Recent Developments in New Zealand’s Handling of Its Latest COVID-19 Delta Variant Outbreak
Jacinda Ardern has announced the entire country will remain in lockdown until at least 11:59 pm on Friday 27 August
On Tuesday 17 August 2021 a case of COVID-19 was discovered in the community in New Zealand. This was the first case of community transmission in the country since February.
That evening, Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and her team announced that the country would be put into lockdown from 11:59 pm that night for at least seven days in Auckland, and three days for the rest of the country.
Developments in the New Zealand government’s handling of the country’s recent delta variant outbreak
Today, on Monday 23 August, Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation to “confirm our [cabinet’s] plan to stamp out the delta outbreak we are currently experiencing”. There are 35 new cases today, 33 in Auckland and two in Wellington. The total number of cases in the community is now 107.
The source of the outbreak has been identified as a returnee from New South Wales. The individual was staying at the Crown Plaza on the 7th and 8th of August before testing positive and being transferred to quarantine at Auckland’s Jet Park Hotel, the country’s main quarantine facility. Over the last few days, all staff at the Crown Plaza and Jet Park have been retested. Ardern says “To date, this has given us no further clues [as to how the transmission occurred]. We’ll continue though with that source investigation and update you as we go.”
Since this positive case was identified, 154,439 tests have been returned across the country over the six days since and 108,000 of those in Auckland alone. Jacinda Ardern said “A record amount of testing for a six-day period by quite some way”. This equals approximately “three per cent” of [New Zealand’s] population”.
Although there has been a relatively high number of tests returning positive results, with the same expected over the next several days, Ardern said “the number of tests does provide some reassurance that we are finding cases because we are looking broadly”.
Like with previous events of cases in the community, the self-proclaimed “cautious approach” of Ardern’s government aims to completely eliminate the virus from the community in order to return to more normal conditions.
“In his recent report to the government, Sir David Skegg said, “The delta variant will be more difficult to control by testing and contact tracing alone”. And we’re already seeing that. That’s why our move into an immediate lockdown was so important.”
Ardern said, “Delta had a headstart on us, and we needed to catch up as quickly as we could. You can see that headstart in our transmission rate, or the number of people that on average is passing COVID-19 onto. Estimates suggest that may be six, or higher. You may recall from previous outbreaks, this number needs to be less than one in order for the virus to be stamped out, so we have some way to go yet.”
There are now more than 320 locations of interest. “Our cautious approach to these locations, means that we have over 14,000 contacts recorded, far more than we’ve had in other outbreaks, but deliberately so. That does mean that our data collection for each of these sites is different too”.
Erring on the side of caution, as always
This outbreak of the highly infectious delta variant has caused an already cautious government to become even more so, “In the past, with a large event like an awards evening, we would assess all the people the case ‘likely’ had contact with, and treat those as our most ‘at risk’ individuals.”
“Now, delta, and our more cautious approach, means we are treating all those in attendance with caution, and are now asking them to isolate and be tested. This approach does present some challenges though, so we won’t always have the same certainty that we’ve reached all those we need to. Level 4 does help us overcome this issue”.
Reasons why Ardern said remaining at Level 4 is important, included the faster spread of the variant managing to “create contacts all over the country”. She said, “Cases may continue to get worse before they get better”.
Ardern went on the present a heatmap showing all the known contacts across the country, including those in the South Island where there are currently no known cases.
The Prime Minister reminded the public that it was still early days in understanding the true scale of the outbreak, “We don’t believe we’ve necessarily reached the peak of this outbreak”. Early models have suggested we needed eight to ten days before cases across the country hit a peak. It is currently day six.
Sticking with the government’s motto from last year’s community cases eradication plan, “Go hard, go early”, Ardern reinforced the tried and true approach, “The safest option for all of us right now is to hold the course for longer”.
Alert Level 4 lockdown extended
The outcome of the press conference was that all of New Zealand would remain in lockdown at Alert Level 4 until 11:59 pm on Friday 27 August. This is to garner some confidence in knowing the whereabouts of the delta spread and if any evidence emerges of the virus in wastewater systems around the country.
Auckland will remain under Alert Level 4 until at least 11:59 pm on Tuesday 31 August.
Results from the most recent wastewater samples on 21 August have returned positive results for certain samples from Auckland and Wellington. The Ministry of Health has said that there is no risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 from fragments in wastewater.
“Still very much in the thick of this outbreak”
To conclude the conference, the Prime Minister reiterated that, “Delta has changed the rules of the game, but we’ve changed our approach too. We’ve hardened our alert levels, widened our contact tracing, required more mask-wearing, and we are testing more people”.
“It is absolutely possible to get on top of this. We just need to keep it up and ensure that we’re not in restrictions any longer than we need to be.”
Ardern shared these closing reminders:
- Number One — Stay at home. If you leave home, wear a mask.
- Number Two — If you are a contact — isolate.
- Number Three — Wash your hands often, with soap, and cough into an elbow.
- Number Four — Get vaccinated. “Now is the time to drive up our vaccination numbers. Over 74 per cent of people aged 40-plus are already vaccinated. But, in reality, we need that number to be as close to 100 as possible. Please, do it now.”
“Do your part for the team”.
