A number of close contact Omicron-related locations of interest in Auckland and Nelson have been added to the Ministry of Health’s website today.
Photo: AFP
Several Auckland locations have been listed as requiring people to get tested immediately and on day five if they were exposed at the specified time.
Shivani Restaurant in Papatoetoe on 16 January between 12pm and 1pm.
A private event at Pukekohe Indian Hall on 16 January between 6.45pm and 10.45pm.
Auckland Rose Park Hotel in Parnell between 12am on 14 January until 12.30pm on 15 January. Also at Rose Park Hotel from 4.30pm on 15 January until 10am on 16 January.
Tarka Indian Eatery at Mission Bay on 14 January from 4pm until 5pm.
Bus 120 [Stop 5564] Don Buck to Constellation Station Auckland on 20 January from 6.30am-7.30am.
In Motueka, anyone who was at Greenwood Health Motueka on 21 January between 11.40am and 1.45pm is asked to isolate, get tested immediately and then again on day five.
Other suspected Omicron locations of interest where people should monitor themselves for 10 days after being exposed to the site and get a test if symptoms develop include Nelson Airport Terminal Building, Event Cinemas in Westfield Albany and Rainbow’s End in Manukau.
Health authorities in Fiji say they will not advise the Government to lift Covid-19 restrictions out of fear of a resurgence of infections.
This comes amid 16 deaths and close to 350 new cases reported in the community last weekend.
Health workers wait for residents for their dose of AstraZeneca vaccine outside a vaccination center in Suva, after Fiji announced plans to make the coronavirus vaccine compulsory for all workers as it battles a runaway outbreak of the Delta variant. Photo: AFP or licensors
Fiji’s Health Secretary Dr James Fong says the spike in cases was experienced after a few health measures were relaxed in November last year.
“Our biggest worry remains compliance to the informal setting, especially among the informal dwellings where we may have some problem with providing oversight over the Covid-safe measures.
“They remain the most significant areas of risk and the most significant areas of transmission that can happen,” Dr Fong said
Fiji had reopened its borders to international travellers on December 1st with more than 70-thousand tourists expected to arrive at Nadi Airport by the end of this month.
Anyone who is in the high-risk group and develops any Covid-19 symptoms is strongly advised to get tested, said Fong.
He said the 16 deaths were recorded between 28 December 2021 and 20 January 2022, with 12 deaths reported in the Northern Division, two in the Central Division and two in the Western Division.
Fong said the deaths in the north from December 2021 to mid-January 2022 were being reported on Sunday because of a delay in the issuance of Medical Cause of Death Certificates.
“All were at higher risk of severe disease due to their ages or underlying medical conditions.
“Fourteen of the people who died were not vaccinated, while two were fully vaccinated,” he said.
“These were people who were over the age of 50 or had significant underlying medical conditions (non-communicable disease). And even more sadly, 14 of the people who died were not vaccinated.”
Police on patrol as they enforce face mask protocols in Fiji’s capital Suva, amid a worsening outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in the Pacific nation. Photo: AFP or licensors
Fong also said the presence of two or more NCDs such as heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, obesity and hypertension, at the same time, had been a predominant contributor to severe outcomes in all the waves of Covid-19 in Fiji.
Fiji learning from other countries
Fong said Fiji had learnt from other countries that had made similar moves, only to experience a resurgence in cases.
“Unfortunately, we have seen that done before by many countries only to be followed by a resurgence of the virus,” Fong said. “In Fiji we had the same experience.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in the English Parliament last week the lifting of all Covid-19 measures introduced to combat the Omicron variant.
Johnson said this included compulsory mask-wearing on public transport and in shops, guidance to work from home and vaccine certificates – from next week.
Johnson also told the House of Commons that the legal requirement on people with coronavirus to self-isolate would be allowed to lapse when the regulations expired on 24 March, and that date could be brought forward.
Supported by cheers from some on the Conservative side of Parliament, the UK leader announced an immediate end to the need for pupils to wear masks at secondary schools.
British media had also reported that although it had been expected that Johnson would announce the end of work-from-home guidance and the need to show a certificate proving vaccination or a recent negative Covid-19 test to enter some venues, the immediate lifting of mandatory mask rules came as a surprise to some.
Photo: Fiji govt
Call for proactive measures to avoid emergencies
Meanwhile, a World Health Organization official in the Pacific said proactive and strict measures need to be taken to avoid Covid-19 emergencies.
Sean Casey said countries like Fiji could not afford to let their guard down as the spread of the Omicron and Delta variants remains rampant in the communities.
Individual measures are the best way to avoid severe impacts, Casey said.
He said Fiji and many other countries are now in a situation where they have to live with the virus.
“We really want to avoid lockdowns,” Casey said. “They have a massive impact on society. They are temporary measures.
“The transmission will still happen. Many of the deaths that we are seeing in Fiji on a regular basis are people who are older, who have not been vaccinated, and who don’t seek care. A lot of the deaths are happening at home.”
Casey said the majority of the deaths in Fiji are in the high-risk category.
He urged Fijians that strict adherence to personal Covid-19 safety measures is “very important during this third wave.”
Students in Year 8-13 in Fiji had returned to school on Monday after schools were closed since April last year.
The Health Ministry said 92.6 percent of Fiji’s adult population were fully vaccinated. 40,820 children aged 12-17 had received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Fiji has had 60,931 cases of Covid-19 since March 2020, with 3,136 active cases in isolation. The death toll is at 768.
As Tonga’s recovery from the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami ramps up there is concern for the psychological and emotional wellbeing of survivors.
According to the government 84 percent of the population has been impacted, with assessments of the widespread destruction still being conducted.
Two Tongans and a British national were killed during the disaster.
Photo: Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga
RNZ Pacific’s Tonga correspondent Kalafi Moala said while the recovery is building up steam a lot of people are till visibily shaken.
“For example near here, where there were homes in the waterfront that were destroyed, when you go over to inspect the place you see people that are just staring. With looks in their faces not only of disappointment but it is a look of hurt,” he said.
French aid
A French navy is to ship relief supplies to Tonga following the volcanic eruption and tsunami.
The Red Cross in Noumea has readied 21 pallets which the patrol vessel La Glorieuse will deliver to Nukualofa.
The 10 tons of goods include tents for about 100 families, hygiene kits, solar-powered lights as well as masks.
A coordinator Vincent Lepley has told the local broadcaster as Tonga is Covid-19 free, no staff will be sent.
He says the delivery will be made within the French partnership with New Zealand and Australia as well as Tonga’s Red Cross.
Help from Fiji on the way
The first contingent of 51 Fiji soldiers are still awaiting approval from the Tongan Government to assist New Zealand and Australia in their relief efforts in the Kingdom.
The Fijians arrived in Brisbane last Saturday to join Australia’s Defence Forces deployment to Tonga.
Fiji army commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai says the group consists of engineers, medics and other specialists.
He says they will carry out rehabilitation and further assessments in Tonga.
The Fiji military said the soldiers had completed Covid-19 tests and isolation requirements before heading to Australia.
“Looking at the damage and the things that happened in Tonga so far, we are going engineer heavy so we taking a lot of plant operators, we are looking at construction workers, civil engineers and also medical staff. The rest are all part of the manpower that can assist these specialists’ engineers in the work they are doing,” he said.
Volunteers needed
12 shipping containers bound for Tonga have been fully packed with food and water by Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee volunteers.
13 additional containers are being sent to Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium today.
The drop off points for the public remain closed as the hundreds of drums already onsite need loading.
Committee Co-chair Jenny Salesa says volunteers worked until 10pm last night.
But she says more man power is needed for the final push today, with packers expected to work until midnight.
Frustration is mounting among Tongans in New Zealand desperate to send critical supplies back home.
There is currently one drop off center at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium, but it is closed today so officials can ramp up Covid measures and volunteers can pack the supplies already there ready for shipment on Wednesday.
Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee Secretary Pakilau Manase Lua said the team is working on get shipping containers elsewhere in the country.
10-year-old Ariana Ekuasi delivers a message to her grandmother in Tonga Photo: RNZ / Lydia Lewis
He said people are feeling anxious, “and fair enough because our committee is called the Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee, and rightly so they are saying what about the rest of Aotearoa not just Auckland, so we are trying to arrange containers to get out to the region.”
Lua said the team will work into the night, packing more than a dozen containers.
“So altogether about 1000 drums. Given the demand and people who are still looking for drums we could do with another eight to ten containers all up or even more.”
Lua expects the Mt Smart gates to be open for drop offs again tomorrow with strict Covid-19 measures in place.
The Fiji-born New Zealand resident found guilty last week of murdering five people has now been handed life sentences for each victim by a Fijian judge.
Mohammed Raheesh Isoof of Christchurch had killed an elderly couple, their daughter and her two children in the Nausori Highlands in August 2019.
Muhammed Raheesh Isoof. Photo: Supplied
In his ruling, Justice Thushara Rajasinghe said Isoof betrayed the trust of his friends by murdering them.
Isoof will also serve a minimum of 20 years for the attempted murder charge of an 11-month-old girl.
Meanwhile, Sangeeta Devi held her daughter Samaira Kumar – the girl found alive by police at the scene of the crime – tightly outside the Nadi International Airport terminal last Thursday as they prepared to return home to Australia.
Devi told journalists she was at peace as the High Court in Lautoka had convicted the man accused of killing her parents, her older sister, and her two nieces.
Samaira was the 11-month-old toddler discovered among her family’s dead bodies.
Photo: Supplied
Isoof, 65, a bus driver in NZ was convicted by the High Court in Lautoka last Wednesday and handed the life sentences for the deaths two days later.
“I am leaving the country with my daughter, knowing that my family is finally resting in peace,” Devi said.
“I am very happy that something has finally happened. It has been two years and we have all been waiting. It’s not just me but my family and friends abroad.”
The bodies of Nirmal Kumar, Usha Devi, Kajal, Sana and Samara Singh were all found on the edge of a cliff in the Nausori Highlands.
Devi said her daughter always reminded her of her precious family members who perished in an untimely manner.
“I took my daughter back to Australia after what transpired in 2019. She is three years old now and has no memory of what happened.
“It is only me and my younger sister, Rangeeta, who are left in the family and we will work hard to give our children the best love they deserve.”
Devi said she and her sister got themselves matching tattoos in memory of their late family members.
Breakfast food, gardening tools and outboard motors are among the items desperately needed in Tonga following the devastating eruption and tsunami.
Damage in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, after the eruption and tsunami. Photo: Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga
It has been eight days since a violent volcanic eruption and tsunami hit the island nation and relief supplies have begun to trickle in, but RNZ Pacific reports there is still widespread shortages of freshwater, food and communications across the country.
The Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee is trying to work out how to get donations of essential supplies to Tonga Auckland, and has made an appeal for more containers.
Local MP and group co-chair Jenny Salesa said she spoke with Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni yesterday, saying “there’s so much that Tongan’s need”.
A scientist from the Tonga Geological Services watching the eruption of the volcano from a boat. Photo: Facebook / Tonga Geological Services
Sovaleni told her gardening tools and supplies were top of the list of items needed to keep people fed and make a recovery.
“They expect a lot of the gardens [with food in] now are probably not going to last very long because of that ash that is on top of everything,” so a big effort would be needed to replant, she said.
Many of the country’s boats were destroyed by the tsunami inundation, and Sovaleni had also asked for boats and outboard motors.
Breakfast food for children was another request, and Salesa said a $50,000 donation from Foodstuffs NZ will be used towards that.
The group has held a donation drive at Mount Smart stadium in recent days, and said many Tongan New Zealanders have donated, and they now have enough to fill 25 containers.
Supplies gathered in Auckland by the Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee will begin to be sent to Tonga this week. Photo: RNZ / Lydia Lewis
The group has appealed for more containers, to send the goods in. Matson Shipping has donated 15 containers – but they hope more will be donated, and more containers can be filled in other regions outside Auckland.
Meanwhile the New Zealand navy’s largest ship, the HMNZS Aotearoa, arrived in the capital Nuku’alofa last week to help, and has been desalinating water for drinking.
The ship’s commanding officer Captain Simon Griffiths said clean drinking water was still a problem right across Tonga, and their new supplies were being distributed widely, with the Tongan navy taking it to islands to the north.
“We’ve been here two and a half days in Nuku’alofa, and in that time we’ve managed to offload over 260,000 litres of water and all our cargo. Given Covid protocols, that cargo has gone into 72 hours of quarantine, it’s there on the jetting waiting to be used and it will clear that quarantine later today.”
All of Tonga was coated with a thick layer of ash following the eruption. Photo: Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga
Clean up of the ash and debris was well under way, but some areas of the coast had suffered badly.
Time and tides were naturally beginning to clear some of the debris and ash from the top of the sea, which is helping Tongan ships that had initially been having trouble moving between islands.
“Commercial boats and barges are operating, now,” Griffiths said.
Two New Zealand C-130 Hercules had also dropped off supplies, and other international assistance was on the way, with ships on the way from Australia, Japan, the US, and the UK, and a Fijian Navy ship already in Tonga helping.
The HMNZS Wellington was already carrying out dive and surveying work in the harbour and outer islands, and
The HMNZS Canterbury was on its way to offer engineering supplies, Griffiths said.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said surgical masks would likely become the default face covering to help contain community spread of the virus.
But University of Otago Wellington Department of Public Health research fellow Dr Lucy Telfar-Barnard said well-fitting N95 or P2 respirator masks were a better option.
“Surgical masks are not good enough in an Omicron outbreak,” she said.
“We do need to be making those respirators accessible to people across the population.
“I’m trying to come up with some sort of explanation as to why they are not recommending people wear N95s if they can access them, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
High-grade N95 masks have become the international gold standard in efforts to stop the spread of Omicron.
When they are worn properly, N95s can filter out at least 95 percent of airborne particles, including the coronavirus.
University of Auckland aerosol chemist Dr Joel Rindelaub said N95 or P2 masks offered the best protection.
“If we want to do the best we can to try to stamp out Omicron we need the best technology available and that of course would be the N95 or P2 varieties,” he said.
Dr Rindelaub said people who did not have N95 masks could instead wear a surgical mask with a cloth one on top, or knot the loops for a tighter fit.
The government is expected to give updated advice on face coverings on Wednesday, with a likely focus on surgical masks.
Dr Telfar-Barnard said the government should urgently release a national mask strategy so people knew what sort of face covering they should wear to best prevent infection.
“These are all piecemeal decisions being made separately and we do need a national mask strategy that covers what masks should be worn, where, and making sure that when people buy masks they know what level of filtration it’s providing,” she said.
She said the government should consider distributing enough masks so that everyone had at least one or a set they could rotate over a week.
Children as young as eight years old will have to wear masks at school when the new term begins under the red traffic light setting.
While research on masks was still evolving, Hipkins said the government would act on any new advice quickly.
“We know that N95 masks are more effective at stopping the spread of Covid-19, having said that, an N95 mask needs to be the right fit, otherwise it can potentially be less effective,” he said.
“Surgical masks are probably likely to be the best masks for the public’s use.”
Hipkins said there were plenty of N95 masks in stock for healthcare and other essential workers.
There are 25 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today, including eight confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
Photo: 123rf.com
There are 13 new community cases in Auckland, four in Waikato, four in Northland, two in Nelson Tasman, one in Rotorua 1 and one in Manawatū.
To date, there are 19 community cases of Covid-19 associated with the January Omicron Cluster, all are in isolation, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
“Of these cases, today we are reporting eight – two are in the Nelson/Tasman region and are contacts of existing cases, five cases are in Auckland linked to one of the reported family events, and there is an additional case in Palmerston North, a household contact who was already isolating and linked to the previously reported Palmerston North Omicron case.
“The number of cases and contacts are expected to grow given the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and as we learn more from case interviews.”
There are also 50 new cases in managed isolation today.
There are 10 cases of Covid-19 in hospital today – five in North Shore, two in Auckland, one in Middlemore, one in Rotorua and one in Northland. There are no cases in ICU or HDU.
On vaccinations, 21,318 booster doses and 6399 paediatric doses were given yesterday. There were 10,061 tests in the past 24 hours.
From now, unlinked positive cases of Covid-19 in the community will get priority for whole genome sequencing, the ministry said.
These samples will be treated as urgent and tested within 12-24 hours of being received by the laboratory.
Previously, sequencing Covid-19 in international arrivals was the priority.
Yesterday health officials announced there were 24 new community cases of Covid-19 in the community, and 47 new cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
Kāinga Ora hopes new fencing, speed bumps, signage and mirrors will stop vehicles hitting children in driveways.
Kāinga Ora is altering the properties of 8500 of its tenants in an attempt to stop vehicles hitting children in driveways (file picture). Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly
Five children are hit and killed a year in driveways, and more than 20 are hospitalised.
Half the time the driver is the child’s parent.
Kāinga Ora is altering properties for 8500 tenants and has spent $2 million in the past financial year – to prevent these accidents.
Safekids Aotearoa director Mareta Hunt said driveway accidents cause extreme heartbreak for families.
Hunt said many families cannot afford these changes, and lives will be saved because of the initiative.
“Ensuring whanau get to enjoy their tamariki and live a wonderful life with their children without these adverse incidents because it is really painful.”
She hopes the funding will extend to all state housing.
Covid-19 data modeller Michael Plank said, once it gathered momentum, it could spread very quickly.
“It’s certainly possible that once an Omicron outbreak really gets going that we could see a significant proportion of the New Zealand population get infected – it could be up to half,” he said.
Covid-19 data modeller Michael Plank. Photo: Supplied.
That could take about four months from when cases started to rise exponentially, with a potential peak after eight weeks, and more people infected on the way down.
But he stressed the figure of 50 percent was not set in stone.
There was a lot of uncertainly about how the virus behaved because it had only been on the world scene for about eight weeks – and public health measures could have a big impact on the outcome, he said.
“The actions we take now and over the coming weeks could reduce the number of people who get infected and it could be a significantly lower proportion,” he said.
The prime minister said the government was planning for scenarios of up to 50,000 cases a day to make sure it was well prepared, but stressed it was not based on modelling.
Auckland’s three district health boards were predicting a 1800 cases a day for the city at the outbreak peak, expecting to see that in March.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said it would be just a few days before Omicron started to surface in other parts of the country, after a family from Nelson-Marlborough and a flight attendant tested positive this weekend.
He wanted the government to consider putting alert level 2-to-3-style lockdowns back on the table if the virus gathered momentum too quickly.
It should also shorten the time people needed to wait for a booster from four months to three months, because that could stop people getting very sick and slow the spread, he said.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said his teams would consider the booster issue next month, as well as whether to shorten the gap between doses for under 12s.
The government has continually ruled out lockdowns now that the traffic light system is in place.
Even those who got mild symptoms could feel very unwell and should be prepared, he said.
“This infection is extremely unpleasant for many people – it’s like the worst head cold you’ve ever had. So, people need to have stocks of basic medicines like paracetamol and anti-inflammatories,” he said.
Anyone due for their booster should get one now because it could be just two weeks before the virus was much more widespread, he said.
