Beef Up The Covid Alert Level System, Say Researchers – Expert Reaction scoop.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scoop.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“You will only need a test if you’ve only been in Australia for more than 72 hours??!” one person asked on the Unite Against Covid-19 Facebook page. To the reply, “yes”, she asked “Can you explain the thinking behind that? Surely you can catch Covid from someone at any time?”. A Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesperson said that if a person without Covid-19 flew to Australia, was exposed to the virus there, and returned to New Zealand within 72 hours they would be very unlikely to return a positive pre-departure PCR test. “This is because if they became infected, they would be in the incubation stage of the infection and would not be shedding enough viral fragments to be detected by a PCR test. That is why no such pre-departure test is required in these circumstances.
“Now we have to be far more cautious until most of us are vaccinated.”
Supplied
Auckland University epidemiology professor Rod Jackson said the delta variant could easily overwhelm NZ’s contact tracing system, which would require us to go into lockdown. Jackson said that, ultimately, the only sustainable solution to all things Covid-related is very high levels of vaccination. “No one knows the required level to prevent outbreaks, but it’s probably 80 to 90 per cent of eligible people. This means our aim must be to get every eligible person vaccinated. Until we achieve this level of vaccination, we have little choice but to be incredibly cautious.”
Locations of interest
Qantas Flight QF163 Sydney to Wellington, Rydges Hotel, Unichem Wellington Central Pharmacy, Te Papa Tongarewa - general, Te Papa Tongarewa - Exhibition Surrealist Art: Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Jack Hackett s Bar, Floridita s Restaurant, Highwater Eatery, Pickle & Pie café, The Weta Cave shop, The Lido café, Unity Books, Countdown Cable Lane, One Red Dog, the toilets at 4 Kings Bar, Prince Barbers and Wellington Airport.
More information about times and dates can be found here.
These live updates have finished.
4:50pm - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern s trade mission to Australia has been deferred due to COVID-19.
Ardern was supposed to lead a trade and promotional delegation to Australia in early July. It was the first since the pandemic hit and will now be later this year.
by Dr Sarb Johal, registered clinical psychologist
We now know that there has been another day of zero covid cases detected in Wellington, and nothing detected in wastewater testing either. We are not through this yet, but I’ve been thinking: what might happen when vaccines become more widely available at the end of next month?
It’s clear that NZ is vulnerable right now. With variants circulating around the world and entry points into NZ, people may be taking a more careful look at the risk it exposed them to right now with various travel bubbles remaining open.
One issue is that when cases are detected at a place of origin, people from that place may already be in NZ. And they may be infected.