Two people have been arrested and charged after a security guard at Takanini Pak’nSave was assaulted.
Photo: Pak ‘n Save
In a statement, police said a woman had refused to wear a face covering and became aggressive, then left the store but she returned later with two men.
She then punched the guard, and the two men chased the guard with weapons, police said.
They said a woman, 26, had been arrested and charged with failing to wear a face covering, and a patched Black Power member – a man, 33 – was charged with assault with a weapon.
“Police will be conducting reassurance patrols at the supermarket today and to ensure there is support available for the victim in this matter,” they said.
“Police have no tolerance for this behaviour, particularly towards essential workers going about their work who should not have to tolerate this kind of act.”
Countdown supermarkets have also reported an increase in assaults on staff across the country, saying it was around the rules to wear masks.
Police said there were other cases of people failing to comply with public health orders, with 73 people charged with a total of 77 offences since alert level 4 came into force, and 165 given formal warnings.
Crossing the Auckland boundary
There were also cases of people trying to cross the Auckland boundary.
A woman, 33, was arrested in Whangārei and charged after travelling there from Auckland. Police said she had been turned around after trying to leave the supercity, and was believed to have then travelled on private property to avoid the police checkpoint.
She is due to appear at Whangārei District Court on 23 September.
A 25-year-old man in breach of his bail conditions was also arrested after being stopped on State Highway 1 in Kauri, having driven through the checkpoints from Auckland into Northland.
He had deliberately misinformed the officers, saying his bail conditions had changed, police said. He is due to appear at Papakura District Court on 4 October.
One man attempted to enter Auckland region from the south, claiming to be going to collect a prescription at a pharmacy. He was refused entry after police checked with the pharmacy.
Police said a total of 102,075 vehicles had been stopped at the 10 checkpoints between 1 September and midnight last night, with 1267 of those turned back for non-essential travel.
The majority of vehicles, 83,332, were stopped on Auckland’s southern border.
After winning New Zealand residency for a Tongan woman suffering from kidney failure, immigration consultant Koli Vānisi was happy to wait to be paid.
He said he did not enforce payment if he knew clients did not have the money or had paid a large amount to other consultants before turning to his services.
His leniency towards clients means those who struggle to afford immigration services know there is someone who can help.
“It is important for me to put my assistance first, then money,” Vanisi told Te Waha Nui.
“They are Tongans and I can wear their shoes and see how tough and struggling their situations are.
“Some have paid thousands to consultancies before they were told their application had been declined and there was nothing else they could do about it.”
His approach was appreciated by a former client who was interviewed by TWN recently.
Alaimoana Tautua’ā said she still owed money to Vānisi for his immigration services after he successfully appealed the decision on the immigration application she had made for herself and her children.
She said Vānisi had not asked for the payment after learning her husband had died.
Vānisi, who is the director of the Pacific Immigration Consultancy, said he felt it was now easier to face Immigration New Zealand after he recently won the hardest and rarest of the cases he had fought before the Immigration Tribunal.
One of those cases was for 60-year-old Hailoa Tupoumālohi and her husband Afu’alo Tupoumālohi, 61. They initially held temporary visas but were then unlawfully in New Zealand after 2007.
Vanisi said Tupoumālohi’s application was the kind that had been only successfully appealed before the tribunal by immigration consultants with a legal background.
Immigration New Zealand declined their application for residency after Hailoa was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, and she was placed on haemodialysis treatment three times a week.
Because her husband had overstayed his visa, Immigration New Zealand declined her application on the basis she was not supported by an eligible New Zealand citizen or resident partner.
When appealing her application before the tribunal, Vānisi also submitted a letter from a renal specialist advising that a return to Tonga would result in Hailoa’s early death, possibly within weeks of return.
The tribunal found she and her husband’s circumstances warranted a recommendation to the Minister of Immigration for consideration of an exception to Government residence instructions.
It referred to Tupoumalohi’s life-threatening condition and the problems she would face if she had to return to Tonga.
The Associate Minister of Immigration, Phil Twyford, decided a residence-class visa should be granted to the couple.
People in seven key Auckland suburbs are being encouraged to get a Covid-19 test even if they have no symptoms.
Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Papatoetoe and Manurewa are under increased scrutiny by health officials because of their links to mystery cases or clusters that may have unexpected cases.
Counties Manukau District Health Board chief executive Margie Apa said it was most important they get tested if they had symptoms – but they also wanted people without symptoms to come forward.
“We have continued to see a small number of unlinked positives cases – these are cases where the person has not visited known locations of interest, has not already been identified as a contact of a positive case, and they have not always had typical or obvious Covid-19 symptoms,” she said in a statement.
“We want to cast a wide geographical net around the location of known clusters and unlinked cases so we particularly want to see more families and household bubbles from seven Auckland suburbs of interest come out to get tested.”
A deserted central Auckland in the midst of the August 2021 lockdown. Photo: RNZ / Robert Smith
The surveillance testing would help them find out whether there were any undetected chains of transmission, Apa said.
People who do not have symptoms and get a one-off Covid-19 test for surveillance purposes do not need to isolate while they wait for the result.
Four hundred extra testers have been trained in the past few weeks to help in Auckland.
Auckland District Health Board will only be allowing patient visits on compassionate grounds, after a nurses union launched legal action challenging its policy around visitors.
From 7am on Tuesday morning, visits to Auckland Hospital will be restricted to compassionate grounds.
This follows the New Zealand Nurses Organisation taking legal action against the health board to tighten up its visitor policy to match Counties Manukau and Waitematā DHBs.
Previously, Auckland Hospital patients were allowed to nominate two visitors, one of whom could visit on any one day.
A man has been hospitalised with critical injuries after an exchange of gunfire with police during a drugs raid in Tongatapu yesterday.
Illicit drugs and handgun seized by police at the scene. Photo/Supplied
Police arrested three people at around 1am on Sunday, September 12. They were a 17 and a 50 year-old men from Poutaha and a 47 year old man from Kolonga but residing at
Hala’ovave.
The three were traveling east in a rental car on Hihifo Road when Police stopped them for breaching the curfew restriction.
Upon search, the 47-year-old man was found in possession of 8.92 grams of cocaine, Detective Acting Deputy Commissioner HalatoaTāufa said.
During the search of his residence at Hala’ovave, a 32 year old male suspect used a
.22 handgun revolver to point and shoot at Police but missed, which caused Police,
in defence to shoot the suspect on his left arm, causing the suspect to surrender the
gun and himself, Tāufa said.
The suspect sustained injuries to his left arm and ribcage. He was rushed by Police to Vaiola Hospital where he remains in a stable condition.
Further drugs were seized from the residence including 1.67 grams of methamphetamine and 1.38 grams of cannabis. Also seized were drug utensils and 1 x .22 handgun revolver, 40 x .22 and 1 x 9mm bullets and 12 (.22) empty cartridges.
A 24 year old female was arrested during the raid.
“Our ultimate responsibility is to protect life – the life of our people as well as that of
our police officers. The life of the officers in this police operation was under threat
which called for the use of necessary force to eliminate such threat.”
“For the safety of the public, we urge for the return to Police of illegal firearms. It
would not be wise to use a firearm to threaten any person or police officers as there
will be consequences as we have witnessed from this police operation.”
Contact Police on phone 740-1660 or 922 if you have any information on any drug
related activity or illegal firearms.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Auckland will stay in Covid-19 alert level 4 for another week, until 11.59pm next Tuesday.
Watch here from about 4pm:
Cabinet has made an in principle decision that Tāmaki Makaurau will then move to alert level 3.
The rest of New Zealand will remain in alert level 2 until Tuesday next week.
Alert level settings will be reviewed next Monday.
Ardern says while there is nothing to indicate there is Covid-19 outside of Auckland, the lower restrictions there mean a far greater risk of spread if it did escape.
Having the rest of the country at alert level 2 means a greater chance of stamping the virus out if it does get out of Auckland, she says.
Auckland has been at alert level 4 since midnight on 17 August after an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19.
Cabinet has seen evidence and advice that alert level 4 is working, saying it has consistently reduced the R value below 1, and it is now about 0.6, she says.
“On that basis and on the advice of the Director-General of Health, Auckland will remain at alert level 4 until 11.59pm next Tuesday, the 21st of September.”
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the “lockdown is working” and it’s really only a small number of cases that the ministry is focused on.
“The testing is at a good level … so our view and our advice is that another week in lockdown in alert level 4 in Auckland gives us our best chance to really finish the job off here.”
He says the focus for the next week is finding cases.
Cases, testing and vaccination
Ardern says today there are 33 new community cases to report, but only one of them is currently unlinked.
“Likewise of the cases reported yesterday, just one remains unlinked to the wider outbreak at this point.”
Ardern says in some cases where an epidemiological link has not been able to be built, the genome sequencing is still able to tell authorities how the case fits into the outbreak.
They expect to have more information about the one as-yet unlinked case reported today.
Ardern says one reason for the bigger numbers over the weekend is high rates of transmission within households.
Bloomfield says mentioned yesterday, about 16 percent of very close contacts become cases.
“That in and of itself will generate about another 50 cases in the coming days and we’re starting to see some of those come through.”
The number of unlinked cases goes up and down every day, Bloomfield says.
At 9am there were 17 unlinked cases but only a small number of those the ministry was really worried about.
Ardern says surveillance testing of healthcare workers and essential workers has also not identified any transmission.
“It’s also clear there is not widespread transmission of the virus in Auckland.”
Ardern says there are two key features of recent cases that are of interest. She says there are three clusters that still have cases emerging, and there is the ongoing emergence of cases that are initially unlinked.
“Mystery cases are still coming through, and the fact that we are finding them through surveillance and community testing rather than through contact tracing, that is what we’re concerned about because that does present risk.”
She says there are seven suburbs of interest where people should remain especially vigilant for symptoms. They are: Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Papatoetoe, Ōtara and Manurewa.
She says one of the points the health team has made is that they are more concerned about some unlinked cases than others.
“There’s really only three or four that we discuss in a lot of detail because there’s not really an early hint of what’s happened.”
The cases that are still of concern include one case in Mt Eden, and cases that have arrived into Middlemore.
She says additional testing is brought in to support in places where such cases arise until an epidemiological link is found.”
That leaves two very clear tasks – active cluster management and surveillance and community testing, Ardern says.
The third ask is to get tested for even mild symptoms. “Please don’t put it down to winter chills, we know that right now there isn’t much of that going around. Flu traffic in particular is showing us that.”
She says the government wants as many Aucklanders as possible to have had their first dose by the end of the week. She says people booked for October should consider going online again and seeing if more bookings have opened up.
Another option is going to a drive-through vaccination clinic, with no need for booking.
Bloomfield says we are vaccinating at a great rate and it is important to get to the highest rate possible. He says it is also no good if there are pockets within the community who are not vaccinated, so they are also focusing on vaccinations in smaller communities.
They are also looking more closely at vaccinations for children aged five to 11, he says.
Ardern says there is also more financial support for businesses available than was during the last lockdown.
This includes ongoing wage subsidy and resurgence payments.
Message to Aucklanders
“To all Aucklanders, you’ve done an amazing job so far protecting yourselves, your family and your community,” Ardern says.
“We owe you a huge debt of gratitude … but the cases are telling us we have additional work to do.”
She says four weeks into lockdown, it might be tempting to relax their bubble, but asks everyone to treat every day as seriously as they did day one.
People should have an assigned person who goes to the supermarket, Ardern says.
There are 33 new community cases of Covid-19 being reported today, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
In a statement, the ministry said there were also three new cases in managed isolation facilities.
All the new cases are in Auckland, bringing the total number of community cases in the current outbreak to 955.
The ministry said 32 of today’s cases have been epidemiologically linked. The one case yet to be linked is a person who presented to Middlemore Hospital on Saturday. There are seven others in their household. All seven are included in today’s 33.
There are eight epidemiologically linked sub-clusters. The two largest subclusters are the Māngere church group – 381 and the Birkdale social network cluster – 76. There are nine epidemiologically unlinked sub-clusters, the ministry said.
In hospital, there are 21 cases – four in North Shore, seven in Auckland and 10 in Middlemore. There are also four cases in ICU or HDU.
That brings the total of cases since the pandemic began to 3593.
On historical cases, there have been 137 out of 1775 since 1 January 2021. Four previously reported historical cases now have an ‘active’ health status and have been removed from the tally, which is why the number has reduced, the ministry said.
So far, 36,681 contacts have been identified and 87 percent of them have received an outbound call from contact tracers. At least 92 percent have had at least one test result.
On testing, there have been 8657 Covid-19 tests in the last 24 hours – 4250 of them in Auckland, bringing the total number of tests to date to 3,148,945.
There have been no unexpected wastewater detections in past 24 hours.
On vaccines, 20,490 people had their first dose yesterday and 13,376 had their second. To date 2,862,765 people have had their first and 1,462,725 have had their second.
There are now 3,209,541 people registered to the Covid-19 tracer app.
Four remote islands in Fiji have recorded over 700 Covid-19 cases since the virus spread to the maritime zone, health authorities said.
A Red Cross volunteer shares a message about Covid-19 transmissions through a window to a family in Uciwai Settlement, Nadi. Photo: Fiji Red Cross
Kadavu in the east, Macuata, Vanua Levu, in the north and Malolo and Naviti, both to the west of the country, have all reported a total of 703 Covid-19 cases with the majority of infections, 465 of them, from Kadavu alone.
The Government also confirmed 143 new cases and one death on Friday.
That was compared with 179 cases and five deaths on Thursday.
In Friday’s update, a 36-year-old man from Lautoka presented to the Lautoka Hospital in severe respiratory distress on 24 August but died later on the same day.
Health Secretary James Fong said the deaths of four other Covid-positive patients have been classified as non-Covid deaths by their doctors.
He said the doctors had determined that these deaths were caused by a serious pre-existing medical condition and not Covid-19.
“A four-day interval is given to calculate the 7-day rolling average of deaths, based on date of death, in order to help ensure the data collected is complete before the average is reported.
“As of September 5th, the national 7-day rolling average of Covid-19 deaths per day is 3 – 1 in the Central Division and 2 in the Western Division.
“We also have recorded 363 Covid-positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted the virus; these are not classified as Covid-19 deaths.”
Dr Fong said of the latest cases reported on Friday, 76 were from the west, 59 from the Central Division and eight cases from the east and all on Kadavu.
There have been 93 new recoveries to report since the last update, Dr Fong said, which means that there are now 13,407 active cases – 2238 in the Central Division, 10,871 in the west, five in the Northern Division (Macuata) and 293 active cases in the east (all on Kadavu).
.. Photo: Fiji govt
“We are currently reviewing and reconciling our active case database with recoveries and as a result we expect the recovery numbers to intermittently change markedly as verifications are made,” Dr Fong said.
“There have been 48,645 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021. We have recorded a total of 48,715 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 34,411 recoveries.”
Dr Fong said there are 142 Covid-19 patients hospitalised: 60 of them are admitted at the Lautoka Hospital, seven are at the FEMAT field hospital, and 75 are at the Colonial War Memorial, St Giles and Makoi hospitals.
He said 13 patients are in severe condition, with five critical.
“A total of 6139 individuals were screened and 526 swabbed at our stationary screening clinics in the last 24 hours, bringing our cumulative total to 562,053 individuals screened and 93,106 swabbed to date.
“Our mobile screening teams screened a total of 1,527 individuals and swabbed 21. This brings our cumulative total to 826,503 individuals screened and 73,394 swabbed by our mobile teams.
“A total of 344,769 samples have been tested since this outbreak started in April 2021, with 387,630 tested since testing began in March 2020. 1430 tests have been reported for September 9th.
“The 7-day daily test average is 1172 tests per day or 1.3 tests per 1,000 population. Weekly testing is at 10.3 tests per 1000 population, which remains above the WHO recommended level of 4 per 1000 population per week.”
Dr Fong said the national seven-day average daily test positivity is 16.2 percent, which is on a downward trend, but still indicating a high level of community transmission.
As of 9 September, 568,246 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of the vaccine and 329,849 have received their second doses, he said.
“This means that 96.9 percent of the target population have received at least one dose and 56.2 percent are now fully vaccinated.
“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 7-day average of new cases per day is 172 cases per day or 195 cases per million population per day.”
Dr Fong said the daily case numbers in the Suva-Nausori corridor are not being used as the sole indicator to monitor progress of the outbreak.
He said the Ministry is closely monitoring other indicators such as test positivity, hospitalisations and deaths to track the progress of the outbreak.
“With the decrease in testing numbers, testing remains above the WHO recommended rate of 4 per 1000 population per week (or approx 3500 tests per week).
“We will be transitioning to community surveillance testing as severe disease numbers and positivity rates approach the containment phase levels.”
Meanwhile, Dr Fong said the lockdown of Namara Tiri Area in Vanua Levu has been lifted after day 1, 4 and 12 testing for primary contacts and 181 secondary contacts all returned results for Covid-19.
He said a total of 692 surveillance swabbing was conducted both inside and outside the containment area which also returned negative test results.
“The three remaining active cases are stable. Vaccination coverage in the Namara Tiri containment area is 98 percent and residents have been reminded to get their second dose which is due eight weeks after the first dose.
“The curfew hours for Labasa moves back to 11pm-4am, effective Friday 10th September 2021.”
Fiji now has 13,407 active cases in isolation with the death toll at 534 – 532 of theses from the latest outbreak that began in April.
A major horticulture group wants more countries added to the visa scheme for seasonal orchard and vineyard workers.
The RSE scheme will allow quarantine-free travel from three countries from next month. Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
One-way quarantine-free travel by workers from Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu will start from next month, under the ‘recognised seasonal employer’ or RSE scheme.
Up to 14,400 people will be allowed in for the 2021-22 harvest.
Apples and Pears chief executive Alan Pollard said the industry is ready, and wanting to bring in as many people as possible.
“We’d also obviously like to see the scheme expanded beyond just these three countries, in the end we have a very long and close association with the Solomons for example and we’d like to see work being done to add them to the list at some point.”
Pollard said it is not just good news for growers.
“For the Pacific Islands it’s just great news, they’ve been suffering for a long time with the impact of the pandemic and workers not being able to come to New Zealand to earn the very much needed money, so this is great news for them also to repatriate funds to their families and communities.”
Pollard said although there’s a lot to sort out, the month’s notice that has been given is enough to prepare for the workers’ arrival.
