The threat of the deadly Delta Covid variant
The Leader of Opposition, Hon. Matthew Wale, has urged the government to adopt a zero-risk approach in its efforts to stop the entry of the deadly delta variant.
Mr.Wale Wale has said that it is important that the government regularly conducts risk analysis to ensure that there is zero risk in importing any variant of COVID-19.
The Opposition Leader also said it is important that the government develop the capacity locally to do genome sequencing to identify the types of variants, as this will have a direct impact on the type and severity of response
Just one Covid-19 community case of the Delta variant will send New Zealand into lockdown.
That's the warning from the government, after a fresh report on reopening the borders cautioned an outbreak this year is likely, similar to what's happening in New South Wales.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report the government's emergency response would be to move into Level 4 restrictions within hours of a community case being detected.
At home, Speaking in during his weekly nationwide address, Monday, Prime Minister (PM) Manasseh Sogavare said Solomon Islands has one of the best pre-departure screening processes for incoming travelers and incoming vessels anywhere in the world.
“Because our capacity to manage community transmission is limited, our focus is to stop the virus entering the country or eliminating it at the border quarantine stations.
“The current suspension on incoming passengers has allowed us to review and reset these measures to make them even more effective considering the virulence of the Delta Variant of Covid-19,” he said.
In Australia, the ACT will go into lockdown today at 5pm (local time).
The statement said the source of the infection was not known, and that the new case represented the "most serious public health risk" the ACT had faced for 12 months.
It had previously been 105 days since the last case in the ACT - a diplomat in quarantine - and over a year since the last locally acquired case.
In NSW there have been two new Covid-19 related deaths and 345 new locally acquired cases in New South Wales, at least 60 of whom were infectious while in the community.
The two people who died were men in their 90s. One of them had been fully vaccinated; the other had had one jab.
The Sydney local government areas of Bayside, Burwood and Strathfield will be deemed "areas of concern", and be subjected to extra Covid-19 lockdown restrictions from 5pm today.
Victoria has recorded 21 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, 15 of whom have been in quarantine during their infectious period.
Authorities have also identified two cases which were acquired interstate.
Seventeen of the new local cases are linked to the current outbreaks.
The state processed 45,408 test results on Wednesday, when 25,418 vaccine doses were delivered at state-run sites.
On Wednesday, chief health officer Brett Sutton said it appeared increasingly likely that the current outbreak, which began with two mystery cases in Hobson’s Bay and the City of Maribyrnong, was linked to a fresh "incursion" from New South Wales.
There are more than 12,000 primary close contacts linked to the outbreak, which is concentrated in the Melbourne's west but reaches across the city.
Last night, Western Health said ambulances were directed away from Footscray and Sunshine hospital
Queensland has recorded 10 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warns Queenslanders not to enter New South Wales.
All 10 cases are in home quarantine and are linked to the Delta cluster in South-East Queensland, which started at Indooroopilly State High School in Brisbane's west.
There are 15,334 people quarantining at home in Queensland, with 6,280 due to be released today, pending negative Covid-19 tests.
Ms.Palaszczuk said it was critical that the thousands of families under stay-at-home orders remained in quarantine for the 14 days and to check before leaving home.
"Just because you receive a negative test doesn't mean you can leave your home,” Ms. Palaszczuk said.
Tasman travel bubble.
As Australia grapples with the highly infectious Delta variant, experts say it is unlikely the trans-Tasman travel bubble will reopen.
New South Wales (NSW) recorded 344 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases and two more deaths on Wednesday.
Travel is set to resume next month following an eight-week hiatus, but Covid-19 modelling expert professor Shaun Hendy said that is nigh on impossible.
"We've seen them tighten restrictions over recent weeks and that tightening does not seem to be having the desired effect, so I think we do need to assume that the outbreak is going to be persistent for some time.
"It may grow to become considerably larger, that puts other states at risk in Australia, and so it probably means the end of the travel bubble," he said.
But there is some scope to resume travel with other parts of Australia, Hendy said.
"Some states such as Tasmania or maybe Western Australia, if over the longer run they're able to demonstrate that they're not picking up stray cases from New South Wales or other territories within Australia, then it may be that the government could look to open selective bubbles with those states."
NZ’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the government has been closely watching what is happening across the Tasman and so far, has not ruled anything out.
When the travel does resume, it will look different, he said.
"Vaccination I think can play a bigger role here. It may be that there are vaccine requirements put in place as part of a reopening of safe travel zones. All of those things are things that we'll work our way through. Looking at what's happening in Australia, it's still some time away," he said.
The government warned it would quickly impose a level 4 lockdown if the Delta variant gets into the community here
Professor Catherine Bennett is an epidemiologist at Melbourne's Deakin University said quarantine-free travel would be a long way off.
"You have to have such high levels of control with any single case that will potentially mean that we cannot reopen the bubble.
"We're going to be longer term now. Still learning whether we will go back to zero in New South Wales or other parts of Australia in the short term, or whether we will just be trying to get this to manageable levels as we roll out the last bit of our vaccine programme," she said.
While the situation in Australia is terrible, there is a silver lining, Bennett said.
"Our vaccination rates have really accelerated. We're now hitting almost a quarter of a million doses being administered in a day. That's the good news in all of this. The sad thing is sometimes it takes these outbreaks to really motivate people to get vaccinated."
The city of Dubbo in NSW is the latest place in the state to go into lockdown after new Covid cases there.
Melbourne's lockdown has been extended for another week..
Sources. Solomon Times Online, Solomon Star News and Radio Australia,
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
