Fred99:

 

gzt:

Fred99: When I read that - it strengthened my opinion that NZ should consider quarantining itself (by air), as failures of past attempts to quarantine (including hastening spread as infectious people escape the quarantine and spread it to unaffected populations) can't happen when we're on islands that don't (yet) have an outbreak.

Stopping all international air travel or stopping all inbound passenger air travel to NZ? You really think it's time to do that?

 

I think it's time to start thinking about it seriously.

 

Guidelines from WHO will take into account the negative consequences of quarantine balanced against - and contributing to - low probability of it being effective.

 

As a remote island nation, we're one of the few places where it might work.  Even if it's only a delay from the inevitable - then more time will mean more will be known about the disease, diagnosis, possible treatments, etc.  Or maybe by that time it will have become less of a threat than it appears to be now.

 

I agree. If we lock our borders, the chances of infection are very very low. Maybe the Estonian who landed here, who was in Morocco and had coffee with a South African who just returned form China. :-) The world is a small place, of those that want to travel here from China or had been there since Xmas, there probably arent many reasons why that have to fly here right now. And rush to find some way of testing. Set up a 14 day quarantine for those that must travel here.

It buys time. If the virus was testable for a non symptom carrier, then thats an easy solution, but thats not the case yet.