2019 Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Discussion

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#2531783 31-Jul-2020 00:51

debo:

So everyone coming back now will have "plans" to stay 90 days, but once they clear the quarantine charges I bet those "plans" will change for a lot of them. Worse case scenario is they may get a bill in the mail. Worth a try though.

All the others just need to visit a funeral, get one of those hand out cards to prove you went, make up some story of how you knew them and hey presto- exemption! (and you get a free feed)

Apparently this is becoming more and more of a problem with people with a right to return to NZ, returning for a holiday for a month or two, and then going back. eg Coming from the UK or the US. So the tax payer ends up paying about 4k for each of these people.

I think some people are forgetting that we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and IMO it is not really a time for people to be travelling the world on holidays. Or if they are, they should be paying all costs. It was travel that spread this virus in teh first place.

So each person that comes into NZ as a Covid free nation, poses a risk to our Covid free status and have to be properly managed for 2 weeks. So it is really a process we want to do once for each person, so they can return to NZ and stay here while the pandemic is on. So am surprised that people can then just travel into NZ, and then back out again after a few weeks of being here. I thought the government were advising NZers not to travel out of NZ on holiday to other countries (eg the UK), but it doesn't seem to apply in the other direction. I guess it is good they get this charge in before holidays including Christmas holidays to prevent taxpayers having to pay for the managed isolation for these people coming to NZ on holiday, rather than actually returning here to live. Half a billion dollar pricetag for managed isolation before Christmas is not a price tag NZ can afford at the moment IMO. Plus space at these hotels is limited anyway. It should be reserved to legit people needing to return to NZ, not people coming over for a period of less than 90 days.

To be honest I am surprised they don't introduce something like, you can have 1 free stay at an isolation hotel. But if you travel in and out of NZ multiple times, you have to pay for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th stay etc. But I guess we could then still get a lot of people coming over for the holidays and filling up the isolation hotels.

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#2531793 31-Jul-2020 07:35

A US right-wing tea party politician Harry Cain died of Covid.

In 1993, as president of the National Restaurant Association, he was singled out as the primary opponent of Bill Clinton's 1993 "Health Security Act", universal health care for all Americans.

In 2006, his Political Action Committee, "Americans for Prosperity" had close ties to billionaire climate change deniers the Koch brothers. He voiced several radio ads encouraging people of color to vote Republican;

In 2020, he was the co-chairman of Black Voices for Trump.

freitasm

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#2531794 31-Jul-2020 07:36

Overnight, "Global report: French and Spanish Covid-19 cases at highest level in weeks"

France’s seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases has risen above the 1,000 threshold for the first time since the first half of May, when it eased its lockdown, as Spain said its daily rise in cases was the highest since its lockdown was lifted in June.

French health authorities reported 1,377 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday, one day after identifying 21 new clusters, bringing the total to 147.

Spain reported 1,229 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, topping 1,000 for the second day in a row. It also marked the biggest rise since its lockdown was eased on 21 June.

Amid resurgences of the virus across Europe and Asia, the French health minister, Olivier Véran, insisted the country was not in the grip of a second wave but urged people to maintain distancing and protection measures.

Several French cities announced new face mask requirements and other measures on Thursday to contain the virus. Authorities in Saint-Malo in Brittany, a popular tourist destination, said masks were mandatory inside its walled old city and on the ramparts for everyone aged 11 and above.

Warning that shutting the country again would be a “catastrophic” economic and social event, the French prime minister, Jean Castex, said at the weekend another full lockdown must be “avoided above all”. The approach reflects that of other countries, including Spain and the UK, which have tried to manage resurgences of cases with localised restrictions and lockdowns. Iceland reinstated restrictions on public gatherings on Thursday after finding at least two new infection clusters, the government said.

Echoing statements by politicians from various European countries in recent days, the World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said rising case numbers in some countries were driven partly by young people letting down their guard. “We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: young people are not invincible,” Tedros said.

After a brief loosening of travel restrictions, countries have been tightening up rules for travellers.

Norway announced it would reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Belgium, from Saturday, after a rise in cases. Last week it reimposed restrictions on travel from Spain.

Poland reported its highest daily rise in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 615 new infections and a further 15 deaths. Cases in the Czech Republic surpassed 16,000 as a recent sharp rise in infections continued.

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#2531801 31-Jul-2020 08:09

Photos: "Inside a Houston Hospital During a Coronavirus Surge"

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#2531851 31-Jul-2020 09:09

freitasm:

Overnight, "Global report: French and Spanish Covid-19 cases at highest level in weeks"

Can't but help question the correlation right.

Summer. Holidays. Both opened up in either end of June or start of July for Brittish/EU travellers with voluntary (requested) isolation - similar to if we opened up for ski season to get tourism dollars

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#2532032 31-Jul-2020 12:16

Well that's one way to get a click or several, or freak out the headline-only readers

'Get tested immediately': Spectre of community transmission in Queenstown

But when you delve into it, they are just reinforcing the ministers request - asking those with potential symptoms showing who were in the area at the same time as the Korean case to come forward asap and help confirm it wasn't a rogue case

There was a low risk of community transmission from the case, but health authorities were contact-tracing and encouraging testing to be "absolutely sure".

It was already confirmed the close aircraft ones were all fine. So there's no real need to put a scary wording like that just yet

a ghost. "a dread of spectres and witches affected every aspect of daily life.

something widely feared as a possible unpleasant or dangerous occurrence.

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#2532084 31-Jul-2020 13:09

"How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”"

So much grifting going on. Almost like a banana republic.

On March 31, three weeks after the World Health Organization designated the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, a DHL truck rattled up to the gray stone embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, D.C., delivering precious cargo: 1 million Chinese-made diagnostic tests for COVID-19, ordered at the behest of the Trump administration.

Normally, federal government purchases come with detailed contracts, replete with acronyms and identifying codes. They require sign-off from an authorized contract officer and are typically made public in a U.S. government procurement database, under a system intended as a hedge against waste, fraud, and abuse.

This purchase did not appear in any government database. Nor was there any contract officer involved. Instead, it was documented in an invoice obtained by Vanity Fair, from a company, Cogna Technology Solutions (its own name misspelled as “Tecnology” on the bill), which noted a total order of 3.5 million tests for an amount owed of $52 million. The “client name” simply noted “WH.”

Over the next three months, the tests’ mysterious provenance would spark confusion and finger-pointing. An Abu Dhabi–based artificial intelligence company, Group 42, with close ties to the UAE’s ruling family, identified itself as the seller of 3.5 million tests and demanded payment. Its requests were routed through various divisions within Health and Human Services, whose lawyers sought in vain for a bona fide contracting officer.

During that period, more than 2.4 million Americans contracted COVID-19 and 123,331 of them died of the illness. First in New York, and then in states around the country, governors, public health experts, and frightened citizens sounded the alarm that a critical shortage of tests, and the ballooning time to get results, were crippling the U.S. pandemic response.

But the million tests, some of which were distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to several states, were of no help. According to documents obtained by Vanity Fair, they were examined in two separate government laboratories and found to be “contaminated and unusable.”

The rest of the story is... amusing if not scary.

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#2532085 31-Jul-2020 13:14

debo:

Ahhh. That explains everything. You are talking about IgM antibody testing not antigen testing. No wonder we are disagreeing. Everything you have been saying is true for antibody testing but it does not apply for antigen testing. Antigen tests for the virus itself (usually the spike protein). The body takes several days to start producing antibodies, as you have said, where as antigens are detectable immediately.

AIUI, the antigen tests have claimed sensitivity of ~80% to a positive control. That's for a known positive control sample where with PCR sensitivity is ~100%, the ~20% false negatives from PCR - which the antigen tests will also have. Spain tried using them (antigen tests) then found they were only picking up 30% of active cases. They're not good enough for screening. Nothing is - so treat every person possibly exposed (that means everybody coming in) and use the "gold standard" PCR test. People shouldn't be flying around the planet unless absolutely urgent/essential, every country should be quarantining.

wellygary

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#2532087 31-Jul-2020 13:32

OK, this is getting a bit ridiculous

"Auckland's Sylvia Park mall food court was closed this morning after it was revealed it was visited by a South Korean man who later tested positive for Covid-19.

The news came as the Ministry of Health revealed there are no new cases of Covid-19 today.

Tens of thousands of shoppers visit Sylvia Park each weekend.

General manager asset management Linda Trainer said at 10.45am today, the mall was contacted by the Ministry of Health and advised the man had visited the food court on Thursday, July 16, between the hours of 11am to 1pm.

"The Ministry has advised this event, which took place over two weeks ago, poses a very low risk.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12352497

Shouldn't that be minute risk,

I don't think I've seen any study that says COVID can survive on surfaces for 14 days, let alone be viable, and they place would have had its regular cleaning during that time anyway....

Behodar

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#2532090 31-Jul-2020 13:43

to help give people piece of mind, we immediately closed the food court

Does that really give people 'piece' of mind? They've effectively generated a Covid scare...

Rikkitic

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#2532132 31-Jul-2020 13:49

I would be more concerned with how big a piece was given. Losing a chunk of your mind is no joke, especially if you already can't spell.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

wellygary

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#2532137 31-Jul-2020 14:03

freitasm:

"How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”"

The rest of the story is... amusing if not scary.

Don't worry they are in good company....

"UK pays £16 million for coronavirus tests that don’t work"

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-coronavirus-tests-symptoms-covid-19-testing-kit-a9470071.html

mattwnz

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#2532296 31-Jul-2020 18:12

wellygary:

OK, this is getting a bit ridiculous

"Auckland's Sylvia Park mall food court was closed this morning after it was revealed it was visited by a South Korean man who later tested positive for Covid-19.

The news came as the Ministry of Health revealed there are no new cases of Covid-19 today.

Tens of thousands of shoppers visit Sylvia Park each weekend.

General manager asset management Linda Trainer said at 10.45am today, the mall was contacted by the Ministry of Health and advised the man had visited the food court on Thursday, July 16, between the hours of 11am to 1pm.

"The Ministry has advised this event, which took place over two weeks ago, poses a very low risk.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12352497

Shouldn't that be minute risk,

I don't think I've seen any study that says COVID can survive on surfaces for 14 days, let alone be viable, and they place would have had its regular cleaning during that time anyway....

Maybe very low risk is a prescribed term they have to use. Also maybe it is to advise people hat were in the food court during that time, and have cold symptoms, that it wouldn't do any harm in getting tested.

But the fact is, if this man was infected in NZ, he would have been infected by someone else anyway, rather than him being the source, because it looks like he was in NZ for a good amount of time before leaving.

It looks like the MOH will be running surveillance testing in Queenstown, South Auckland and Christchurch – locations all connected to the case in South Korea

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#2532310 31-Jul-2020 18:27

mattwnz:

...

But the fact is, if this man was infected in NZ, he would have been infected by someone else anyway, rather than him being the source, because it looks like he was in NZ for a good amount of time before leaving.

...

Yes, if he was infected in NZ, the real issue is who infected him. Possibly he was not even infectious before leaving (again if infected here).

Perhaps, serological testing should be carried out as well in case there are recently infected people recovered sufficiently to return a negative RT-PCR result?

tdgeek

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#2532313 31-Jul-2020 18:31

DS248:

Yes, if he was infected in NZ, the real issue is who infected him. Possibly he was not even infectious before leaving (again if infected here).

Perhaps, serological testing should be carried out as well in case there are recently infected people recovered sufficiently to return a negative RT-PCR result?

Weren't many close contacts tested as negative? Given the zero CT here you would expect he was infected at Singapore.

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