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New Zealand announces it's locking down the entire country ... over one Covid case

Deleted member 31923

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(CNN)New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a nationwide lockdown after the country confirmed one coronavirus case -- the first locally transmitted Covid-19 case in the community since February.

Ardern told a press conference Tuesday authorities were assuming it was the contagious Delta variant, although genome sequencing is still underway.

An unvaccinated 58-year-old man in the country's largest city Auckland tested positive for the virus. The man had traveled to other parts of the country, and had obvious link to the border, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said Tuesday.
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New Zealand will be under the strictest level lockdown level for the next three days starting from 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, local time, Ardern said. Under level four lockdown, everyone must stay home and businesses are closed aside for essential services such as supermarkets and pharmacies.

New Zealand was last under its most serious lockdown level a year ago, Ardern said.

Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula -- an area of the country's North Island where the patient traveled -- are likely to be under a level four lockdown for a week.
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"We are one of the last countries in the world to have the Delta variant in our community," Ardern said. "We're in the position to learn from experience overseas, and what actions work, and what actions don't work."

"Delta has been called a gamechanger -- and it is. It means we need to again go hard and early to stop the spread. We have seen what can happen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance."

New Zealand has been praised for its handling of the virus, which saw it close borders to almost all foreign nationals early, and impose strict state-run quarantines on incoming travelers.
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New Zealand announces a nationwide lockdown ... over one Covid case - CNN

Quite the contrast to the US, where we are barreling towards 200k daily cases and 100k hospitalizations, with ICU's across the South filled up and refrigerated trucks ready to carry all the bodies, but instead of a lockdown, or even mask mandates in all states, places like Florida and Texas are taking preventative measures...to ban mask mandates in schools.
 

StevieP

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Oct 27, 2017
3,265
That's the correct way to do it and curb spread. Covid zero strategy is the only one that works.
 
Vylder

Vylder

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Oct 25, 2017
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How much longer can they keep doing it though?

Assuming COVID is here to stay and new variants will keep appearing, how are they going to deal with this in the future?
 
stn

stn

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Oct 28, 2017
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I assume its because they supposedly haven't had a single new case in 6 months.
 

Deleted member 6263

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That's 1 identified case, I'm sure there are more there now because of the unvaccinated.

But can you imagine being the reason why your whole country gets shut down? I'd feel like an idiot. Then again, if I was unvaccinated and had readily available access to it I'd already be an idiot.
 
Prophet Steve

Prophet Steve

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Oct 26, 2017
1,177
It is for the best. In Australia it appears to me that even if there are tens or a few hundred infections you basically cannot stop the spread anymore without very draconian measures and a lot of enforcement coming from the government.

Vylder said:
How much longer can they keep doing it though?

Assuming COVID is here to stay and new variants will keep appearing, how are they going to deal with this in the future?
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This is only the plan until they have enough of their population vaccinated. They haven't had enough doses to vaccinate everyone yet.


Stiltzkin said:
That's 1 identified case, I'm sure there are more there now because of the unvaccinated.

But can you imagine being the reason why your whole country gets shut down? I'd feel like an idiot. Then again, if I was unvaccinated and had readily available access to it I'd already be an idiot.
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Only 17% has been fully vaccinated at this point because there is not enough available. It probably feels silly if you are the only case, but it is a community transmission so I'd imagine I would also feel peeved that there is someone out there that I managed to get it from.
 
Senator Toadstool

Senator Toadstool

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Oct 25, 2017
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the virus isn't going away. it will get into new zealand. I think their plan to eliminate the virus is bound to fail. But i don't fault them for trying to stop it before everyone gets vaxed. Vaccination is the most important step
 
Kyrios

Kyrios

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Oct 27, 2017
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Stiltzkin said:
That's 1 identified case, I'm sure there are more there now because of the unvaccinated.

But can you imagine being the reason why your whole country gets shut down? I'd feel like an idiot. Then again, if I was unvaccinated and had readily available access to it I'd already be an idiot.
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'Well now thanks to BOB, we need to shut down again. So everyone make sure to thank BOB'S dumb ass"
 
nonoriri

nonoriri

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Apr 30, 2020
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Senator Toadstool said:
the virus isn't going away. it will get into new zealand. I think their plan to eliminate the virus is bound to fail. But i don't fault them for trying to stop it before everyone gets vaxed. Vaccination is the most important step
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A lot of my Kiwi friends feel the same and are really frustrated with this and the terrible vaccine rollout there. Despite few cases and lockdowns, they're stressed and just want the vaccine so they can have peace of mind. Also a lot of them have family members in other countries so the slow rollout means longer and longer before they can see them.
 
gilded_Pb

gilded_Pb

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Oct 27, 2017
3,193
Good. The longer you put off a lockdown, the longer the eventual lockdowns going to be. Example: NSW.
 
Prophet Steve

Prophet Steve

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Oct 26, 2017
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Senator Toadstool said:
the virus isn't going away. it will get into new zealand. I think their plan to eliminate the virus is bound to fail. But i don't fault them for trying to stop it before everyone gets vaxed. Vaccination is the most important step
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No matter what happens at this point I feel they have been successful already. Even if it gets in they can probably slow down the spread a lot, like in Australia. A significant chunk of their vulnerable people have been vaccinated and they will only receive more vaccines over time.

Even if it would spread fast now, I think they have been much, much more successful than most other countries.

Bowl0l said:
Does NZ practice contact tracing?
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Yes. Contact tracing has been a thing for a long time, although hasn't been applied at this scale.
 
Koukalaka

Koukalaka

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Oct 28, 2017
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Scotland
Bizarre living here in the UK where cases aren't really going down that much, and we've just sort of taken an "eh, it's fine?" approach to everything.
 

StevieP

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Oct 27, 2017
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Noppie said:
Absolutely embarrassing. Can't believe people view this as a positive.
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Covid zero is 100 percent the correct solution to cases, until such a time that herd immunity is reached via vaccines (if even possible). Covid zero is the only proven working mitigation strategy for viral spread.
 
Senator Toadstool

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Prophet Steve said:
No matter what happens at this point I feel they have been successful already. Even if it gets in they can probably slow down the spread a lot, like in Australia. A significant chunk of their vulnerable people have been vaccinated and they will only receive more vaccines over time.

Even if it would spread fast now, I think they have been much, much more successful than most other countries.


Yes. Contact tracing has been a thing for a long time, although hasn't been applied at this scale.
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oh they've def been successful. just need to get shots in arms
 
Bony Manifesto

Bony Manifesto

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Oct 27, 2017
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Koukalaka said:
Bizarre living here in the UK where cases aren't really going down that much, and we've just sort of taken an "eh, it's fine?" approach to everything.
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Flat cases are a very good thing, as it means it's not spreading. The problem has always been the rapid exponential growth.

Really, as well as New Zealand had handled the early stages of the outbreak, it seems that they really screwed up vaccine procurement. Looking on their government website, it seems they're still only at the stage of providing first doses for those over 50.
 

Ravensmash

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,797
Yeah, I read a bit about NZ's strategy earlier amidst seeing a lot of incredulous reactions to it here, and it sounds pretty good tbh.

Whilst we've been plunged into lockdowns that last months and our hospitals are placed under strain, they as a nation have enjoyed relative freedom, have kept their deaths down to a comparatively tiny amount, the economy has kept moving, and it enjoys good public support.

I'd take a short and sharp lockdown for a week over going through multiple lockdowns again, that's for sure.

(Although it's way too late for zero covid here in this country)

That being said, I'm interested to see what the exit plan is so to speak. At some point cases will have to be managed akin to common illness, right?
 
Senator Toadstool

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StevieP said:
Covid zero is 100 percent the correct solution to cases, until such a time that herd immunity is reached via vaccines (if even possible). Covid zero is the only proven working mitigation strategy for viral spread.
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covid isn't going away. covid zero is a pipe dream. we need to keep people out of hospitals and prevent serious illness
 
PspLikeANut

PspLikeANut

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May 20, 2018
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Nice.. I like how serious they are about this . I might join Gabe N and move there if possible .
 
RisingStar

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Noppie said:
Absolutely embarrassing. Can't believe people view this as a positive.
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Why?

The country is small and they don't have enough vaccines to vax everyone. Besides, given how isolated they are, it's better to wait for bigger more problematic nations to get vaxxed while keeping things as safe as possible.
 
werezompire

werezompire

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Oct 26, 2017
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I was in the process of getting visas for my family members when Taiwan had a small outbreak and locked down. Only a few hundred cases a day in the entire country (23+ million people) at the height. It's down to about a dozen cases/day now and I'm still waiting for them to re-open. But hey, better safe than sorry.
 
The Albatross

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Oct 25, 2017
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Yeah, NZ has taken COVID precautions very seriously.

I'm curious how New Zealanders feel about it these days now 18mos into the virus. New Zealand has a population of what.. 4-5m people? And from basically May 2020 to Aug 2021, they've averages 0-2 cases/day for 18mos. And since May 2020 ... what, 10 people in the country have died of COVID? Comparatively, a state like Massachusetts in the US with a population of about 7million has had 20,000 deaths?

Vaccination generally lags behind other peer countries... just a hair over 15% or so? With vaccination rates so low, it's probably for the best.
 
Tomasoares

Tomasoares

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Oct 28, 2017
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It's a 3 days lockdown, I think this is the best strategy for them and it has been working since the beginning of the pandemic.
 
qaopjlll

qaopjlll

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Oct 27, 2017
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Are vaccination rates that low in NZ due to availability issues or is there a high anti-vax sentiment in the country?
 
Tsuyu

Tsuyu

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Oct 25, 2017
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New Zealand and Australia tolerance level for covid cases and deaths are magnitude different from their western counterparts.

And that's not a bad thing, more so when vaccination rates are still relatively low. Frankly speaking, as someone from a country with extremely low death and death rates of covid 19, it's what normalize on the other side of the western world that is abhorrent. Lives are worth so little to the politicians there.
 
Foot

Foot

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Mar 10, 2019
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Noppie said:
Absolutely embarrassing. Can't believe people view this as a positive.
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