary and is exactly what we need to do to get on top of the outbreak and for the future,” she said.
There are 14 community testing stations open across Auckland today, Ardern said.
Since then, new cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed at the University of Auckland, a second student at the neighbouring Auckland University of Technology and two more Auckland schools.
In addition, the list of locations of interest has been growing.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
NZ Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay gave a covid-19 update with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today. Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
RNZ reporter Ben Strang was on the streets before the latest lockdown when he was attacked, and writes that it feels like there is more animosity towards the government and media this time around.
Despite living largely free of restrictions in New Zealand compared to almost every other nation for the best part of this covid pandemic, it is apparent that some people have no intention of living under level four restrictions.
Hours into the first day of lockdown, Billy Te Kahika, Vinny Eastwood, and their loyal legion of conspiracy theorists launched a number of protests against the measures set out by the government.
Te Kahika and Eastwood pitched up with about 80 others outside Television New Zealand’s headquarters in Auckland.
Some of their views may seem idiotic, but neither of them is an idiot.
The decision to protest outside TVNZ served many purposes: It’s a central Auckland location; it was guaranteed to get them a level of media attention; and they could try to make a point to the media who, apparently, ignore their salient points about the truth of covid-19, vaccines, Bill Gates, the moon landings, and whatever else.
It feels like part of a rising level of resentment over government action on combating the pandemic. Patience can wear thin, it might be hard to see an end point and we are left wondering when we will return to “normal”.
Trusty black face mask
“On Tuesday night, five hours before the restrictions were about to snap into place, I was tasked with talking to people on the streets of Wellington about the impending lockdown.
Wearing an RNZ jacket and my trusty black face mask – and armed with an RNZ flagged microphone – I greeted people as I always do, by telling them I was an RNZ reporter.
That’s when I was attacked.
A tall blonde man tried to rip my face mask off, grabbed my ear and around my head.
He yelled that covid-19 was a myth, aggressively asked why I needed the mask, and said none of the pandemic was real.
Fortunately, I know how to handle myself and got out of the situation quick smart, but these situations are not isolated.
Other reporters have talked about overly aggressive anti-lockdown, covid-19 conspiracy theorists confronting them while they’ve been working.
Usually, we only see it online through social media, or in our email inbox from the brave few using creative pseudonyms.
Tide is changing
But if Tuesday night is any indication, the tide is changing. And it is not just the media who are noticing the swell of covid-19 discontent or disbelief.
Police arrested three people involved in an anti-lockdown protest in Christchurch on Thursday, after a group of 10 people gathered on the Bridge of Remembrance on Cashel Street.
Last time out, the police took an “educational approach”, telling people to pull their heads in and head home.
This time, they are acting far quicker in locking them up.
That is because they see the rise in this behaviour too, want to send a clear message to those who believe in “alternative facts”, and want to knock it on the head.
It has also been noticed by supermarket workers, bus drivers, airline staff, and any number of frontline workers across the country.
There are reports of people being kept off flights because they refuse to wear a mask.
Arrested in Northland
Police arrested two people in Northland on Wednesday for that very offence, and because they acted in a threatening manner towards supermarket staff at a Pak N Save.
The protests, the arrests, the number of people requiring “education” from the police are small compared to the vast numbers who are complying with restrictions.
But they are the tip of a digital iceberg, with a large online community which is consistently growing, feeding on the idea that covid-19 is either a hoax or perhaps a plandemic.
We all have an uncle, or a sister-in-law, or a neighbour, who tries to tell us the truth as they see it.
But how many people do they convince? How many people are now second guessing getting a vaccine because of misleading scientific “evidence” one of these people has been talking about?
It’s a dangerous situation we find ourselves in.
With anger and misinformation swelling like a tumour, there is added pressure on the government in these coming days and weeks to make the right decisions in steering the country through this current outbreak.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The hospital has closed its emergency department and short stay surgical unit.
NZ Post today also revealed it had a positive case – a temporary member of their processing team working at their Auckland Operations Centre in Highbrook.
In a statement it said the worker was last at work on Monday and they have not attended work since they became sick.
It is not clear if this case has already been included in the Ministry of Health’s list of positive cases.
The delta variant outbreak has been linked to a person who travelled to New Zealand from NSW on August 7 and transferred to hospital on August 16.
Locations of interest can be found on the Ministry of Health website as they become available.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
New Zealand’s current cases of covid-19 — the first community outbreak for six months — have been linked to a traveller who arrived from Australia and was taken to Middlemore Hospital earlier this week.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have provided a covid-19 update on day two of the nationwide lockdown, when it was revealed there were now 21 community cases.
Ardern said the current positive cases had been linked via genome sequencing to a traveller who arrived from NSW on a managed red zone flight.
That person returned a positive day one test on August 9 and was moved from the Crown Plaza hotel to the Jet Park facility.
They were then transferred to Middlemore Hospital on August 16.
Ardern said the period in which cases were in the community was relatively short, but new information could change this conclusion.
She said primary lines of investigation were staff at the Crown Plaza, staff at the Jet Park facility and staff involved in their arrival and transport. Middlemore Hospital was not part of the investigation.
Customs were investigating footage and identifying areas of interest and testing staff.
“Nothing has eventuated from this line of inquiry to date,” she said.
Staff at Jet Park and Crown Plaza were being retested.
Watch the update
Today’s covid media briefing by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Video: RNZ News
Ardern said a family adjacent to the case at the Crown Plaza had now tested positive for covid on their day 12 test.
“That means we’re dealing with a high level of infectivity in this case.”
She said everyone at the Crown Plaza would stay on while the usual protocols were undertaken.
Ardern said while compliance across the managed isolation sites for vaccination had been very high, “we will continue our search in a thorough way across both sites as you would expect”.
Ardern thanked the first positive case for getting tested.
“If it wasn’t for you getting tested when you did, this could be a much much more difficult situation.
“Having said that, we’re prepared for cases to get worse before they get better, that is always the pattern in these outbreaks. But today, we believe we’ve uncovered the piece of the puzzle we were looking for,” she said.
A “stopping delta” promo advertisement of the Covid-19 United Against Covid-19 campaign mounted by the NZ government. Image: NZ govt flyer/APR
Stamping out ability improved
“That means our ability to circle the virus, lock it down, and stamp it out generally has greatly improved.”
Dr Bloomfield said all cases in the community are being transferred safely to a quarantine facility or are already there.
He said 12 of the 21 cases had already been confirmed as being part of the same Auckland cluster. A further eight wdere currently being investigated.
“These new community cases are not unexpected, as the prime minister said, and we would expect the number of cases to continue to grow in particular because of the large number of locations of interest and the mobility of these cases over the few days before the lockdown started.”
As of this morning, more than 360 individual contacts had been identified, although this did exclude contacts from large settings.
Number will increase
“Through the day-to-day, that number will increase significantly.”
Dr Bloomfield said they were fielding a large number of complaints about people holding gatherings and they were being referred to police.
“As you can see from that update, level 4 is where New Zealand needs to be at the moment,” Ardern said.
Ardern said ministers would meet tomorrow morning to decide the lockdown level for the rest of the country outside Auckland and Coromandel. The decision would be shared at tomorrow’s 1pm update.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
New Zealand police are out again today enforcing the rules of the level 4 lockdown concentrating on dealing with any illegal gatherings, ensuring all travel is essential and providing reassurance patrols at places like supermarkets.
Yesterday there were eight arrests at anti-lockdown protests in Auckland and Whangarei and drivers across the country were checked to ensure travel was for essential purposes only.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the delta variant was different and needed a firmer approach because any gathering was problematic.
He said so far police had been pleased with people’s compliance with the rules.
“Very good, we’re really pleased with the way things are going, you know it always takes a couple of days to settle down into the rhythm of this, but the vast majority of people have been doing exactly the right thing, so we’re very happy,” he said.
Coster said yesterday’s anti-lockdown protests were disappointing and although police respected people’s right to protest now was not the time to be gathering.
He said they expected that further protests could be a possibility and police would take a similar approach to yesterday when arrests were made.
‘We need to knuckle down’
“You know people are entitled to express their views but we really just need to knuckle down and get through this and the more we do that the shorter this lockdown is likely to be.”
Coster said about 40 percent of police staff were vaccinated but they would like that to be at 100 percent.
“Clearly they’re out protecting our communities and obviously their risk level is higher as a result of doing that.
“They’re all wearing protective equipment but we’re working as hard as we can to speed up that vaccination rate dependant on the ability to access vaccines and get it done.”
Coster said the police internal vaccination programme would start up again tomorrow and it looked like they should be able to speed up the rate of vaccinations.
He said today police would be focusing on any gatherings to ensure they were dealt with quickly, ensure that any movement on the roads was only for essential purposes and then reassurance patrols in areas such as supermarkets.
Infected cluster could reach 120 RNZ News reports the number of people infected with the delta variant could grow to 120 before the outbreak is brought under control, according to expert estimates.
New Zealanders are being warned to expect more cases of covid 19 over the next few days, but a mathematician says the numbers depends how long it has been spreading undetected.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
I am a simple country surgeon. I take care of children in Louisiana from birth until the hospital tells me they’re too old for our colorful walls and stickers. You will see these children when you stroll along New Orleans’s French Quarter, playing makeshift drums with their bands in Jackson Square or reaching out for beads along the St. Charles Mardi Gras parade route. You may forget about them after each hurricane fades from the news, but they are here, living, thriving and yearning for a normal that seems to fade deeper into their short memories. These children still come in waves through our doors at Children’s Hospital New Orleans after being shot; getting in a car accident; or experiencing a sickle cell crisis, cancer, premature birth, appendicitis or asthma exacerbations … and the pandemic has not spared them.
This has been a hard year and a half for everyone, and it seems like with every wave it gets worse. Five days ago, after a particularly hard weekend on call, I pleaded with friends to reconsider their stances against masking, vaccinations and distancing. I have read the anti-masking and anti-vaccination posts and memes, and I desperately want to convince those with hesitation that COVID is real — and that this Delta wave is different, especially as it pertains to children. I want to emphasize that the vaccine has been tested and is safe for us, and can protect against severe sickness. Masking and distancing can minimize the risks of contracting or transmitting the virus. Catherine O’Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, the largest hospital in Louisiana, has beenpleading for a month that she and her colleagues are having to make decisions that should be unfathomable in the greatest nation in the world.
It’s true that the vaccine is not 100 percent guaranteed against COVID — but what in life is guaranteed, except death? We say, “United we stand, divided we fall,” and yet, I can’t help thinking that we have already fallen.
I wish I could invite those who are resisting anti-COVID measures to spend a day with us at the hospital. The majority of my day seems normal — operations, clinics, rounds — except that none of the operations are for children who require an overnight admission for a problem that is not time-sensitive, because our hospital is back to full capacity. Then I see a car full of kids who’ve been in an accident, and some test positive for COVID. They’re intubated due to other injuries, and I have to tell mom that her youngest child’s respiratory status may decline because of the virus, on top of the bruising to his lungs. Mom also tests positive, and now can only visit her children in the hospital while balancing the need to effectively isolate herself. Meanwhile, the room next door holds an immunocompromised child who does not have the defenses to fight a viral infection.
I walk to the intensivist’s office to discuss our other COVID patients. Is the toddler on a ventilator getting better? How about the baby who has been on the most intense form of life support, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)? How do we balance the increased risk of blood clotting due to COVID with the fact that he has developed a brain bleed secondary to this life-sustaining therapy? This little guy only weighs a few pounds. He has required so many blood transfusions that it’s putting a strain on our already depleted blood bank. There is another baby who got COVID from a visiting family member because they didn’t want to miss out on snuggling even though they felt sick, and now is further isolated from his family. We have 15 to 20 other COVID-positive children who are currently admitted to the hospital.
I know how to deal with stress. I completed five years of general surgery residency, two years in a research lab, and two years of pediatric surgery fellowship. I have seen death. I have learned from my complications. But this is different than stress. As doctors, we talk about wellness and resilience, moral distress and second victim injury. These are all real – the majority of us entered medicine because it was a calling, because we wanted to be healers. But it turns out we can’t save everyone by ourselves. We need all of your help to prevent the spread of COVID, so these beds, nurses, and resources remain available. Because each ECMO circuit, every ventilator, every bed that is taken up by COVID is going to be away from a baby with heart disease, a cancer patient, a child who needs surgery but can’t get it right now because we have no more staff. If you saw what these nurses saw and how hard they worked for the last year, you would understand why so many are leaving their calling. Morally, how am I supposed to choose between your child and someone else’s baby when we only have one ICU bed left?
What haunts me most are the children I never get to meet. The other night, I had to say no to a transfer because area hospitals are full for ECMO capability, and we were also reaching capacity. It reminded me of the time, as a fellow, I received a frantic call from a nearby hospital of a toddler who had been shot in the abdomen. The desperation from the other ER physician as he described the distended abdomen, most certainly full of blood, in a small body that he was doing his best to pump blood back into. “What can I do?” he asked. I attempted to talk him through a resuscitative thoracotomy. “Cut his chest open. Open the pericardium. Cross clamp the aorta and keep doing compressions. If you get a heartbeat back, send him here as fast as you can.” I never met that child, but I will never forget his parents, frantically looking for their baby boy in our hospital hallways because they were told he was coming to us. They were covered in blood, pleading for any information anyone may have, unsure of where to go to find their baby — and their eyes emptying as I had to tell them that he never made it to us.
If you know me, you know I’m arrogant enough to think I can fix almost anything. However, I can’t fix someone that I never get to meet. Many hospitals are at the point where we have to say “no.” North Texas is out of pediatric ICU beds. University of Mississippi is setting up patient care areas in the parking garage. Patients are getting ICU level care in the ER hallways. In Baton Rouge, Dr. O’Neal has been unable to accept transfers for a month — 20 to 25 “nos” a day. My vascular surgeon colleague at the same hospital in Baton Rouge could not accept a transfer of a patient with a clot in the leg because the hospital was full. I can only imagine that without the time-sensitive intervention required, this person has lost their leg. They never got to meet the doctor who could fix their problem.
I am a simple country surgeon. I am not an expert in public health or infectious disease, but I am pretty good at fixing kids with a scalpel. Help us to keep helping these kids, your kids, by allowing me to do my job to the full capacity I can. Please, vaccinate if you qualify. Continue to wear a mask and wash your hands. Stay home if you’re sick. These are clear ways to save children’s lives — and prevent their lives from being endangered in the first place.
New Zealand’s streets were largely silent today as the three-day nationwide alert-level 4 lockdown kicked in with 10 cases of covid-19 reported so far — the first outbreak for more than six months.
As test results rolled in this morning, it was announced four other people were covid-19 positive. The new cases were linked to Case A, a 58-year-old Devonport tradesman, diagnosed with the virus yesterday.
It was subsequently confirmed he had the delta variant, something health experts already took for granted.
Two more cases were announced at the 1pm media briefing by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, again all linked to Case A, and another three were added to the total towards the end of the day.
The three include a 60-year-old woman who has no known link to the existing cluster, but does have a link to the border.
The other two are a man in his 20s who is the partner of a known case who was reported as a positive case this morning; and a woman in her 20s who has a connection with another case reported today.
Two of the cases announced at 1pm today have also now been linked to existing cases, including a female teenager who was a close contact of a case reported today and a man in his 20s who visited the household where three of the cases reported today live.
AUT student among cases
An Auckland University of Technology student who was at a lecture yesterday is also among the new cases of covid-19 reported in the community today. The student was infectious when attending a social institutions lecture in room WG403 on AUT’s City Campus between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday.
The first seven cases in the delta variant outbreak of covid-19 New Zealand. A further three have been announced – two connected to the cluster, and one who is not, but has a link to the border. Graphic: Vinay Ranchhod/RNZ
Other positive cases
A 29-year-old workmate of Case A
A 25-year-old female teacher at Avondale College who is a flatmate of Case A’s workmate.
A 20-year-old man, a flatmate of Case A’s workmate.
Two friends of those living in the flat tested positive – a 21-year-old woman and a man aged 19.
A man in his 20s who is the partner of a known case, and a woman in her 20s who has a connection to the other cases.
A woman in her 60s who does not have a connection to the other nine cases but does have a connection to the border.
Further details about the three most recent cases will be announced at the 1pm update tomorrow.
Ardern this afternoon also confirmed genome sequencing had linked Case A to the New South Wales outbreak.
She said three people had tested positive with this covid strain in New Zealand managed isolation facilities, including two this month. It will be known later this evening if Case A’s strain matched either of these strains in managed isolation.
It was announced that one of the women infected had visited a North Shore church on Sunday morning and also gone to a nightclub in Auckland’s central city on Sunday night.
Central Auckland Church of Christ in Freemans Bay and SkyCity Casino are being treated as important locations of interest.
Dr Bloomfield and modeller Professor Michael Plank said cases of the delta variant could exceed 100, but that the hard lockdown would give authorities time to stamp it out.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern kept media informed of developments. Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
Mask-wearing made mandatory The government made it mandatory to wear masks while visiting essential services, including supermarkets and petrol stations.
Speaking to media this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “From 11.50pm tonight, it will be mandatory for everyone aged 12 and over to wear a mask when they are visiting any of the essential services that are currently open, including supermarkets, pharmacies and service stations.”
Staff will also be required to wear a mask. Mandatory mask use includes places like bus terminals and taxis.
Supermarket panic buying Meanwhile, supermarkets have experienced a run on products, with stocks being diminished as people panic-buy items during lockdown.
Supermarket chain Countdown is continuing to limit the amount of some products people can buy in Auckland and the Coromandel, as shelves empty fast.
Countdown also says it has purchased an extra 2000 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to boost its fresh produce supply.
Finance Minister backs recovery Also addressing media today was Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who said he was confident the the economy would be resilient in the face of the current outbreak.
Robertson yesterday announced businesses that had a 40 percent drop in revenue would be eligible for the wage subsidy scheme and could also apply for the resurgence support payment.
He said the government did not need to take on additional borrowing at this time.
“Clearly if we were in a situation as we were last year and we had a very extended lockdown, the Reserve Bank would look at what its role is.”
Fear of Aucklanders taking delta to holiday homes Residents in Northland said today they were concerned to see high traffic levels heading up highways, fearing Aucklanders were coming en masse to stay in holiday bachs, potentially bringing the delta variant with them.
Police turned back vehicles heading into the Coromandel and urged the public not to set up their own checkpoints.
Vaccinations to resume Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this afternoon a resumption of vaccinations, paused to ensure public safety during the transition to alert level 4 lockdown.
Ardern said plans are being activated for all DHBs to resume vaccinations under level 4 conditions, and in some cases they would resume today.
She said people who had booked in for a vaccine for tomorrow onwards should go to receive the jab, even if they had not heard anything.
“To put it bluntly if you’ve had the vaccine you are less likely to catch covid-19 and much less likely to get sick or die,” she told the 1pm media briefing.
Approximately 50 people attended an anti-lockdown protest in Auckland’s CBD. Photo: RNZ / Katie Doyle
Conspiracy theorist arrested While people adjusted to the new health crisis, other less well-adjusted came out on the the streets to protest what they claimed was an unjust infringement of civil liberties.
Prominent conspiracy theorist Billy TK led the small crowd of about 50 protesters outside TVNZ’s HQ in Auckland and was arrested by police. Police confirmed four arrests and four further arrests at a protest in Tauranga.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said police would not hesitate to arrest people at unlawful gatherings during lockdown.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
An Auckland University of Technology (AUT) student who was at a lecture yesterday is among the 10 new cases of covid-19 reported in the community in New Zealand today.
This takes the total to 11 cases of the highly infectious delta variant since the first one was announced yesterday.
There were three new community cases of covid-19 reported this evening by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office. More details on the new cases will be revealed tomorrow.
The AUT student was at a social sciences lecture at the school’s City Campus between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday.
The school has identified 84 other people who were at the lecture.
Speaking to RNZ Checkpoint, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins also confirmed there had been new cases.
“We’re seeing more cases coming through, I don’t have details of those cases. But yes, I can confirm that we have further positive test results since the press conference today.”
Not the index case
Hipkins also said it was “almost certain” the first case announced yesterday, a 58-year-old Devonport man, was not the index case connected to the border.
“Almost certain they were given covid-19 by someone else. What we’re trying to do is identify how many steps in that chain of transmission there are before we got to the Devonport case.”
He added that a decision on vaccinating people under 16 years old for covid-19 would come soon.
“I’m not announcing something on your show tonight but you can expect to hear more very shortly on that.”
Meanwhile, the Countdown supermarket chain is continuing to limit the amount of some products people can buy in Auckland and the Coromandel, as shelves empty in the latest lockdown.
The supermarket applied a limit of six on some products yesterday evening, which includes toilet paper, flour, bags of rice, dry pasta, UHT milk, frozen vegetables, baby formula and pet food.
It says it will monitor stock levels around the country and will make changes to limits if needed.
Countdown also says it has purchased an extra 2000 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to boost its fresh produce supply.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
The Auckland Hospital nurse who has tested positive for covid-19 worked four shifts not knowing she had the virus, says New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
The 21-year-old nurse is a flatmate of a man who worked with the first case to be discovered and announced yesterday. She was fully vaccinated, the Ministry of Health said earlier.
Auckland Hospital had written to all staff asking them to stay home if unwell, to wear masks and to restrict their movement around the central city buildings as much as possible.
All case friends
He said the two new cases were linked to the current outbreak and were in Auckland. They are friends with the four cases reported this morning.
NZ’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield … with the latest cases being active young people in their 20s, many locations of interest are expected. Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
Dr Bloomfield said there were also three cases in managed isolation.
The other four cases found earlier today include a work colleague of the case found yesterday, who is a 20-year-old man. He has three flatmates — including the Auckland Hospital nurse — and has been working in recent days.
There is also a 25-year-old teacher at Avondale College and a 29-year-old man.
The two more recent cases found today include a 21-year-old woman and 19-year-old man who both live in Auckland and are linked to the current cases as friends.
The wife of the original case has returned a second negative test.
Dr Bloomfield said contact tracing capacity had been increased, and with the latest cases being active young people in their 20s, there were expected to be many locations of interest.
Locations updating
Those locations would be constantly updated as more information comes to hand, he said.
Dr Bloomfield said calls to Healthline should be restricted to seeking a test.
On genome sequencing, Prime Minister Ardern said overnight it has been confirmed that the outbreak was the delta variant, and that it was linked to the NSW outbreak.
She said only three positive cases had arrived into MIQ from Sydney since 1 July. One on August 9 on their day 1 test, and two on August 14 on their day three test.
These three cases were being genome sequenced right now, as part of the usual processes, Ardern said.
Ardern said everyone who came from NSW and Queensland was compliant with the travel restrictions.
She said despite that, the government was preparing to contact all cases who had arrived from Australia should they find the community case was not linked to the three positive cases from MIQ.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
“While the epidemiological variance and transmission link for the community case in New Zealand is still being investigated, we must act swiftly here to minimise exposure risk for the Cook Islands so we remain safe,” said Prime Minister Mark Brown.
This alert level change will mean that international inwards passenger arrivals for 72 hours through to Thursday have been suspended.
The pause on international arrivals will allow Te Marae Ora Ministry of Health to test arriving passengers from August 11.
This also means domestic travel to the Pa Enua from Rarotonga is suspended until Thursday.
Passengers can return to NZ
Passengers can return to New Zealand from Rarotonga. Passengers from Pa Enua can return back to Rarotonga.
The alert level change and travel bubble suspension was announced after a 58-year-old Devonport man tested positive yesterday in Auckland, New Zealand, after visiting a GP. He was infectious from August 12.
The man, who was not vaccinated, and his wife travelled to Coromandel over the weekend. His wife was fully vaccinated.
He is considered to have become infectious on August 12. There were 23 locations of interest, 10 in Auckland and 13 in Coromandel.
Auckland and Coromandel went into level 4 lockdown for seven days – and the rest of New Zealand for three days – from 11.59pm (NZ time) last night.
While announcing the nationwide alert level change last night, Prime Minister Brown said the Cabinet made the decision based on the information available “at this time, all necessary precautions have been considered”.
“While the epidemiological variance and transmission link for the community case in New Zealand is still being investigated, we must act swiftly here to minimise exposure risk for the Cook Islands so we remain safe,” Brown said.
Cooks Cabinet to meet
“This is a good time to remind ourselves of the need to practice good hygiene measures, and to actively tag in with Cooksafe and Cooksafe+.”
The Cook Islands Cabinet will meet again today to consider new updated information received and next steps.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said last night the positive case could not be confirmed as delta until genome sequencing was confirmed today, but every recent MIQ case had been delta.
“We’ve seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act in other countries, not least our neighbours … the (family) bubble is back,” she said.
Ardern said the delta variant was potentially twice as infectious and more liable to cause severe illness.
“We are one of the last countries in the world to have the delta variant in our community. This has given us the chance to learn from others.”
She said delta was a “game-changer” and there needed to be a rapid response to stop the spread.
“We only get one chance.”
Ardern said physical distancing was even more important given how easily delta can be transmitted – including through the air. There would be a 48-hour window for people to relocate in New Zealand.
Cook Islands News stories are republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced an alert-level 4 lockdown starting at 11.59pm tonight for seven days in Auckland and Coromandel, and three days elsewhere.
Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield briefed media after a Cabinet meeting on the covid-19 community case identified in Auckland today.
The Ministry of Health announced about 2.30pm today a new case had been found in the community in Auckland, saying a link between the case and the border or managed isolation had not been established.
In announcing the government’s decision, Ardern said going hard and early had worked before and that the delta variant was harder to combat.
Dr Bloomfield said they were assuming it was the delta variant. The man, a 58-year-old male from Devonport, on Auckland’s North Shore, lives with his wife.
She was tested yesterday and returned a negative test.
Vaccinations have also been paused for 48 hours.
Dr Bloomfield thanked the person who tested positive for going for a test and emphasised that although the man was not vaccinated, he had been booked in.
Ardern said it had not been a matter of if but when the variant arrived in the community.
“I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for that eventuality and that we will now be putting in place that plan to contain and stamp out covid-19 once again,” Ardern said.
“Going hard and early has worked for us before, while we know that delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat the same actions that overcame the virus last year can be applied to beat it again.”
The couple visited Coromandel last week, Dr Bloomfield said. They returned on August 15.
The man is a frequent user of the covid-19 tracer app.
Five locations of interest in Coromandel
Locations of interest have been identified in both Coromandel and in Auckland.
The contact tracing locations of interest include Star and Garter Hotel, Umu Cafe, BP Gas Station on Tiki Rd and Taras Beads. The man visited them between August 13 and 15.
Current locations of interest in New Zealand
Locations of interest announced tonight.
Further locations between Coromandel and Auckland are likely to be identified.
Dr Bloomfield said there would be additional testing centres in Auckland tomorrow and all district health boards would ensure efficient testing capacity.
Last wastewater testing on North Shore on August 11 has returned negative results.
“This case was identified in Auckland but it is a national issue,” Dr Bloomfield said.
Ardern said New Zealand was one of the last countries to experience a case of delta. It was a “game changer” and the country only had one chance to get on top of it, she said.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield … reassuring that wastewater tests on North Shore had so far not detected any signs of covid-19. Image: Samuel Rillstone/RNZ
“We have made decisions on the basis it is better to start high then go down levels,” she said.
New Zealand had seen overseas the consequences of not acting quickly enough, she added.
Lift our game The underlying principal of level 4 was to reduce contact to a bare minimum, Ardern said.
“Beating delta means lifting our game,” she said. “I ask New Zealanders to please follow the rules to the letter.”
People must stay at home in level 4, only leaving for essential services, she said. “And if you undertake these activities, please wear a mask when you leave your house.”
“Stay 2m away from anyone you pass, don’t congregate and don’t stop to talk to your neighbours,” she said.
“We know from evidence overseas, that the delta variant can spread just by walking past someone.
“If you are completely isolated or live alone, remember you can join a bubble with one other person…it must just be one other person though.”
The public can drive locally to essential services, such as the supermarket, but need to stay 2m away from others and wear a mask. The public are asked to wear a mask when they go out anywhere.
“Remember to always act like you have covid-19. Stay clear of others and don’t put them in harm’s way,” Ardern said.
The government will provide the necessary financial support over the coming period.
Vaccinations suspended Ardern said vaccinations would be suspended for 48 hours, but vaccinated people must follow the rules like everybody else.
Dr Bloomfield echoed her warning and said even with high vaccination rates, the country would still need to have public health measures in place.
Health officials will be looking at what extra protocols might need to be put in place before the vaccination campaign resumes.
Dr Bloomfield said it was reassuring wastewater testing in Auckland last week did not show any signs of covid-19, which indicated infection was not widespread.
Dr Bloomfield says the most important thing is to stop the outbreak, which requires stopping people’s movement.
Ardern and Dr Bloomfield will provide another media update at 1pm tomorrow.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said 817 new cases were confirmed in both the Western and Central DivisionS on the main island of Viti Levu.
He said of the latest cases, 500 were from the west and the rest from the central.
Dr Fong said 350 new cases and 23 deaths were confirmed yesterday while 467 cases and three deaths were reported on Sunday.
He said all the victims died between August 11 and 15, and aged 43-86 years.
“We have 23 covid-19 deaths to report on Monday – 20 of them from the west and three from the central division. There were three victims from Sunday.
“The 7-day rolling average of covid deaths in the Central Division is five and 3 in the West.”
There are 208 positive patients who died but Dr Fong said their deaths were caused by pre-existing medical conditions and not due to covid-19.
Fiji now has 22,494 active cases in isolation, with more than half of them at home.
There have been 394 deaths reported, with 392 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April.
Movement restricted in north Overnight, restriction of movement was enforced on the northern port town of Nabouwalu.
This came after the country’s second largest island – Vanua Levu – recorded its first case of covid-19 last weekend. As of midnight, movement has been restricted in the area for 14 days, the Health Ministry said.
It said contact tracing teams had identified 33 primary and 70 secondary contacts of the patient who worked at the Nabouwalu Wharf in Bua. All the contacts have tested negative for covid and remain under quarantine.
“As a precaution, an area of restricted movement will be initiated from within Nabouwalu for the next 14 days,” Dr Fong said.
“The containment area will extend from Raralevu-i-Cake to Wainisevu and along the coast of Nabouwalu Village.
“The two checkpoints maintained in the containment will be checkpoint one opposite the Nabouwalu market controlling movement into the main road that runs into the containment area and checkpoint two at Raralevu-i-cake past Nabouwalu village towards Wainunu.
“The objectives of this containment zone protocol is to facilitate heightened community surveillance, conduct more contact tracing, escalate our covid safe community engagement program and to increase vaccination coverage in targeted areas throughout the Nabouwalu containment zone.”
Dr Fong said movement into and out of the containment area would be restricted to facilitate essential service provision and access to groceries and post-office services.
He said the office of the provincial administrator and subdivisional medical teams has been carrying out community awareness on other specific movement restriction protocols.
“They will continue this awareness exercise throughout the next couple of days. The northern health team is setting up clinic sites at the Solevu Immaculate Conception Junior Secondary School, the Bua Nursing Station and the Lekutu Health Centre to cater for the health needs of those living outside the containment area.
“Nabouwalu hospital will also be used by the health teams for emergency care only.”
300 plus covid patients in hospital There are 309 covid-19 patients admitted to hospital — 118 are at the Lautoka Hospital, 49 at the FEMAT field hospital, and 142 are at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, St Giles and Makoi hospitals.
Dr Fong said 38 patients are in severe condition and 15 critical.
A total of 652 people have been screened and 179 swabbed in the last 24 hours, “bringing our cumulative total to 456,883 individuals screened and 79,508 swabbed to date.
“As of the 15th August, 41 individuals were screened and seven swabbed. This brings our cumulative total to 790,410 individuals screened and 69,932 swabbed by our mobile teams.
“A total of 308,570 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 351, 431 tested since testing began in March 2020. 848 tests have been reported for August 15th. The 7-day daily test average is 1538 tests per day or 1.7 tests per 1000 population.”
Fiji’s seven-day average daily test positivity is 29.1 percent. The World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold is at five percent.
Dr Fong said as of 15 August, 533,705 people had received their first dose of the vaccine and 211,496 both jabs.
“This means that 91 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 36.1 percent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide.
“We are currently doing a mop up exercise of our first dose campaign, which will allow us to specifically target specific communities with low coverage, and subsequently also correct and update the total eligible population for our current vaccination program.
“Fijians can check the Ministry’s vaccine dashboard to find real-time data on first-dose and second-dose numbers at the national, divisional and sub-divisional levels.”
Dr Fong said the average daily new cases is 429 cases per day or 485 cases per million population per day.
He said there had been a drop in cases reported per day recently. But the daily testing numbers had also decreased around the same time due to the change in testing policy in the Suva-Nausori containment zone.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A year after our NM article about the impact of COVID-19 mitigation measures on Sumba we have an update. The main conclusions of our brief check in East Sumba last year in May was that there were very few COVID-19 infections, that people were more worried about harvest failure than about getting the virus, and that the local economy suffered from the lock down measures because market demand for products had collapsed.
We’ve closely followed developments since then, and in July 2021 the second author checked on the villages we studied in 2017 for our research on household vulnerability, poverty and the impact of social protection programs in Indonesia. What are the effects of the current crisis on the villagers? From their stories about the last year, we realised that the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigating measures were not the only crisis. Rather, four disasters occurred simultaneously. As well as COVID-19, a cyclone and animal diseases have hit the island, and a plantation expansion continues to threaten subsistence farmers’ livelihoods. The mix of all these disasters is leading to a decrease in the communities’ resource basis on which their resilience depends, but also had some surprisingly positive results. For example, where one family lost everything when the floods following the cyclone washed away their house and the crops in their riverbank garden, another family had a good year because excessive rain allowed a second crop of rice.
Community resource base
News stories about effects of disasters often show what happened to an individual or household. However, in Sumba the impact of disasters is very much a community matter. Sumba has a specific community economy, in which mutual assistance between members of lineage communities is a strong mechanism for coping with crisis. Local society has an economic class divide with a top layer consisting of government officials, businessmen, and local leaders who are well connected to government and business. Their spouses and children are included in this level. The remaining large majority consists of people who are mostly self-employed or work as casual labourers, and their households. Cross-cutting this class divide, lineage communities function very well, connecting the poorer population in the villages to their salary-earning relatives in town. These communities have their natural resource base in their ancestral villages and surrounding land. (Bio)diversity in the community base allows a large extent of food sovereignty, also for the community members living in town. Relatives in the village grow rice and maize and vegetables, dry fish and collect forest products. They share part of it with their urban relatives who in turn help them out when they have to pay school fees, tax or other monetary expenses. In Sumba, a sound resource base is a prerequisite for resilience in times of crisis, because there is little insurance and only limited regular government support. Ceremonial exchange between affiliated communities during weddings and funerals keeps the community economy alive. The main currencies in that exchange are livestock (pigs, horses and water buffaloes) and hand woven ikat cloths. These ceremonial assets are also part of the community’s resource base. During the last year four factors threatened that base, thereby increasing the common people’s vulnerability.
Four disasters
The first and silently continuing change that threatens the communities’ resource base is capitalist expansion, in particular the enclosure of areas for plantations, food estates and the tourism industry. The owners and investors are companies from outside Sumba, including large national business conglomerates (like Djarum) that work locally through smaller subsidiary companies. Large plantations reduce the local population’s access to lands, in particular to the fields where they used to graze their horses, cows and goats. A former herdsman told us that he then had to keep his cattle at stable and collect fodder which is an extra claim on his labour. Selling his livestock was the only remaining option. Water problems are another impact of capitalist plantation expansion. The sugar plantation of PT MSM has appropriated the rivers and springs in the Umalulu district, using the water for irrigating sugarcane. The downstream community irrigation scheme dried up in 2016. For some local peasants who could no longer cultivate their paddy fields, the closest available alternative employment was working as casual labourer for the plantation company. Steady plantations jobs are mainly for staff from Java, while casual labourers’ wages are low and labour conditions bad. Agrochemicals in the plantation’s wastewater pollute the rivers, and will do so even more when operations are at full scale. This is a threat to community health and to fishery.
Capitalist expansion in the tourism sector decreases the local population’s access to land in similar ways as plantations do. Sumba’s coastal strip of land has been for sale for two decades. The fences that speculative land purchasers and resort owners from other areas in Indonesia have put up make access difficult. Fishermen also suffer from enclosure of coastal plots for establishing tourist resorts, because resort owners prohibit access to their territory, including their strip of beach and sea. Capitalist expansion is supported by the district government with legal permits, which turns the local population into illegal encroachers if they access their former lands or fishing areas. Although these developments are no longer news items, they have a heavy impact as basic resilience-disrupting force at work in East Sumba. Profit-oriented large-scale capitalist expansion is a disaster for the common people in Sumba, and will be eventually for the elite class and the environment as well.
The second disaster is an epidemic of livestock disease. Although peasants in Sumba are used to having pests and plant diseases in their crops, and losing some livestock to animal diseases, this epidemic was extraordinary. The African Swine Fever (ASF) entered the island Timor in 2019, and spread over the province NTT from March 2020 onwards. It killed a large part of the pig population—estimated at 2 million animals—in the province.
Pigs are extremely important in Sumba for two reasons. First, they are the main currency in ceremonial exchange, and therefore the cement of the community economy. Every important meeting or event in Sumba should end with a meal including pork. Pigs are also the most important source of savings among the village population. In our 2017 household survey, in a village with a strong resource base in the south-eastern tip of the island, we found that income from selling pigs and chicken contributed largely to household cash income that year, both for the poor (42%) and for the non-poor (72%). The ASF epidemic is like a banking crisis in which savings and assets have evaporated. The government veterinary service seems unable to prevent or stop the epidemic, which persists.
The third disaster in the past year was the cyclone that occurred on 4 and 5 April 2021. Cyclone Seroja was an extreme example of the main climate change problem of the last two decades: disturbed rainfall patterns. In daily practice this means that farmers no longer know when exactly to sow or plant their new crops; in some years there are severe droughts and in others there are floods. But this year was exceptional. Cyclone Seroja washed away crops in the lower parts of valleys and along overflowing rivers, and damaged around 5000 houses. Not far from Waingapu floods caused by the cyclone broke the Kambaniru dam, which destroyed irrigated rice cultivation in an area of 1440 hectares.
In the village mentioned above people prefer to cultivate their crops in river-bank gardens to cope with droughts. This year they lost everything. Meanwhile, the harvest in the uphill gardens was better than normal. The cyclone also toppled many trees, including rare local varieties of banana trees with famously delicious fruit. In the rice fields most crops were harvested before April, but for those who had planted late, the flood washed away everything.
Since March 2020 the COVID pandemic has become the fourth disaster. In last year’s article we wrote how the mitigating measures had negative effects on the local economy. By mid-June 2020, trade opportunities were slightly restored after the provincial government eased lock down measures. Communities could gather again for ceremonial events, be it with limited attendance. There were no tourists to buy food, snacks or handwoven cloths from locals. The single high-end resort on the island was the exception, where the world’s rich continued to enjoy perfectly comfortable self-isolation. For a long time the number of infections remained low, and particularly in rural areas there was little sign of a pandemic.
At the end of June 2021 that changed. The number of positive cases went up from 92 on 28 May to 860 on 21 July. That is extremely worrying, because the island lacks sufficient, capable health care facilities. By 26 July 2021, government health service data indicated 3,215 infections in East Sumba the outbreak of the pandemic, with 62 deaths. On that day, 935 people were being treated: 34 patients in Waingapu’s public hospital (which is its full capacity) and 31 in the official public quarantine facility. The remaining 879 were in self-isolation at home, where they should receive medical supervision from the local health post. However, that does not always happen, particularly outside of the capital. Government Health Service data about the spread of the infections in East Sumba indicated proliferation to nearly all subdistricts by 21 July .
Case numbers on 21 July, according to the East Sumba Regency Coordinating Post for the Accelerated Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19.
Most instances occur in the capital town and adjacent area, and are concentrated around the sugar plantation, PT MSM. However, the figures only represent positive test results in an area with low testing capacity. We do not know how many people have been infected in reality. Many “self-employed” people in East Sumba prefer not to get tested, either embarrassed by the stigma of “COVID-positive”, or unable to risk the loss of income due to a 14-day mandatory self-quarantine.
The vaccination rate in East Sumba is below the national level in Indonesia. By 12 July 2021, of a total population of 26,500 in 2020, 10 percent had received at least one vaccination (13.4 percent nationally), while 2.5 % is fully vaccinated (5.6 % nationally). Civil servants were prioritised for vaccination; they make up 58% of the total vaccinated population in this area. Common people’s vulnerability to COVID infections is very high.
Zooming in to our field research in three villages, we glimpse how the mix of disaster factors has affected people in varying ways.
First of all, in the two most remote villages there were no cases of COVID infection reported up to July 2021. By contrast, the sugar plantation, close to the third village, became a centre of infections after staff members from Java had spent their Ramadan holidays in their hometowns, with 113 cases on 21 July 2021. The adjacent village had 10 positive cases at that time. This suggests that plantation labourers are more vulnerable to getting infected than the peasants in the remote villages.
A positive development in the three villages, and all over East Sumba, was that the rainy season was abundant and early. Even in the usually driest areas people began cultivating rice and maize in November and harvest in February and March 2021. The heavy rains during Cyclone Seroja did not only lead to disaster. The area with the village irrigation scheme downstream from the sugar plantation benefitted from water excess. In the middle of the rice fields springs appeared and upstream, rivers that would usually be dry by April were flowing. Many people could grow a second rice crop, even on high plots. Consequently, 2021 has seen an excellent rice harvest in East Sumba. For peasants who grow maize and other dry land crops the year was not as good. Too much rain stimulated pests in these crops.
The rough seas with storms and rain brought a huge amount of seas grass to the coast of East Sumba, offering sea grass gatherers a great income.
The mix of disasters led to a steady flow of emergency assistance from the government. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, villagers have received direct cash support in the two remotest villages. A villager told us that all households had received a small grant from the Village Fund (Dana Desa), because in this COVID year the village government had cancelled all plans for building roads or bridges, simultaneously cutting off income opportunities for village road workers. Regular forms of government social support also continued. After the cyclone there was emergency aid for those whose houses had been severely damaged.
There was also a positive effect for ex-migrant workers. Because the heavy rains extended the wet season there was more time and opportunity to grow crops. That was fortunate for those who had returned to the village after losing their jobs as migrant workers in other parts in Indonesia. Cultivating community lands offered work, food and income, and new ideas for improving farming produce and techniques.
When the severe lock down measures were lifted in June 2020, villagers continued the ceremonial events they had postponed for months. However, they lacked the livestock they needed for ceremonial exchange, because of the swine fever epidemic and reduced access to grazing lands, where previously they would let their horses and cattle graze freely. As a solution, societal consensus allowed a change of norms: gifts of pigs, horses and buffaloes could be replaced by cash contributions, whereas beef (instead of pork) became accepted for the meals at these events. A second saving solution was that traditional leaders decided to reduce the duration of ceremonial events as well as the number of invitations. The change is temporary, leaders say, but this adaptation might last if the causes of crises continue.
Continuing vulnerability
Although there have been positive results from the mix of disasters in East Sumba, demonstrating remarkable resilience, we should not conclude that the problems have been solved. What is described above is not a series of incidental disasters, but the result of structural problems related to capitalist expansion, climate change and recurring global epidemics.
If next season will be one of drought again in East Sumba, people will suffer from the sugar plantation’s water grabbing. So long as there is no vaccine for African Swine Fever there will be a continuing ‘banking crisis’ in Sumba. If common people in Sumba do not get COVID-19 vaccinations soon many people’s lives will be at risk.
In absence of a welfare state that reaches all citizens, the district and village governments of East Sumba should give top priority to (legally and environmentally) protecting communities’ resource bases, instead of supporting capitalist expansion which depletes the island’s resources and exports profits out of reach of the local population.
Two days after President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Mā’ohi Nui last month, where the French leader urged the local population to get vaccinated against the danger of the new delta variant of the covid pandemic already on the islands, High Commissioner Domique Sorain and territorial President Édouard Fritch announced a new set of orders aimed at prohibiting unlawful gatherings.
Here is the wording of High Commissioner Sorain on local television on July 30:
“All festive events such as weddings, birthdays and baby showers, along with concerts in cafes, hotels and restaurants are prohibited” – Tahiti Infos
Sorain added a caveat that would allow restaurants and other food courts to operate if the number of guests was less than 500, with six people a table, with no dancing and performances allowed — and with respecting all protective measures already in place.
Any breach would result in a fine of up to NZ$235.
His guest list included nearly all the members of the local government (the ministers of Health and of Culture were not present) for a total number of around 300 guests at Tahiti’s Paul Gauguin Restaurant.
Wedding shown on Facebook
This event was shown on the Facebook social media platform, thanks to the work of well-known local journalist Vaite Urarii Pambrun and was viewed by thousands of internet users.
This triggered a torrent of critical comment — and at times insults — hurled at the members of the government for their blatant hypocrisy.
Journalist Pambrun also became the target of violent diatribes on social media and she was called a “snitch” by the local government’s supporters for reporting what was happening in broad daylight.
It did not help that President Fritch gave another one of his awful speeches at the wedding where he told the audience to simply throw Pambrun in the water if they ever saw her.
The wedding of the vice president: Fritch minimises and says sorry, Sorain remaining firm (Tahiti Infos)
It must be remembered that many people who transgressed against the measures imposed since March last year were fined by the High Commissioner.
“L’incompréhension” … says the banner headline on Tahiti-Infos on a story about the celebrity wedding at the Paul Gauguin Restaurant in Tahiti. Image: Tahiti-Infos screenshot
Equal penalty? One might have expected an equal penalty for all those who took part in the wedding of the year.
In a typical administrative and French fashion, the High Commissioner promised on August 8 that an investigation had been launched into the fiasco.
Somehow the comments flooding social media platforms talked about a cover-up since at least one important representative of the French state was present at the wedding, and the gendarmes (French National Police) who were sent to the restaurant came out without putting an end to the wedding like they had done on other occasions.
It also emerged that some months before, the High Commissioner was asked for authorisation to allow the wedding to go ahead, but he did not grant it.
It is ironic that the High Commissioner, who did know about the presence of one of his colleagues and the gendarmes at the wedding, did not make the decision to stop it.
To reassert his authority, the High Commissioner was quickly back on television this week to remind Tahitians once more about the importance of sticking to the preventive measures in place.
But he also called upon the political personalities who were at the wedding to provide an explanation.
Responses over the celebrity wedding of the vice-president controversy … President Fritch (left): “excuses” but “sorry”; High Commissioner Sorain: “steadfast”. Image: Tahiti-Infos screenshot
High Commissioner doubles down
He doubled down by saying that he sent the gendarmes to make a statement and that those found guilty of the breach would be fined and dealt with.
Many viewed this intervention as a stark warning to the members of government and other very important political personalities who were involved.
It signalled the beginning of a break in communication between President Fritch and High Commissioner Sorain.
President Fritch also went on television this week to respond, when asked why he waited four days to speak out, that he had wanted to see clearly what the situation was. He did not want to intervene straight after the wedding.
Clearly he was afraid to add oil to the fire straight after pictures of the wedding were posted on social media.
In his interview, he admitted that the issue was not the number of guests or the preventive measures that, according to him, were followed (although pictures and videos seemed to contradict him). Howdever, it was the live music and the performances that ensued which should never have happened.
Fritch acknowledged that the behaviour of wedding guests was not exemplary and for that he was extremely sorry.
Wedding guests not above law
He also admitted that wedding guests were not above the law, and he understood the public’s disappointment.
Fritch and his government extended an unreserved apology to the public concerning the wedding party’s “lack of judgment”. He said that the investigation was still running and he and his government would take responsibility.
It is difficult to see any kind of sincerity in President Fritch’s comments on television when we know that he lied about the danger of nuclear testing and that he was found guilty and fined for abuse of public funds.
The question remains that neither of the two government leaders have given any reasons for breaking the law — why did the police not put an end to the wedding like they had done for other festive events?
Reaction from deputies Moetai Brotherson and Nicole Sanquer
Deputy Moetai Brotherson of the opposition pro-independence party Tavini Huiraatira also found himself in hot water when people saw that he attended the wedding.
He said that he decided to leave the wedding and talk to Vaite Pambrun when unjust attacks were made against the local journalist by President Fritch.
Moetai has tried to justify his presence at the wedding by saying that he came to see the man and not Vice-President Teari’i Alpha and that he had already accepted the invitation well before the restrictions were in place.
However, in hindsight he admitted that it was wrong to have gone to the wedding and he was ready to pay the fine.
He was the first to apologise for his lack of judgement. He was however perplexed about the gendarmes who were at the wedding and did not stop it.
He assumed that the High Commissioner had given authorisation for the event.
Non-aligned Deputy Nicole Sanquer has been more scathing towards the members of the local government which she was once a member of.
‘Law and sanctions are for others’
Using her own quote: “Law and sanctions are for others”, Sanquer shamed President Fritch who liked to remind the population that it was their duty to behave in an exemplary fashion during this pandemic.
On August 5, people witnessed a real scandal.
At a wedding that gathered hundreds of people with nearly all the members of the government and elected members of the parliament, and in the middle of a concert orchestrated by Fritch and Pape’ete Mayor Michel Buillard, Sanquer said:
“I could not find the words to describe such irresponsibility and lack of common sense. What credibility do they have now?”.
The High Commissioner reminded Tahitians of the rules to follow but what was seen on Facebook showed a lack of respect for the rules.
Why didn’t the High Commissioner put an end to the party like they usually do in the city centre? Are some people exempt from the law and sanctions?
Deputy Sanquer expressed special support for fairground workers, restaurant owners, artists, frontline doctors, nurses, and the whole Ma’ohi Nui population.
‘Carry on fighting the pandemic’
She added: “Let’s carry on fighting against this pandemic by protecting ourselves and above all not rely on the example of those who govern us.”
Tahitian renewed covid-19 crisis health statistics at at August 10. Image: Tahitian Health Ministry
From a political stance, the question that should be in people’s mind is the following: are Fritch and Sorain the right people to govern Ma’ohi Nui when one considers himself above the law and the other seems reluctant to apply the law.
Alarming figures about the number of fatalities by covid-19.
The latest figures at the time of writing show 176 deaths (including 10 in 24 hours with 2 at home), 185 people in hospital (26 patients in ICU), and 1075 new cases, making it a total of more than 24,977 cases. There are 3,869 cases still active.
The number of people vaccinated with at least one dose is 103,033 since January 18, 2021.
Editor’s note: Since this article was written a further five people have died in Tahiti.
Ena Manuireva, born in Mangareva (Gambier islands) in Ma’ohi Nui (French Polynesia), is a language revitalisation researcher at Auckland University of Technology and is currently completing his doctorate on the Mangarevan language. He is also a campaigner for nuclear reparations justice from France over the 193 tests staged in Polynesia over three decades.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
That compares with 568 cases and 13 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said there were enough ventilators in health facilities across the country to accommodate the covid patients.
“We got ventilators but unfortunately many people are dying from coronavirus at home or due to late presentations,” he said.
“Severe coronavirus is a medical emergency and a delay in receiving appropriate medical treatment reduces your chance of recovering from the disease.
Plea to visit healthcare facilities
“If you have severe symptoms of coronavirus, please visit the nearest healthcare facility to get medical treatment. Call 165 if you are unable to travel to a medical facility.”
There have been 345 deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji, with 343 of those victims dying during the outbreak that started in April this year.
There have been 38,742 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021; and 38,812 cases recorded in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 14,301 recoveries.
Of the latest cases, Dr Fong said 254 were from the Western Division and 144 from the Central Division.
Dr Fong said of the five deaths, three were reported from the Central Division and two in the Western Division.
“There have been eight more deaths of covid-19 positive patients. However, these deaths have been classified as non-covid deaths by their doctors,” he said.
“There have been 345 deaths due to covid-19 in Fiji, with 343 of those deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.”
300 in hospital
“There have been 38,742 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021; and 38,812 cases recorded in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 14,301 recoveries.”
Dr Fong said there are 300 patients admitted to the hospital — 62 at Lautoka Hospital, 67 at the FEMAT field hospital and 171 patients at the CWM, St Giles and Makoi hospitals.
He said 41 patients are considered to be in severe condition, and nine in critical condition.
He said as of August 9, a total of 513, 535 adults in Fiji had received their first dose of the vaccine and 180,722 had received their second doses.
“This means that 87.5 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 30.8 percent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide,” Dr Fong said.
Drop in daily cases Meanwhile, the ministry noted a drop in cases reported daily recently.
Dr Fong said the seven-day average of new cases per day is 730 cases per day or 825 cases per million population per day.
This figure fluctuated at least over the past week, Dr Fong said with numbers recorded in four-digits at the height of soaring infections reported largely in the Central Division, and spiking numbers in the West.
Just a week ago, Dr Fong was reporting the following seven-day average of new cases:
Tuesday, August 3: 1220 new cases reported in 24 hours; Seven-day average of new cases per day – 1085 cases per day or 1226 cases per million population per day
Wednesday, August 4: 1187 new cases reported in 24 hours; Seven-day average of new cases per day – 1103 cases per day or 1247 cases per million population per day
Thursday, August 5: 968 new cases in 24-hour reporting period; Seven-day average of new cases per day – 1156 cases per day or 1193 cases per million population per day
Friday, August 6: 752 new cases in 24-hour period; Seven-day average of 997 cases per day or 1127 cases per million population per day
Saturday, August 7: 682 new cases in 24-hour period; Seven-day average of new cases per day – 934, or 1056 cases per million population per day
Sunday, August 8: 657 new cases in 24-hour period; Seven-day average of new cases per day is 938 cases per day or 1060 cases per million population per day
Monday, August 9: 603 new cases in 24-hour period; Seven-day average of new cases per day is 867 cases per day or 980 cases per million population per day.
Test numbers dropping
Dr Fong said while they had noted a drop in recent cases reported per day, their daily testing numbers had also been dropping around the same time.
He attributed this to the change in testing policy in the Suva-Nausori containment area.
Fiji’s Dr James Fong … “resources [being] targeted to early detection, monitoring and care of persons with covid-19, who are at higher risk of severe disease.” Image: RNZ/Fiji govtDr Fong said, as announced on July 21, only persons that have a higher risk of developing severe covid-19 were being tested in Suva-Nausori.”This was done so that resources could be targeted to early detection, monitoring and care of persons with covid-19, who are at higher risk of severe disease, to prevent more people succumbing to severe disease and death,” Dr Fong said in an epidemic outlook of the pandemic in the country.”We are likely seeing the effect of this testing policy change now in Suva-Nausori with the drop in daily reported cases.”This does not mean that the outbreak is on a downward trend in the Suva-Nausori community.”Dr Fong said daily case numbers in Suva-Nausori were not being used as an indicator at present to monitor the progress of the outbreak in Suva-Nausori.Closely monitoring
“The ministry is closely monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak in Suva-Nausori.”Test positivity in Suva-Nausori was between 40-50 percent before the change in testing policy and has remained at this high level, which is above the national average. This is one indicator of the continuing high level of community transmission in this area.”Dr Fong said testing levels in the Western Division remained high with 3.8-4 tests per 1000 population per day at a 7-day average.”We are seeing increasing cases reported in the Western Division with evidence of widespread community transmission in that division.”We are also recording increasing numbers of people with severe disease and deaths in the West.”The World Health Organisation (WHO) test threshold is five percent.Dr Fong urged the people to continue to adhere to covid-19 safety protocols and restrictions put in place.
Andrea Mosterman, an associate professor of history at the University of New Orleans, was already dismayed that she had to wait three days to secure a covid-19 test at a Walgreens near her home after being in contact with someone who had tested positive.
But on Sunday, when she showed up at the pharmacy drive-thru, she was told the store had run out of test kits and none was available anywhere in the city. “I told them I had a reservation, but they said it didn’t matter,” she said.
On Monday, eager to know her status and get back to work, she waited at an urgent care center for four hours to get tested. Within minutes, she was told she had tested negative.
While relieved, Mosterman said the process upset her. “It was incredibly irresponsible for them to promise me a test and have me wait three days to have the test and then to say, ‘We don’t have it.’ That was so frustrating,” she said.
As the nation confronts its latest and worsening surge of covid cases, consumers are again facing delays getting tested, many turning to social media to complain. The problem appears mostly in the South and Midwest, where infections driven by the virus’s delta variant are proliferating the fastest.
About 100,000 new cases of covid are being reported each day this week, up from about 12,000 a day in early July. Testing is up 41% in the past two weeks, to nearly 770,000 tests a day, according to The New York Times’ analysis of federal and state data.
Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso said the company has seen demand for tests “rise significantly, as testing volume across our stores doubled chainwide from June to July.” Overall, Walgreens has met the demand, he said, despite minor delays at some locations.
The shrinking supply of tests becomes clear when checking the websites of the nation’s two largest pharmacy chains, CVS and Walgreens — which have become popular test sites since cities and states curtailed testing to focus on vaccinations this spring.
On Wednesday, not a single appointment was available through Friday at 52 Walgreens locations in and around Jacksonville, Florida, which has one of the country’s highest infection rates. The earliest option was Thursday morning in Brunswick, Georgia, 70 miles away.
At CVS stores around Jacksonville, tests weren’t widely available until Tuesday, nearly one week later, when 21 of the closest 35 stores had appointments. If someone was willing to drive 15 to 20 miles, a handful of slots were available Monday, but nothing sooner.
Jacksonville’s Duval County had one public test site open this week, but health officials said they were weighing opening more because of increasing demand.
In Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, officials planned to open testing sites after reports from residents that they were waiting up to three days.
Experts say testing is vital for identifying patients to treat or isolate, as well as for tracking the disease’s spread.
“It’s understandable that resources have been pulled away, but testing is still a really important part of the pandemic,” said Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
States closed many of their mass test sites over the past several months because of declining demand and the need to focus on vaccination.
Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said pharmacies likely have an adequate supply of tests, although they may have to redistribute them to keep up with increased demand in hard-hit areas.
“It’s no surprise there has been a little bit of a backup,” he said.
CVS Health spokesperson Tara Burke said her company is largely keeping up with demand, but she would not comment on consumer complaints about waiting three days or more to have a test.
“We continue to be able to meet the demand for COVID-19 testing, even with increasing numbers of patients seeking out tests at one of our more than 4,800 CVS Pharmacy locations across the country offering testing with same day and future day appointments in most geographies,” she said in an email response to KHN.
The nation’s largest pharmacies have been popular test sites, although consumers have other options, including going to their doctor, urgent care facilities or outpatient clinics. The tests at all these locations are available at no out-of-pocket expense.
Consumers can also test themselves at home with kits that cost as little as $25 and give results in 20 minutes.
But these tests aren’t as accurate as molecular tests analyzed in a lab. Rapid tests come with a higher risk of a false negative result, especially for people without symptoms; that is, the test shows you don’t have covid when you actually do.
A spokesperson for Abbott, which makes BinaxNOW, one of the home tests, said the company is working with retailers to meet “increased demand in certain areas of the country as case rates rise, and as testing needs and guidance changes.”
Even areas of the country that have not seen huge surges in covid cases have seen appointment slots fill up at the major pharmacies and other testing sites.
In San Diego County, California, on Wednesday, CVS appointments weren’t widely available until the weekend, and 13 of 20 Walgreens locations in the city of San Diego had no appointments before Friday.
San Diego County is running walk-up testing sites every day of the week, in addition to locations where appointments are required or recommended. In early July, the county — California’s second-most populous — recorded an average of 7,200 tests a day. By the end of the month, it averaged more than 11,800, with more than 15,000 tests on an especially busy day. To meet increasing demand, the county added four new testing locations this week and is working on a fifth, according to Sarah Sweeney, communications officer for the Health and Human Services Agency.
In Sacramento, the county-run sites accept only walk-ins, although some locations are hitting capacity and must refer people elsewhere, a county spokesperson said.
Going to one of the thousands of pharmacies advertising covid testing remains the first option for many people. Yet these days it can be frustrating.
Patricia Rowan said she struggled to find a pharmacy with an available appointment for her 67-year-old mother, Karen Liever. Liever had recently traveled to a conference and wanted to get tested near her home in Palm Bay, Florida, before visiting Rowan, who has young children who are not eligible to be vaccinated.
Rowan finally found a CVS about 25 miles from her mom’s home on Thursday.
In Florida, where covid hospitalizations are higher than ever, mass testing sites run by the state closed at the end of May and Gov. Ron DeSantis said local governments could use their CARES Act funding to restart testing operations if they want. DeSantis, a Republican, has spent this week trying to play down the surge in hospitalizations, saying most admissions are of younger adults and death rates are lower than a year ago. He also blamed the rise in cases on unvaccinated immigrants crossing the border illegally into Texas and the Southwest.
“People obviously have the opportunity to get a test,” DeSantis said Tuesday, the same day Orlando’s main public testing site closed early — for the 16th day in a row — because it had reached capacity. The governor noted that at-home rapid tests are available in pharmacies and criticized the effectiveness of past testing campaigns. “Quite frankly, we spent a lot of money on the testing. … I don’t think it did anything to bend the viral curve.”
New Zealand has two new cases of covid-19 in managed isolation and quarantine and two historical cases today, says the Ministry of Health says — but no new cases in the community.
In a statement, the ministry said 10 previously reported cases had now recovered.
This morning, 11 of the 21 crew on board the Rio De La Plata container ship off Tauranga were revealed to have tested positive for covid-19. One test result is currently indeterminate.
Officials had said they expected to know after further testing how many cases were historical and how many were active.
In today’s statement the ministry said testing at the Port of Tauranga was under way for workers who had contact with the container ship.
“The crew have been informed of the positive covid-19 test results and, as of Monday morning, crew members on board are reported to be well,” it said.
“Officials have worked with employers to identify 94 port workers who had contact with the ship, unloading cargo in shifts over the four-day period it was berthed at Port of Tauranga from 6pm on Wednesday, 4 August, to 2pm on Saturday, 7 August.
All contacted, told to isolate
“All have been contacted, told to isolate awaiting a negative covid-19 test result, and are being tested for covid-19 today. So far, 91 workers have been tested, as of 11.30am. The first results are expected later today.”
The ministry said some workers would require a second test, based on their contact with the ship, and would also be required to remain in isolation until the result of those second tests were known.
“The ministry understands from local public health staff that all infection prevention controls, and PPE protocol, were followed by port workers who had contact with the ship during their duties.”
As of Monday morning, 13 of the original 21 mariners remain on board the vessel.
The ministry said that on Saturday, five mariners were released after 14 days in managed isolation. These mariners have consistently returned negative covid-19 test results.
One mariner, who was transferred off the boat at a later date, remained in a managed isolation facility in Christchurch, it said.
Two further mariners discharged
“Two further mariners, who both required hospital care, have been discharged, and are in Southern DHB-arranged accommodation where their health can continue to be monitored and treated. The ministry understands from Southern DHB that the mariners are recovering well.”
On returnees from Australia, the ministry said it was continuing to remind anyone who returned from Queensland on return flights last week to keep checking locations with the Queensland Health website and monitor for any symptoms.
“If people have been at a location of interest at the relevant time, they should immediately isolate at home or appropriate accommodation and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing. New locations of interest have also been added for Victoria and Western Australia.”
The ministry said contact tracing staff had also identified 2995 people who returned on managed flights from Victoria between July 25 and 30 and had been required under a section 70 notice to isolate until a negative day 3 test.
Of those 2848 had so far returned a negative test; six have returned overseas and don’t need to be followed up; and 91 have been granted a clinical exemption, it said.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
That compares with 682 cases and six deaths in the previous 24-hour period.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said all three victims were not vaccinated.
* An 86-year-old woman from Newtown in Nasinu died at home on August 6.
* A 73-year-old woman from Kinoya, Nasinu, also died at home on August 6.
* A 71-year-old man from Cunningham died at home on August 7.
Dr Fong said that in Suva, 69 patients were admitted at the FEMAT field hospital, and 171 at the CWM, St Giles and Makoi hospitals.
Dr Fong also said that as of August 5, a total of 504,695 adults in Fiji had received their first dose of the vaccine and 170,901 got both jabs.
“This means that 86 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 29.1 per cent are now fully vaccinated nation-wide.”
Fiji now has 24,138 active cases in isolation, with 299 deaths — 297 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April.
Ministry considers Pfizer vaccine for children The Health Ministry is exploring the possibility of getting the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12 to 17, head of Fiji’s Covid-19 vaccination taskforce Dr Rachel Devi said.
Currently, only the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines are in Fiji.
Dr Devi said the Pfizer vaccine was being used to vaccinate children in most countries.
“We know Pfizer has been used for 12-17 years of age so we are definitely exploring the possibility of Pfizer,” Dr Devi said.
“These mRNA vaccines are pretty rare like all vaccines right now. The demand is so high but supply is limited.
“We’ve already had two deaths with children, one a 15-year-old and one an 11-month-old toddler.”
No timeline
Dr Devi could not give a timeline on how soon the Pfizer vaccine would be available to Fiji.
She said it was a tough question because “it just depends on supply and availability. It’s a demand and supply issue and being able to access that.
“I know a lot of countries have solely used Pfizer, some are having mixed vaccination programmes going with different vaccines.”
But Dr Devi said she was hoping to secure the vaccine as early as possible because that would “bring our herd immunity to a better state.”
Dr Devi said they were using support from UNICEF and the COVAX facilities to access the Pfizer vaccines for children.
Briefly
586 new recoveries reported since the last update
19,005 active cases are in the Central Division and 5133 in the West
7-day rolling average of deaths per day is 6.
158 positive patients died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted the virus; these are not classified as covid deaths.
36,909 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021
36,979 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020
12,384 recoveries since March last year
294,860 samples tested since April 2021
337,721 tested since March 2020
1981 tests reported for 6 August
7-day daily test average is 3010 tests per day or 3.4 tests per 1000 population
7-day average daily test positivity is 31.3 percent — WHO threshold is at five percent.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Fiji has been warned that people who are unvaccinated and those who have been completely vaccinated have equal capabilities of spreading the covid-19 virus.
The warning has come from Dr Jone Hawea, a former surgeon with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, as latest reports say that eight days into August and there is little evidence of any improvement in Fiji’s covid-19 crisis.
The latest figures from the start of the month show huge increases when compared with the same period in July, reports RNZ Pacific.
Dr Hawea said a weekly Morbidity and Mortality report released on July 30 by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlined the study carried out in the state of Massachusetts on the delta variant which noted 74 percent of those who were studied had two jabs and still had the same viral load as the 26 percent who were not vaccinated.
“According to this study, the viral load is the same and the evidence is a public statement that CDC made about the delta variant,” Dr Hawea said.
“Why isn’t the [Fiji] Ministry of Health stating this evidence?
“This report by the CDC clearly states that those who are unvaccinated and those who have been completely vaccinated have equal capabilities of spreading the virus, their viral load is the same.”
Highly contagious, more severe
However, Ministry of Health permanent secretary Dr James Fong said the CDC finding indicated that the delta variant was different from previous strains as it was highly contagious and likely more severe.
“The important point is that vaccines prevent 90 percent of severe disease, but maybe less effective at preventing infection or transmission,” he said.
“Therefore, more breakthrough infections (infections that get through the vaccine transmission barrier) are expected and community spread can still occur despite vaccination.
“There are indications that these breakthrough infections may be as transmissible as unvaccinated cases…..so NPIs [nonpharmaceutical interventions such as face masks and public health measures] are essential to prevent continued spread even with good vaccine coverage.”
Dr Fong said that in this case the vaccine would work to break the link between getting infected and getting severe disease.
He added less severe disease would mean that more people recovered and less pressure on our health system.
Dr Hawea said this latest CDC report indicated there was a conflict of interest in trying to achieve herd immunity because the ability of an unvaccinated person to spread the virus was the same as a person who had received both jabs.
Fiji crisis worsening RNZ Pacific’s Fiji correspondent Lice Movono reports that by the end of July, Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services had recorded 25,363 new infections and 218 deaths for the month.
According to government figures, the country started July with 3503 infections but by the month’s end, 21,707 people were living with the delta strain of the coronavirus.
But only eight days into August and the health authorities had reported more than 6500 new infections, which was more than twice the 1743 reported for the same period last month.
In terms of deaths, August had already registered 57 lives lost compared to nine in July.
Siteri Sauvakacolo is a Fiji Times reporter. This article is republished with permission.
A New Zealand public health expert says the highly transmissible delta variant of covid-19 could prompt a local lockdown with even one community case in the country.
Otago University professor Nick Wilson said of the the 25 covid-19 cases currently in managed isolation and quarantine, “most” are likely delta.
“Delta has really changed the situation quite substantially,” Dr Wilson said.
If a case of delta was found in the community in New Zealand, Dr Wilson said the government would rapidly have to determine if there was an identifiable border connection.
If there was any uncertainty about this or how long the chain of transmission was, he said the government would move quickly.
‘Fast decision making’
“There would have be some very fast decision making to consider a local lockdown, and that is the approach that we’ve seen working in Australia,” he said.
“If it’s done fast and hard and quick, it may mean that a lockdown in a city or town can be restricted to just a matter of days.”
Dr Wilson said the transmissibility of delta meant MIQ facilities should have infection prevention control at the “absolutely best level possible”. He said there had been progress in reducing MIQ-related risk, with vaccination of workers and work on improving ventilation.
“With the very high infectiousness of this delta variant, we may need to do even more. That would be things like absolutely avoiding people mixing in exercise areas and smoking areas, which still occurs,” Dr Wilson said.
Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins this week revealed 44 percent of port workers had not had a single dose of the vaccine, which he attributed to “misinformation”.
Dr Wilson said the fact border workers were unprotected was a real concern.
“We know we’ve had problems at the border before with infections occurring in seafarers arriving from overseas.”
Dr Wilson said something had to change here – either the vaccination rate or the workers.
“This is an area that a lot more should have been done, to get those vaccination levels in port workers increased,” he said.
“And to seriously look at when those workers, if they refuse vaccination, actually moving them from those particular at risk jobs to other jobs where they won’t be exposed.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
A female nurse in Madang is the first local Papua New Guinean to be tested positive for the highly infectious coronavirus covid-19 delta strain, with health officials scrambling to find out where she got it from.
She becomes the eighth confirmed case in Papua New Guinea. The other seven cases recorded so far are:
A woman from Myanmar who had been in hotel quarantine since arriving in PNG. She was a close contact of another traveller who had tested positive on July 13. Both have since recovered; and
Six Filipino crew members, including the captain, of a vessel which arrived from Indonesia last month. Four were in isolation on the vessel while the captain and another were in isolation at a private hospital in Port Moresby. All have recovered, and the Covid-19 National Control Centre (NCC) allowed the vessel to leave the country.
Controller of the PNG Covid-19 National Pandemic Response David Manning said the concern now was on the nurse in Madang.
Controller of the PNG Covid-19 National Pandemic Response David Manning said the concern now was on the nurse in Madang.
“This is a local case, outside of Port Moresby and (not associated) with the (Filipino vessel crew members) cluster tests,” he said.
“This proves community transmission which is of particular concern to us.
“Finding the infection source”
“We are working on finding the source of the infection in Madang.”
He said the NCC would continue to update the public on the Madang case.
“She had presented with symptoms on June 30, and immediately went into isolation while awaiting test results,” he said.
“She then remained in quarantine until she was no longer symptomatic.
“But when her positive test result revealed a high viral load, a sample was sent to the Doherty Institute in Melbourne for whole genomic sequencing.”
Manning warned that if the delta strain was to spread in PNG, it could result in “thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of people becoming very sick”.
He also warned about a potential third wave of covid-19 infections and urged the people to follow covid-19 public safety measures and get vaccinated.
“PNG has done well under the international health regulations by detecting the covid-19 celta variant cases, managing them and discharging them when they were cleared medically from isolation.”
The genomic sequencing results for each of the eight confirmed covid-19 delta strain cases were received from the Doherty Institute in Melbourne on August 4.
Miriam Zarriga is a reporter for The National. This article is republished with permission.
Of the latest cases, 292 were from the Western Division while the rest from the Central Division.
More than 23,000 covid-positive people are in isolation, with more than a quarter of them at home.
Health Secretary Dr James Fong said 385 people had recovered from the coronavirus, which means there are now 23,226 active cases in isolation.
He said 18,589 of them are in the Central Division and 4637 in the west.
11 deaths recorded
“All cases that were recorded in the Northern and Eastern Divisions (cases that were imported from Viti Levu) have recovered and there are no active cases currently in those divisions.
“There have been 34,818 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021. We have recorded a total of 34,888 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 11,233 recoveries.”
Dr Fong said the latest 11 deaths were recorded between August 2 and 5, eight of them in the Central Division and three in the west.
A 15-year-old girl from Tavua presented to a medical facility in respiratory distress and she was transferred to Lautoka Hospital on August 2. Her family reported that she had a fever, cough and shortness of breath two days prior to visiting the health centre. Clinical investigations revealed she had both leptospirosis and covid-19.
“Sadly, her condition worsened at the hospital and she died one day after admission,” Dr Fong said. “Her doctors have determined that she died from severe covid-19 and leptospirosis. Both diseases contributed to her death.
“She was not vaccinated as she was not in the target population of people 18 years and over who are eligible to receive the vaccine.”
Summary of deaths
A 60-year-old man from Lami near Suva died at home on August 4.
A 51-year-old woman from Raiwaqa in Suva also died at home on August 4.
An 85-year-old man from Lautoka was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the Lautoka Hospital’s Emergency Department.
Dr Fong said this meant that he died at home or on his way to the hospital.
An 88-year-old man from Sigatoka was declared dead on arrival by the attending medical officer at the Sigatoka Sub Divisional Hospital. This means he died at home or on his way to the hospital.
An 86-year-old man from Toorak, Suva, presented to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in severe respiratory distress on August 4. His condition worsened in the hospital and he died on the same day.
An 85-year-old woman from Tailevu died at home on August 2.
A 55-year-old man from Tailevu also died at home on the August 2.
A 70-year-old woman from Tailevu died at home on August 2.
A 90-year-old man from Raiwai died at home on August 5.
An 85-year-old man from Naitasiri died at home on August 5.
Four other people who tested positive to covid-19 have died, however Dr Fong said their deaths were caused by serious pre-existing medical conditions and not covid.
He said a total of 146 covid-positive people had died but their deaths were classified as caused by the virus.
311 covid patients in hospital
“There are 311 covid-19 patients admitted to hospital, 63 of them are at Lautoka, 78 patients are admitted at the FEMAT field hospital, and 170 at Suva’s CWM, St Giles and Makoi hospitals. 48 patients are in severe condition, with six in critical condition.”
Almost 6000 people were screened and 636 swabbed at the clinics in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 411,142 individuals screened and 73,893 swabbed to date.
Dr Fong said as of August 4, the ministry’s teams had screened a total of 1928 individuals and swabbed 91 others.
“This brings our cumulative total to 776,034 individuals screened and 68,462 swabbed by our mobile teams,” he said.
“A total of 287,237 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 330,098 tested since March 2020. 3352 tests have been reported for August 3.”
Dr Fong said the daily test average was 3401 per day or 3.8 tests per 1000 population. The national daily test positivity was 32.4 percent, almost seven times the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold which is five percent.
“As of August 4, 498,680 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 164,974 have received their second doses. This means that 85 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 28.1 percent are fully vaccinated nation-wide.
Daily average
“The daily average for new cases is 1156 or 1193 cases per million population per day. Daily case numbers remain high and daily test positivity remains high, indicating ongoing widespread community transmission in the Suva-Nausori containment zone.
“The cases are also increasing in the West with evidence of community transmission in the division.
“We are also recording increasing numbers of people with severe disease, and deaths in the West. The Northern and Eastern Divisions currently have no active cases.”
Dr Fong is urging the public to adhere to the covid-safe protocols including the daily curfew from 6pm-4am.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Local governments in Papua — such as the Yapen Islands and Puncak administrations — say they are continuing to promote the benefits of covid-19 vaccines to indigenous Papuans as hoaxes and distrust from local people towards the Indonesian government has increased low vaccination rates.
Head of Yapen Islands Health Agency, Karolus Taniwani, has appealed to the public to get vaccinated, showing himself and other Yapen Islands officials who have been vaccinated as evidence that the vaccine is safe.
“Those of us who have been vaccinated are in good health. I invite all people in the Yapen Islands Regency to take part in the covid-19 vaccination,” Taniwani told Jubi by phone.
Taniwani also recounted his own experience of getting vaccinated. He said he got sick following the vaccination but immediately saw the doctor in the hospital for examination.
It turned out the illness was caused by relapsing malaria. Amid the covid-19 pandemic, the Papuan people are still vulnerable to other diseases such as malaria, HIV, and hepatitis.
Coordinator of the Yapen Islands Covid-19 Task Force, Erny Renny Tania, said her party continued to educate the people about the covid-19 pandemic, as well as the importance of adhering to the health protocols.
They did this by traveling around markets and villages by car and spreading information through loudspeakers.
Vaccine ‘not poison’
Puncak Health Agency head Demus Wonda said that the covid-19 vaccine was not poison.
“Drugs [vaccine] imported from outside Papua are not meant to kill the people but to strengthen the people through the formation of antibodies,” he said.
Taniwani echoed Wonda, saying that if it was true the covid-19 was ‘poison’, he would have died. But the fact is, he did not die after being vaccinated.
Fear that the government’s covid-19 vaccination programme would kill the Papuan people is not surprising as years of oppression, discrimination, murder, and imprisonment inflicted by the state against the Papuans have created a prolonged trauma among the people.
Benny Giay, chairman of the Kemah Injili Church Sinode of Papua, said that for the past two years, covid-19 had been used by the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police as an excuse to disperse Papuan people’s protests against racism and the continuation of the Special Autonomy (Otsus) Law.
“Those people whom the Papuan people highly distrust should not be involved in overseeing the vaccination,” Giay said, as quoted by Project Multatuli.
The Papuans, Giay said, saw the involvement of the army and police as “bad intentions” and refused to be vaccinated.
Distrust towards state
Audryne Karma, a dentist and daughter of Papuan political figure Filep Karma, also told Project Multatuli that the distrust from the Papuan people toward the government’s health programme was not only over covid-19 vaccinations.
Even before the pandemic, from Karma’s own experience at least, health programmes were, in the eyes of many Papuans, considered to carry a disguised mission to harm Papuans.
According to the head of Papua Health Agency, Roby Kayame, covid-19 vaccination in the province had only reached 190,723 people for first dosage, or 13.06 percent, and 12,911 people (5.58 percent) for the second dose. Most of them are non-Papuan people.
“The percentage of indigenous Papuans [who get vaccinated] is very small compared to non-Papuans in some places,” Kayame said.
Jayapura, Mimika, and Merauke are areas with high vaccination rates. On the other hand, vaccination rates are still low in the mountainous areas of Lapago and Meepago.
In the Saireri area, the vaccination rate in Biak Regency is much higher than Supiori, Yapen and Waropen. Vaccination rates in Boven, Mappi, and Asmat are considered high.
The Project Multatuli report also depicted the story of a mother of two in Wamena city, who was still in doubt about whether she would get the vaccine.
Fear over side effects
“Actually, I don’t really mind. But with a lot of information circulating, some say vaccines is good and others say it’s bad, with the side effects and all kinds of things,” she said.
“I have other disease, so this has also become my question. I prefer not to be vaccinated for fear that the side effects can be fatal,” she said.
She said she only obtained information about covid-19 and the vaccination programme through social media. The internet service in Wamena was very slow, making it difficult to find accurate information.
As for direct information, she only heard about the vaccination programme from the police car that going around the villages.
“Mostly, people are terrified by the effects of the vaccine,” she said.
“Indeed, from what I have seen, there has been no major dissemination about the various vaccines that have reached this small community.
“Which groups need vaccines? I don’t know myself. We have the right to know first, don’t we? So we can decide what to do.”
Her testimony shows that the low interest in vaccines is also due to the lack of information from government authorities.
Hengky Yeimo is a Tabloid Jubi reporter. Some information in this article is excerpted from an article written by Asrida Elisabeth for Project Multatuli. The article is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
The government maintains there is no need to impose a complete shutdown of the country.
According to the Health Ministry, the average deaths per day is eight, while the daily average infection is 1039 cases or 1174 per million population.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed Fiji on level 4 of its covid-alert due to the growing number of cases in the Pacific nation.
Professor Fiona Russell from the University of Melbourne said reports that more people are dying from the virus in Fiji should be a concern.
She said the mutation of the delta strain could happen.
‘Characteristic of all viruses’
“That is a characteristic of all viruses, not just the coronavirus and there are other mutations that have already occurred. At the moment what we’ve found is that the variants have become more transmissible. We have to keep an eye on that and there’s ongoing studies to monitor it. And it may be that in the future, people in Fiji may need a booster.”
Professor Fiona Russell … “That is a characteristic of all viruses, not just the coronavirus and there are other mutations that have already occurred.” Image: Fiona Russell/RNZ
Professor Russell also said Fiji’s health facilities could easily get overwhelmed if people do not take heed of covid-safe protocols.
She warned the country was very early on in the outbreak and should take heed of what had happened in countries such as India.
“If covid-19 takes off in Fiji, then the hospitals may get full and that is if you get sick with anything at all, let alone covid, then the doctors and nurses may not be able to treat you properly because they’re just so busy treating all the other covid patients.
“We certainly in Australia were worried about that and so we made plans for that in case that was to occur.”
She praised Fiji’s efforts in trying to contain the disease.
Professor Russell said the seriousness of covid-19 was evident in how quickly it had spread during the second wave in the country.
University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker … “The situation in Fiji is very worrying. They’ve really lost control of this epidemic.” Image: Luke Pilkinton-Ching/University of Otago
Government urged to change strategy New Zealand epidemiologist and University of Otago professor Michael Baker agrees.
He said Fiji was going backwards in its fight against the pandemic.
Despite the Fijian prime minister’s refusal to enforce a national lockdown, Baker said it was not too late for the government to change its strategy.
“The situation in Fiji is very worrying. They’ve really lost control of this epidemic at this point given the record number of infections that are of a very widespread nature.
“It depends what their overall strategy is. If they want to return to elimination position, I think they need to act very decisively now and that actually offers a much better route back to economic recovery than trying to suppress the virus and live with it which hasn’t really worked very well in the past.”
Fijian epidemiologist Dr Donald Wilson said the country was “overwhelmed” by the pandemic.
He warned the current trend of infections could force officials to make “unethical medical decisions”.
“The worry is that when the health system becomes overwhelmed, when it cannot any longer peak in lots of patients who have severe disease, then unfortunately like what has been happening in other countries where doctors have to do the unethical thing of needing to choose who to put on ventilators and who not to.”
Fiji PM Voreqe Bainimarama visited the covid-19 testing facility in Suva. Image: Fiji government/Facebook
Mass vaccination progress
Dr Wilson said a mass vaccination campaign aims to immunise 600,000 Fijians by November this year.
Close to half a million Fijians or 84.4 percent of the target population have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while just over 158,000 or 27 percent have got both jabs.
The head of Fiji’s vaccination taskforce, Dr Rachel Devi, said the only good news is the Moderna vaccine, now in the country, is also effective against the delta variant, the UK variant and the Wuhan strain of the virus.
“We have important strategies in terms of how or when and where we roll this out across the country. This would definitely boost it up especially right now we weren’t vaccinating our pregnant women with the AstraZeneca unless these individuals consented. But I know there’s quite a lot of build-up in that area now. There’s a lot on safety reasons as well.”
Fijian epidemiologist Dr Donald Wilson … warning that the current trend of infections could force officials to make “unethical medical decisions”. Image: RNZ
Meanwhile, an Australia-based Fijian academic warns Fiji is suffering its worst medical, social and economic crisis since the measles epidemic of 1875 which led to the deaths of a third of the country’s population.
Professor Wadan Narsey said this could have been avoided had the government listened to the best medical advice – not just in Fiji, but also from its major partners New Zealand and Australia.
He said Fiji’s tragedy stems from its heath system being unable to cope with the crisis and has seen deaths soar to more than 260, and climbing.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
