Current Events > Covid breaches New Zealand's borders YET AGAIN.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Three new community cases in a single South Auckland household have been reported today, with the Health Ministry describing them as new and active cases.

There have been no changes to the alert levels at this stage.

Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have provided an update.

Full article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/436398/covid-19-update-three-new-community-cases-in-auckland

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I'd just be glad to live in a country where people aren't deliberately trying to spread it.

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Shouldve built a wall

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Does NZ have any flights coming into it?

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SPE posted...

Does NZ have any flights coming into it?

Yes, that's how it keeps getting here.

Entry is nominally limited to citizens / residents only, but word of mouth is that it's not hard to get around that with the right connections. 14 day quarantine is required on arrival, but quarantine failures are happening on average once every three weeks or so. It's an utter miracle that we've only needed to lock down twice so far (with the second occasion only being one city, not the whole country), but I honestly have a bad feeling about this latest case...

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SPE posted...

Does NZ have any flights coming into it?

yes, a ton. everyone gets screened at the border, you need a pretty good reason to be here, mandatory managed isolation before you are free to do business in the country. it is catching a HELL of a lot more than it is missing, but people are desperate to get in and maliciously spread their shit it seems.

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Back_Stabbath posted...

but people are desperate to get in and maliciously spread their shit it seems.

"Maliciously" might be a step too far. I don't think they outright want to spread it, so much as just they don't give a shit if they do.

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Trumble posted...

"Maliciously" might be a step too far. I don't think they outright want to spread it, so much as just they don't give a shit if they do.

Sufficiently advanced stupidly is indistinguishable from malice.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will hold a Covid-19 press conference at 7pm to give an update on the new South Auckland community cases announced this afternoon.

Full article: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/jacinda-ardern-dr-ashley-bloomfield-hold-covid-19-conference-7pm-after-latest-community-cases

Pretty much - if Ardern is involved in a press conference, it's either about a vaccine or restrictions are coming back. And given the context, this is not likely to be about the vaccine. Here's hoping it's only Level 2.

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vigorm0rtis posted...

I'd just be glad to live in a country where people aren't deliberately trying to spread it.

if you're not purposely murdering the sick and elderly, how can you say you're free??

IN AMERICA, WE VALUE FREEDOM! NOT GRANDMAS!

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TheBlueMonk_ posted...

if you're not purposely murdering the sick and elderly, how can you say you're free??

IN AMERICA, WE VALUE FREEDOM! NOT GRANDMAS!

Let's hope we don't get to a point where comparing NZ to America is the only way to make NZ look good.

Right now, it's ridiculous to claim we're still "best in the world" but we're still lightyears ahead of places like the US for sure. (Western Australia probably deserves that title. *One* community case in the last 250 days or so. By comparison NZ's had about 200 over that time.)

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Trumble posted...

Full article: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/jacinda-ardern-dr-ashley-bloomfield-hold-covid-19-conference-7pm-after-latest-community-cases

Pretty much - if Ardern is involved in a press conference, it's either about a vaccine or restrictions are coming back. And given the context, this is not likely to be about the vaccine. Here's hoping it's only Level 2.

Newshub live updates have confirmed an emergency cabinet meeting is taking place.

This is almost a surefire sign that we're moving up the alert levels.

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I have an irrational crush on Jacinda. At least she'll be in international news now.

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So we're at the point where we're sick shaming people now?

Jesus christ

ShibaToken posted...

So we're at the point where we're sick shaming people now?

Jesus christ

If you're aiming that at me, the only people I intend to shame are the government who still can't run the border safely yet are too stubborn to admit such.

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I'm aiming it at the people who think carrying a disease is evil now.

I refuse to believe fake news

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Dark_SilverX posted...

I refuse to believe fake news

What fake news?

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The_Creep_2020 posted...

What fake news?

The dismissal of this topic as "fake news" is one of those rare cases where I can already tell this guy's very far to whichever side he's on, but can't actually tell which side it is. I suspected covid denier until I saw the sig, so now I'm thinking he's in denial about the idea that NZ ever messes up?

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I am not trying to talk bad about NZ, I love the ALL BLACKS . But why are people so dead set on going their at this time. I mean even if they got there wouldn't it be better to come at a safer time.

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cjsdowg posted...

I am not trying to talk bad about NZ, I love the ALL BLACKS . But why are people so dead set on going their at this time. I mean even if they got there wouldn't it be better to come at a safer time.

A lot of it essentially comes down to the same reasons behind the anti-lockdowns / anti-mask type crowds. The biggest difference is mainstream acceptance.

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Press conference in about 10 minutes (probably 15 taking into account that Ardern is almost always late to these things) where we'll hear what happens next.

Livestream link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpT4Wa2qzTU

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BilalPowell posted...

Shouldve built a wall

They did, but Covid stacked a bunch of bombs in the culvert, and sent in an Urak-hai on a suicide run.

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BilalPowell posted...

Shouldve built a wall

I'm 100% of the opinion that New Zealand should build a wall and make Australia pay for it, but that's unrelated to this matter.

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Holy shit she's early for once. Wow.

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She hasn't stated the exact news yet but it doesn't sound good from how she's talking. Bloomfield giving the sciencey details about what's going on now.

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Auckland going into level 3 ("lockdown lite"), rest of NZ to level 2 (restrictions but not lockdown) for at least 3 days.

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They're lucky that they're such a small country

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Trumble posted...

Let's hope we don't get to a point where comparing NZ to America is the only way to make NZ look good.

Right now, it's ridiculous to claim we're still "best in the world" but we're still lightyears ahead of places like the US for sure. (Western Australia probably deserves that title. *One* community case in the last 250 days or so. By comparison NZ's had about 200 over that time.)

You all are doing pretty well. It's a pandemic, you can't just hermetically seal the nation. The fact that steps are being taken at a federal level is impressive. At least, I'm impressed.

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vigorm0rtis posted...

You all are doing pretty well. It's a pandemic, you can't just hermetically seal the nation. The fact that steps are being taken at a federal level is impressive. At least, I'm impressed.

There is no such thing as "federal" vs "state" in NZ. You might be thinking of Australia, but they do indeed handle most of it at the state level. Alternatively, you might be thinking of the local councils in NZ, but their authority is pretty much limited to city planning type shit.

Of course, this has to be taken in the context of that our entire country is smaller, both physically and in terms of population, than most states in any country that has states (or an equivalent). Japan is the only exception to come to mind, and even that one's only an exception on the "physically" side.

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I'm so unreasonably envious of those of you who were born in New Zealand. Cherish that you have a country that seems to give a shit about its populace. That sounds like a fairy tale. Imagine, caring about your citizens. Imagine having a conscientious community.

Cherish your country

Trumble posted...

There is no such thing as "federal" vs "state" in NZ. You might be thinking of Australia, but they do indeed handle most of it at the state level. Alternatively, you might be thinking of the local councils in NZ, but their authority is pretty much limited to city planning type shit.

Didn't know that. Huh.


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AldousIsDead posted...

Sufficiently advanced stupidly is indistinguishable from malice.

stolen

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Medussa posted...

stolen

Days later I realize the auto-correct mistake.

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yeah sorry, i saw it, too. should have fixed it in the quote.

also, how do you feel about "apathy" instead of "stupidity" there?

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You can do what you like with the arrangement, it's just the corollary to Hanlon's Razor. Never attribute to malice what could be reasonably attributed to stupidity.

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Th3Truth posted...

Everyone's wearing masks still right?

lmao nope. I went to the supermarket yesterday, and the only other person I saw wearing a mask was the greeter. It's not so much an anti-mask sentiment, as such - you certianly won't get hassled for wearing one - more just apathy.

Apparently in the major cities things are a bit better tho, especially Auckland (since that's where the cases - so far - actually are).

Thighon posted...

I'm so unreasonably envious of those of you who were born in New Zealand. Cherish that you have a country that seems to give a shit about its populace. That sounds like a fairy tale. Imagine, caring about your citizens. Imagine having a conscientious community.

Cherish your country

The thing about NZ is that we tend to judge ourselves by the standard of "are we as good as we could be?", rather than "are we better than the United States?". And right now, while our covid response might be an A+ on the latter measure, it's a B at best on the former. I'd look to the likes of Western Australia or Taiwan if I was looking for someone to grant A+ to (okay, Taiwan might have slipped to an A at this point).

vigorm0rtis posted...

Didn't know that. Huh.

We do have "regions", but that's more to do with councils (as mentioned above). In particular, regions don't set their own laws for the most part - they have control over things like alcohol licencing, speed limits, zoning, etc, but a region couldn't unilaterally eg. legalize cannabis or set different penalties for crimes (not even in the "I'm ignoring federal law and doing it anyway" sense that Colorado etc have done the former in).

AldousIsDead posted...

Never attribute to malice what could be reasonably attributed to stupidity.

I like to add "or negligence" to the end of that one.

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After two days of not finding any more connected cases, they picked up two earlier today - seem to be downstream from the original cases though, so still very likely the original family were the start of the outbreak (and thus, it's a small one).

Looks like we've dodged yet another major bullet.

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10 minutes (plus any lateness, plus the usual waffling on for 5 minutes before getting to the important stuff) until we find out what happens next.

My money's on status quo staying in place until Friday, assuming no big developments in the last few hours that they haven't revealed yet, after which (assuming it remains no new big developments) it goes to Level 2 nationwide.

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vigorm0rtis posted...

I'd just be glad to live in a country where people aren't deliberately trying to spread it.

thank god you're here to save us from a topic that wasn't about america

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Choco posted...

thank god you're here to save us from a topic that wasn't about america

It could be. We don't yet know how this happened, so it's not impossible that the infection came from America.

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Remember to use ur covid tracker apps boyos, our team is (almost) and five million man strong

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Livestream of the press conference re: any developments / changes to restrictions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyzgsJvJ81I

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DEKMStephens posted...

Remember to use ur covid tracker apps boyos, our team is (almost) and five million man strong

No it's not.

About half the team are women.

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This is more like the "norm" (Ardern being really late).

EDIT: She's here, 9 minutes late.

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How do you like living in New Zealand? What are the great things? What are the poopy parts?

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Trumble posted...

My money's on status quo staying in place until Friday, assuming no big developments in the last few hours that they haven't revealed yet, after which (assuming it remains no new big developments) it goes to Level 2 nationwide.

Okay so from what Bloomfield's saying, sounds like this might be wrong and it might be Level 2 for Auckland already.

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