‘Inoke Silongo F. Tonga, 27, escaped death penalty Monday when Lord Chief Justice Whitten QC, convicted and sentenced him after a murder at a beach in Tatakamotonga.
‘Inoke Silongo F. Tonga (L), Polikalepo Kefu
The court was told Tonga admitted to police he had killed Polikalepo Kefu, 47, after they went to buy a bottle of spirits, Matangi Tonga reported.
Kefu instead drove to the beach where he allegedly made sexual advances towards Tonga, a claim the judge said were “impossible to accept” after he considered the scale of the attack and Kefu’s injuries.
“The defendant became angry and in a prolonged attack he twice attempted to strangle Poli, for about 12 minutes, before slamming him on the road, then strangled him for about 5 more minutes, before bashing him with a rock more than 30 times,” the paper said.
“The defendant then rested for a couple of minutes before dragging Poli’s body to the water line, hoping it would be washed out to sea. He admitted that he intended to beat Poli to death”.
Tonga was a meth addict, brought up in a broken family and had been sniffing benzene, the court heard.
None of the evidence brought up in court was enough for Tonga to get the toughest punishment allowed under Tonga law: the death penalty which is hanging by the neck.
The defendant’s early guilty plea and had no previous convictions and his family making an apology with customary reparations to Kefu’s family were considered by Mr Whitten before sentencing him to life imprisonment.
A 34-year-old man has been charged following the search for a man and his children in Marokopa last month.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The man and his three young children were not seen from Saturday 11 September until 30 September when they reappeared after camping in dense bush, living in a tent inland from Kiritehere Beach.
During that time a large team led by police searched land, sea and air for 12 days.
The 34-year-old man will appear in the Te Kuiti District Court on 5 November on a charge of causing wasteful deployment of police personnel and resources.
There are 43 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today – 40 in Auckland, three in Waikato.
Figures supplied by the Ministry of Health show 58 percent of people infected with Covid-19 in the latest outbreak had not been vaccinated.
Only 4 percent had received the full dose more than 14 days before being reported as a case.
Of those who ended up in hospital, 21 percent were children under 12 who are not eligible to be vaccinated; 124 people over 12 out of a total of 158 individuals had not had any vaccination.
By John Donne Potter, Graham Le Gros and Rod Jackson of
This story appears on RNZ.co.nz. Kaniva News republished RNZ stories with permission.
Opinion – As New Zealand switches from elimination to suppression, those who argue that Covid-19 will become endemic and part of our lives either do not understand or ignore what this would actually mean.
Elimination has always been a tricky word because it implies eradication. But we have only ever eradicated one human disease – smallpox – and are close with several others.
For some, the end of elimination now means we should let the virus spread. But semantics matter less than policy. If we don’t eliminate, we must still aim to contain, mop up, reduce close to zero and thwart this pandemic.
Because we certainly cannot live with endemic SARS-CoV-2.
The Delta variant spreads ominously and without controls, every infected person, on average, would infect six more, then 36, 216, 1296, 7776, 46,656 – we would get to more than twice New Zealand’s five million with three more cycles.
We must continue to either stamp out the virus or keep case numbers very low. To contain case numbers, we need to keep up border protection, mask wearing, distancing, bubbles, contact tracing, testing of people and waste water, and vaccination.
In the current Delta outbreak, more than 95 percent of those infected were either unvaccinated or had received only their first dose.
Our most common endemic infections include the common cold (caused by hundreds of different viruses that circulate freely) and the flu (caused by a group of influenza viruses).
Those who dismiss a mild case of Covid-19 as being “no worse than the flu” have forgotten how appalling a case of flu really is. They might also have forgotten that, even with effective vaccination, influenza has a case fatality risk of about 0.1 percent – it kills about 500 people in New Zealand each year.
Yet some seem to expect that Covid-19 will learn to behave and become endemic. Some even seem to welcome this, claiming a “disease becomes endemic when it is manageable”.
This is not true. Being manageable is not part of the definition of endemic disease. A disease becomes endemic when it is more or less always present in a population. It does not care whether it is manageable.
Seasonal influenza has a basic reproduction number (R0) of about 1.5, meaning one infected person spreads the disease to fewer than two other people, on average. This is why it takes very little to break the chain of transmission. The annual flu epidemic declines because we have effective vaccines and because seasonal conditions during summer are less favourable to the survival of the virus.
However, as we already mentioned, the Delta variant has an R0 of at least six. This will be as low as it gets from here onward. If a new variant supplants Delta, it will do so because it is even more transmissible.
There will be no season for Covid-19, no breaks in transmission, no declines in infectiousness. We have been struggling worldwide with this virus for 18 months, with spikes everywhere in every season.
School and business closures part of new normal
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, there will not be one or two people sick in a workplace or a home. We will have waves and clusters and multiple local outbreaks. Schools and businesses will close for days, even weeks, because too many people are sick. It will cost the world trillions – consider what it has already done to global supply chains.
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, the burden on our healthcare system will be immense. It will not involve a predictable, modest increase in hospital admissions. Waves and clusters will characterise endemic Covid-19 in the same way they have characterised pandemic Covid-19, overwhelming local healthcare without warning.
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, Merck’s new antiviral drug Molnupiravir will be an important addition to the toolkit because it will be much cheaper than monoclonal antibodies, easy to store, easy to transport and people can take it at home.
The as yet unpublished trials suggest the treatment could cut hospitalisations in half, markedly improving outcomes for those already infected. But it will not reduce the number of cases by even one.
Molnupiravir is the first oral antiviral treatment for Covid to report clinical trial results. Photo: Merck
Treatment never does – only prevention, public health measures and vaccination reduce case numbers. Those who are less sick and treated at home could spread the virus even more.
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, when the healthcare system fails to accommodate the latest wave, more people will die.
Long-term costs to health and economy
Even if we managed to get Covid-19 down to the severity of influenza (for an individual), endemic Delta – with an R0 about five times that of flu and the fully vaccinated still able to become infected and spread – would still mean thousands of hospitalisations and deaths each year.
Just four cycles of Delta infection could result in more than 250 times as many cases as four cycles of flu.
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, every year, many of us will know someone who dies.
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, more than a third of unvaccinated cases, even the asymptomatic, will have symptoms months later. Flu leaves little lasting damage. Long Covid damages the lungs, heart, brain, hearing and vision as well as the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, causing diabetes.
The cost of Covid-19 is so much higher than that of the flu, not just because of higher case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths, but more long-term damage and disability.
If Covid-19 becomes endemic, we will live with a stressed, often overwhelmed healthcare system, with schools subject to unpredictable closures, with unsafe workplaces, with a disrupted economy, with our children under threat, with death and disability at a persistently higher level than we have known – probably for decades.
We do not care what the current strategy is called as long as we persist with border protection and public health measures until we achieve close to universal vaccination. Otherwise, many thousands of New Zealanders will be hospitalised, die or experience long Covid.
Ultimately, we will need a sterilising vaccine (one that protects people from getting infected) because we cannot live with endemic Covid-19.
John Donne Potter is Professor, Research Centre for Hauora and Health at Massey University; Graham Le Gros is Director and Group Leader, Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of New Zealand; Rod Jackson is Professor of Epidemiology at University of Auckland.
Disclosure: Graham Le Gros receives funding from MBIE to support Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand, Ohu Kaupare Huaketo for the development and manufacture of a Covid-19 vaccine for Aotearoa NZ.
LEA FAKATONGA
‘Oku ki’i fihi e lea ko ē ‘oku toutou ‘asi mai ‘o pehē faka’auha ke ‘osi pe ‘eliminineisoni (elimination) he lea ‘Ingilisi’ he ‘oku hangē ia ‘oku ‘uhinga mai ‘e mole ‘aupito’. Ka ko e vailasi pe ‘e taha kuo puke ai ‘a e tangata’ kuo lava ‘o mole ‘aupito’ ‘a ia ko e simolopōkisi (smallpox) – pea ko e toenga’ ‘oku te’eki ai. Ko ‘etau fetakai ko ‘eni mo e Vailasi Teletaa’ ‘oku mahino e vave ‘ene mafola’ he ‘oku mei liunga ono ‘ene mofele ‘ana taimi ‘oku tū’uta ai ha feitu’u pea ka fakavaivai ‘a e ngaahi feinga ‘oku fai ‘e Nu’u Sila ni’ ‘e fakatu’utāmaki fau ‘ene māfihunga’ ‘ana ki he ofi he toko 5 miliona’ kakai ‘o e fonua’ ni. Ko e me’a pe kuopau ke fai’ ko e muimui mo talangofua ki he ngaahi tu’utu’uni kuo tuku mai’ hangē ko e malau’i ‘o e kau’āfonua’, tui e masikī, tauhi e vā mama’o’, taki taha nofo pe ‘i hono pāpolo, fakahā e fa’ahinga ne fetu’utaki mo ha taha kuo puke he vailasi’, sivi e kakai’ mo e vai inu’ pea mo huhu malu’i foki. Ko ‘ene tō ko ‘eni ‘a e Teletaa’ ‘oku mahino ai ko e pēseti ia ‘e 95 ‘o kinautolu ne ma’u ai’ ne te’eki ke nau huhu pe ne tu’otaha pe te’eki lava ‘o hoani honau huhu’. Kuo ma’u foki ‘eni mo e fo’i’akau ki hono faito’o ‘o e Koviti’ pea kuo ‘osi fakatau ‘e Nu’u Sila ai ‘a e fo’i ‘akau ‘e ono mano. Ka ko e fo’i ‘akau’ ‘e toki ngāue’aki pe ia kia kinautolu ‘e puke’. Pea kuo ‘osi fakahā foki ‘oku to’omotafi ‘a e ngāue ‘a e fo’i ‘akau ko ‘eni’ ‘i hono fakafolo ‘aki kinautolu ne ‘asi ai ‘a e vailasi’ ‘o nau sai kinautolu.
The Tongan and army communities in Tukwila, Washington, along with relatives and loved ones, held a funeral for Sika Tapueluelu over the weekend.
Specialist Sika Tapueluelu, 26, was a cannon crewmember from Tukwila, Washington. Photo/Supplied
Tapueluelu, 26, was among the three troops of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division who died in a 48-hour period at Fort Drum, New York.
Tapueluelu died on September 16 before Tyler Thomas, 21, and Angel Green, 24, died the following day.
“10th Mountain is still investigating the deaths, but spokesman Lt. Col. Josh Jacques said all three are believed to have been caused by self-harm and unconnected to one another”, the military.com reported.
Tapueluelu was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, it said.
“The three deaths in rapid succession underscore the difficulty the military has had trying to reduce the rates and risk of suicide among service members and veterans. Earlier this year, a Brown University study found that more than four times as many troops and veterans who had served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had died by suicide as were directly killed in the conflicts”.
Tapueluelu’s devastated family, friends and kāinga have released video clips of his burial services showing his casket being carried in a horse-drawn wagon while a platoon of soldiers marching behind it.
“Only God knows how I feel right now 😔💔 Rest In Heavenly Love my dear Brother Sika Manuao Tapueluelu,” a tribute on Facebook said.
“Rest in peace and love nephew sergeant Sika Manu’ao Tapueluelu till we meet again. He’s the son of Toa and ‘Alifeleti Tapueluelu”.
A Sydney garbage truck driver who fatally reversed over a student before hiding the body and driving away has been jailed.
Tuiniua Fine, of Lakemba, was sentenced to a maximum of five years and six months in jail by the NSW District Court on Friday.
He must serve at least three years and eight months before becoming eligible for parole.
George Yuhan Lin, 21, was studying a double degree in law and economics after graduating with an HSC score of 99.85.
After Fine killed Mr Lin on February 12, 2020, he hid the body in an alcove and fled.
George Yuhan Lin died at the age of 21 after he was hit by a garbage truck. Credit: Supplied
Mr Lin’s body was discovered about 1.30am on Central Street in Sydney’s CBD and Fine was identified as the driver through CCTV footage.
Mr Lin’s mother previously told the court she visited his grave every day and would do so for the rest of her life.
Fine pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death, doing an act to pervert the course of justice, and failing to stop and assist after a fatal collision.
School staff who work with children and students must be fully vaccinated by 1 January 2022.
Cabinet has also moved to mandate the vaccination of high-risk workers in the health and disability sector by the earlier date of 1 December 2021.
Those high-risk workers include general practitioners, pharmacists, community health nurses, midwives, paramedics, and all healthcare workers in sites where vulnerable patients are treated.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says the new requirements also cover people who work at aged residential care, home and community support services, kaupapa Māori health providers and Non-Government Organisations who provide health services.
These workers need to receive their first dose by 30 October, Hipkins said.
The Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021 will be updated to enforce the vaccine requirement.
Vaccine rules for education sector
All school staff, including home-based educators, teacher-aides, administration and maintenance staff and contractors, who come into contact with children and students must be vaccinated by the start of 2022.
Schools and early learning services will need to maintain a register of vaccinated staff from 1 January.
These employees need to have their first dose by 15 November 2021, Hipkins said.
All school staff in Auckland and other regions at alert level three will also be required to return a negative Covid-19 test before returning to work onsite.
Schools in Auckland were due to return on 18 October, however, Cabinet has decided schools in the region will remain closed after the school holidays finish at the end of this week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this afternoon.
Staff who are not fully vaccinated before 1 January 2022 will also be required to get a weekly Covid-19 test.
Work is continuing on whether mandatary vaccinations will be required in the tertiary education sector, Hipkins added.
Cabinet has also decided secondary schools and kura will be required to keep a vaccine register for students.
Students who do not produce evidence of vaccination will be considered unvaccinated, Hipkins said.
Under certain circumstances exemptions may be possible.
‘Not an easy decision’ – Hipkins
Hipkins said most people who work in these sectors are already fully or partially vaccinated but nothing can be left to chance.
“It’s not an easy decision, but we need the people who work with vulnerable communities who haven’t yet been vaccinated to take this extra step.
“Vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11 are not yet approved and the health and disability sector includes a range of high risk occupations.
“People have a reasonable expectation that our work forces are taking all reasonable precautions to prevent the spread of disease, and government agencies have been working with them to ensure they are as protected as possible.”
Mandatory vaccinations have been introduced for health and education workers as 35 new community cases are reported and the government confirms there will be no immediate changes to alert levels.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield held a press conference this afternoon after Cabinet met to review alert levels.
Ardern announced that Auckland would remain at its current setting until 11.59pm next Monday, 18 October, while Waikato and Northland would stay in level 3 until 11.59pm on Thursday. Settings for Auckland will be reviewed next Monday, while Cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss Waikato and Northland.
“New Zealand is at one of the trickiest and most challenging moments in the Covid-19 pandemic so far,” Ardern said.
“However, there is a clear path forward in the coming months in which New Zealanders should be able to move to living with fewer restrictions and more freedoms as a result of higher levels of vaccination.”
Ardern says restrictions are extremely important in controlling the virus while we get the population vaccinated.
“These measures, when followed, make all the difference.”
She said the r-value has crept up to between 1.2 and 1.3, and this meant cases are likely to grow in the coming days.
“If followed, our alert level restrictions can help control that spread.”
Mandatory vaccinations for education sector workers
Public health officials say robust safety measures need to be in place before schools reopen.
Hipkins said the government would be assessing the possibility of reopening schools week by week. He told Checkpoint there was a “good chance” they might open before the end of the year, and not opening until term 1 next year would be a “worst case scenario”.
All staff, including teachers and support staff, will be required to receive their first dose by 15 November 2021 and be fully vaccinated by 1 January 2022.
If schools resume before the end of year and teachers are not fully vaccinated, those staff will be tested for Covid-19 every week.
All teachers will need to be tested before returning to work, he said.
Those high-risk workers include general practitioners, pharmacists, community health nurses, midwives, paramedics, and all healthcare workers in sites where vulnerable patients are treated.
Hipkins said the new requirements also cover people who work at aged residential care, home and community support services, kaupapa Māori health providers and non-government organisation which provide health services.
These workers need to receive their first dose by 30 October, Hipkins said.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said there are still holes in the plan for the mandatory vaccination of health workers and the government needs to plug them quickly. Baker said all visitors should undergo rapid anti-gen testing.
There are 16 epidemiologically linked sub clusters and 14 epidemiologically unlinked sub clusters.
There were no new cases at the border and no new cases to report in Waikato.
Thirty-three people are in hospital, including seven in ICU
There are a total of 1622 cases in this outbreak
There are 2310 active contacts being managed
There were 15,349 tests processed in the last 24 hours.
Yesterday, there were 42,226 vaccines administered
In total, 5,832,277 vaccines have been administered
Earlier today, Ardern revealed the positive case identified in Katikati in Bay of Plenty over the weekend has been retested, as have their family, and results have come back negative.
Bloomfield said the locations of interest relating to the case are being removed from the Ministry of Health’s website.
Meanwhile, two staff members at North Shore Hospital have returned positive results as has a fully vaccinated person working at Auckland Hospital. It was also revealed tonight a patient at Middlemore Hospital has tested positive, and 40 patients are considered close contacts.
Speaking at the press conference, Ardern said the “easiest” thing for the person in Northland who travelled with a positive case, is to come forward and get tested.
Ardern said officials were using every tools and means they had to locate the person, and she has asked health authorities and police to consider naming her.
Genomic sequencing of the positive case she travelled with has confirmed they are linked to the Auckland outbreak. She remains in an Auckland quarantine facility, while 21 close contacts have been linked to her.
Because the woman has been uncooperative, health officials do not clear information on where she travelled to, so they are relying on high testing rates in the region to give the confidence needed that there aren’t undetected cases, Ardern said.
Bloomfield said testing rates in the region needed to increase. He urged anyone who was in contact with the positive case and her companion to get tested, whether they are symptomatic or not. He also urged anyone else in the region who is symptomatic to get tested.
Te Pāti Māori calls for tougher restrictions
Ardern said she disagreed with Te Pāti Māori, which is describing the low vaccination rate of Māori as a modern form of genocide.
Te Pāti Māori is calling for Auckland to be returned to level 4 until Māori are 95 percent vaccinated.
It also wants the rest of the country returned to alert level 3.
The party’s co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the government’s Covid response has failed to deliver for Māori.
Lord (Sione) Fohe has failed in his attempt to kick out a man who had built a house and was living on the land of his Puke estate.
Lord Fohe. Photo/TBC
The king’s noble told the Land Court he did not know where Ve’etutu Mahe “had come from” or who allowed him to occupy the land.
Mahe was served an eviction notice but refused to vacate it. Sione sought damages of $2,000.
Mahe told Justice Niu he had asked the Late Lord Samiuela Fohe for a town allotment, and gave him $1,000 before Samiuela showed him the piece of land in March 2007.
He also gave $6,500 to Samiuela as well as presenting to him 20 yams and the traditional large pig in appreciation of the allotment given to him, the court judgment says.
He said he also carried out free repair works and painting of Samiuela’s residential house at the noble’s request.
He said that Samiuela had assured him that he would arrange for the grant and registration of the allotment in his name to be carried out. He said after Samiuela died in 2009 he then proceeded to clear the land. He built a house and started living there in 2014.
He said that “he has an equitable right to possession and the right to be granted and to be registered as lawful holder of the allotment”.
When Samiuela died in April 2009, his daughter Lupe took care of the estate until Sione was appointed in 2016 as Lord Fohe.
Lupe told the court that after Samiuela gave the piece of land to Mahe she negotiated a land surveyor to sub-divide the whole area of land so that the piece of land allocated to Mahe could be registered. She was told that they would work on it, but that her father died before that could be done.
Justice Niu said Mahe had already become “lawfully resident” in the hereditary estate of Puke after Lord Sione was appointed in 2016.
“Accordingly, I have come to the conclusion that the plaintiff estate holder cannot evict or seek an order to evict the defendant and his family as he has sought in this action, or to seek damages for their occupation of his estate”.
New Zealand is one of the first countries in the world to secure a deal for the new Covid-19 treatment molnupiravir.
Molnupiravir is the first oral antiviral treatment for Covid to report clinical trial results. Photo: Merck
Pharmac and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the agreement this morning. Pharmac said the oral antiviral drug would be used to treat New Zealanders with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms.
The agreement with supplier Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) is subject to the drug being approved by Medsafe. An initial supply of 60,000 courses will be sent to New Zealand after Medsafe approves the drug, Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt said in a statement.
“MSD recently announced trial results showing that molnupiravir considerably reduced hospitalisations and deaths from Covid-19. While these are interim results, they are very promising,” Fitt said.
Ardern said New Zealand was among the first countries in the world to sign an advanced purchase agreement for the drug.
“Antiviral medicines are an additional tool the government is adding to our toolbox to fight Covid-19,” Ardern said.
“The most important thing people can do to prevent themselves, children and vulnerable people getting Covid is to get vaccinated. However it’s important we have medicines to help those who pick up the virus to avoid having to go to hospital.
“We are continuing to use a stamp it out strategy. But this purchase of 60,000 courses is based on the same population basis as the likes of Australia and Singapore, and is not an assumption about the level of Covid we may have in the future.”
Ardern said it was thanks to the “speed and hard work” of Pharmac’s team that New Zealand was able to secure the treatment so quickly.
Fitt said Pharmac is proactively engaging global pharmaceutical companies to secure access to treatments.
“We have changed the way we operate, using separate funding allocated by government, to make sure that New Zealand can access new Covid-19 treatments,” she said.
“Covid-19 is a unique health crisis and for this reason we are doing things differently.”
Pharmac was working on securing other Covid-19 treatments, Fitt said.
Ardern said she was hopeful there would be further announcements soon as Pharmac’s negotiations conclude.
A Flourish data visualization
