New Zealand Covid update: cases drop to 49 in ‘reassuring indication’ lockdown is working

New cases of Covid-19 have continued to drop in New Zealand, in a promising early indication that the country’s strict lockdown is working and its latest outbreak may be coming under control.

The country announced 49 new cases on Tuesday – dropping for the second day in a row, down from 53 cases on Monday and 83 on Sunday. It is the lowest number of new cases reported in the country in six days.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the drop “does provide a further reassuring indication that our public health measures are rapidly slowing the spread of the virus.”

According to the latest modelling, Bloomfield said “the reproduction rate of the virus in this outbreak is now looking like it is remaining under one, which means cases will continue to decline.”

Asked whether New Zealanders should be celebrating the latest results, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said she would ask New Zealanders to “hold that thought.”

“Every day for me is, another step, a bit of progress, but [it’s] too early. For me I want to see sustained reductions over a period of time and I think actually most people want to see that. It is good not to see some of those high numbers we were only a few days ago.”

“It’s another step. We’ve still got a journey to go through.”

New Zealand has been in a strict level 4 lockdown since 17 August, when a single case of Covid-19 was detected in the general population. Since then, the total number of cases in the outbreak has grown to 612.

“The seriousness of Covid-19 infection is also very visible to us,” Bloomfield said, with 33 people in hospital, including eight in intensive care of whom two were on ventilators. “These hospitalisations obviously have an outward ripple effect on our communities and wh?nau [families], and my thoughts are with those individuals and their wh?nau. It’s also sobering that of the current Auckland outbreak six cases are under the age of one.”

Ardern said “We have an 18-year-old in hospital right now. I don’t think anyone can assume that they are safe from this virus, so we all have a job to do so. My request would be that we need everyone from all walks of life to do their best and to be the best role models that they can be.”

Officials are still hunting for how the virus got into the community. While the first cases have been traced, via genomic testing, to a single quarantine facility in Auckland, they have not yet been able to identify exactly how someone outside the facility was infected.

Ardern said that “all of the obvious sources of transmission – people to people contact – it would be fair to say that we’ve ruled most, if not all, of them out”.

She said officials were now investigating theories of how the virus could transmit through the air, without person to person transmission.

A number of people have been evacuated from west Auckland due to flooding this morning. Ardern said that those emergency evacuations overrode pandemic alert levels.

Meanwhile Afghanistan a country with 8 times the population of NZ had 76 new cases despite unmasked crowds in the street….proving no lockdowns work.

Wonder what their testing rates are at in that 1st world country. 

Be easy to state 76 new cases when they would be lucky to be testing 76 people.

Lockdowns work in the short term, they are designed to stem the outbreak until the majority of the population is vaccinated and has worked for us. 

Sader, we'd love your opinion on the abortion thread.

I'm on the fence, I support some abortions

That bill was passed 18 months ago I believe though beenshit is trying to pass it off as it happened during the current lockdown/ If it did happen in the last week or so then she has done one hell of a job in sneaking that in as I have seen and heard nothing.

Also as far as I know the 20 week cut off remains except for exceptional circumstance's

Beenshits post makes it sounds like they are killing full term babies on an industrial scale but do you expect any different from that imbecile?

Any link to this 97% and any stats for where men sit on this, can't find anything supporting these claims

Can anyone clarify the difference between an abortion at the start or middle of the pregnancy, other than the fetus is more developed? 

Even the morning after pill could be considered an abortion, as the pregnancy would have already started the previous night. 

Yes, Shark, the morning after pill could be branded an abortion. However, people take it not knowing if they are pregnant or not. Most times they won’t be. 

If they were pregnant it would be a cluster of cells joining together with no brain nor the capacity for pain at that stage.

The point of such late term abortions is that you are, in effect, delivering a baby to let it die. That’s infanticide in my book and should only ever be allowed if something has gone wrong at such a late stage of pregnancy; something which is going to impact on the health of the mother or the child. 

Choosing the sex should never be allowed, in my opinion, nor abortion for something as little as a club foot. I speak as one who is disabled herself so this resonates with me quite strongly. 

I think the whole issue is appalling and if so many are truly against the idea, this smacks of totalitarianism from the Government, in ignoring the wishes of the masses. 

Yes Becs, it is an extremely sensitive issue indeed.
I don't know the answer, even though I lean towards allowing the mother to make the decision.

Any form of abortion including the morning-after pill is contentious. 
If there is a cut-off period at all, what is the humane time limit? 
I agree with what you say on delivering a baby to die is inhumane... Imagine being the doctor that does this. 

All data given states emergency contraception is not an abortion, so that can be used up to five days after unprotected sex. 

The contraception argument could be extended even further, is it the female’s duty to have her egg fertilized? Clearly absurd in our society but you can imagine societies that would require this.

So it comes down to a societal judgement which has to take into account compassion for any suffering of the unborn child. One could use the existence of a heartbeat at approximately 5 weeks as cut off, but that’s hardly past the point where the pregnancy is signaled.

There is also the question rape which requires immediate and aggressive mitigation.

But how  a country could pass these laws NZ has with no regard for the suffering of the unborn or born child is inexplicable. Have we really reached the point where there in no empathy for the suffering of another life. The politicians can try as much as they like to pretend the life doesn’t exist until the baby is born, we all know otherwise,

It’s unbelievable cruelty, when you think a child can be aborted up to birth. There are mitigating circumstances which I’m sure we all agree to, but just as a general idea….it’s horrific.

I know those who are religious believe the baby is present at the point of conception, but biologically, we all know better than that. However, abortion should never be used as a form of birth control as it appears to be here. 

I just find the whole idea repugnant. 

If you vote in a government that supports aborting children you are then a murderer. I can not see how you cannot be.

If course à bigger holocaust is on its way if too medical opinion is correct. The jab is the bio weapon.

What boggles the mind is that the CDC has stated plainly that the PRC test is worthless as it cannot distinguish between Covid and othe flu viruses. Overv27bcycles you just get noise. You can find anything you want to.

All you need to do is increase the magnifications and more Covid positive will be found. The results are pure garbage.

The UK is I hear kicking out the rest as well.

YET the clowns still refer to people testing positive for Covid.

What a sick hoax.

"Yes Becs, it is an extremely sensitive issue indeed.

I don't know the answer, even though I lean towards allowing the mother to make the decision.

Any form of abortion including the morning-after pill is contentious. 
If there is a cut-off period at all, what is the humane time limit? 
I agree with what you say on delivering a baby to die is inhumane... Imagine being the doctor that does this. 

If it's tbe mother's decision,  why couldn't she make up her mind much earlier over the 9 months...20 weeks is halfway...still horrible. 

Getting doctors and nursus to do these insane procedures is the real enigma...you must be a special kind of evil to work at one of these late term abortion facilities,  but I suppose Satanists and psychopaths que up for these jobs....a blight on humanity.

@Becs,

What Does Conception Mean for Pregnancy? - Healthline

• Conception: From Egg to Embryo. ...
• Ovulation. ...
• Moving Into the Fallopian Tube. ...
• The Sperm's Long Journey. ...
• Fertilization: Sperm Penetrates Egg. ...
• The Cells Start to Divide. ...
• Implantation. ...
• Pregnancy Hormones.

No it’s not debatable, it’s biology ! 

You aren’t pregnant the moment you have sex and you can’t use the morning after pill or have a coil fitted after five days post intercourse. These methods are to stop a pregnancy occurring. 

In the biblical sense, you are pregnant the moment you have sex but that’s a religious view not a scientific one. 

So, if Jesus was an immaculate conception- he did not exist within Mary- until 6 days later? 
It is debatable if the conception is a life form, but I would argue that it is- just in an earlier phase. 

But not every act of intercourse results in a human life. 

And Mary was an exception…..she was impregnated immediately !