A glimpse at the reality of Covid in the Solomon Islands neighbourhood
Sydney, a city of more than 5 million people, has been in a strict lockdown for more than two months now, failing so far to contain an outbreak that has spread across internal borders and as far as neighboring New Zealand.
NSW has reported the most new coronavirus cases ever recorded in a single day in any state in Australia despite eight weeks of lockdown and increasingly stricter measures.
On Saturday the state recorded 894 new cases, a record spike and the fourth consecutive day NSW has seen Delta variant infections above the 600-case mark.
Even in very strict and harsh lockdowns, the virus is spreading. And that is a fact in NSW.
The vast majority of the 894 cases reported across Australia on Saturday were found in Sydney, the epicenter of the Delta variant-fueled outbreak.
“We are in a very serious situation here in New South Wales,” state Health Minister Brad Hazzard said. “There is no time now to be selfish, it’s time to think of the broader community and your families.”
Australian police clashed with hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters in Melbourne and Sydney on Saturday as officials reported the country’s highest ever single-day rise in Covid-19 cases.
Mounted police used pepper spray in Melbourne to break up crowds surging toward police lines, while smaller groups of protesters were prevented from congregating in Sydney by a large contingent of riot police.
In Melbourne, a large crowd managed to march through the city, with some protesters clashing with police, after state Premier Daniel Andrews expanded a lockdown in that city to entire Victoria
Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton had earlier warned people to stay away from the protest, adding it was “just ridiculous to think that people would be so selfish and come and do this.”
Fiji
Nine people are dying from Covid-19 daily in Fiji with the west now surpassing the central division where the outbreak is centred.
In its latest update, the government said the country has a seven-day rolling average of nine Covid deaths per day, with seven in the west and two in the central division.
Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said the country is averaging 1462 new cases and nine deaths per day over the last week.
As of 10 August, the average daily death figure was 10. A week earlier, it was seven.
PNG
While pressure on Papua New Guinea's hospitals from Covid-19 appears to have eased, but with little information on positive cases or deaths, there is concern PNG may be asleep to the full extent of the outbreak
New Zealand
More than a million New Zealanders have now had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced the milestone this afternoon at the latest update, where it was revealed there were 21 new community cases in New Zealand.
He said 73 percent of New Zealanders over the age of 40 are either vaccinated or booked in to get the jab, and another 382,500 doses of the Pfizer Vaccine will arrive in New Zealand tomorrow.
The Director General of Health had his first Covid-19 vaccination this morning and is encouraging others to follow suit.
Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker says case numbers of the Delta variant of Covid-19 are tracking as expected, but it's too early to tell how high they will go.
Professor Baker said it remained possible that those infected with the strain had travelled to other parts of the country and it could spread outside of Auckland and Wellington.
He said things would become clearer once more test results started to come in.
"We've heard from the modeller a range of estimates from 50 to 120 cases. I think that's still a pretty realistic range. This is obviously a middle range estimate because it can be easily a lot more if one of those cases when they were infected went to a super spreading kind of event."
He said it was too early to be optimistic the cases were confined to Auckland and Wellington.
"I don't think we can guarantee that. The other known contacts have been distributed all around the country so those people I imagine will be having the tests over the weekend and early next week so the results from those may not be available until Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday."
He said wastewater testing would also be very valuable information.
The immediate shift to alert level 4 restrictions was an excellent move by the government and would have limited the spread of the cluster.
"The problem always is the outliers and we know the lockdown is very effective but it does have some weak spots. One of those is the essential workers which are 15 percent of the population. If, for example, one of them was infected, they could potentially present the virus more widely.
"That's why it's so important that they wear masks and are vaccinated.
"The other potential weak point in this is that we know the demographic who were infected were a young age group and they have big social networks and they may sometimes feel less engaged with the response."
He said the mask mandate would help everyone get out of lockdown faster.
"This is not forever. This is just for this period when there is a risk of a circulating virus."
Sources. CNBS and Radio New Zealand.
Comment
Given the evidence of the spread of coronavirus in SI’s immediate neighbourhood I believe every effort should be made to get oneself vaccinated for in the words of NSW’s Health Minister, “There is no time to be selfish, it’s time to think of the broader community and your families.”
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
