There is a 7 day window from today for kiwis returning to NZ, without having to quarantine. Anyone else will have to go into hotel quarantine on arrival for 14 days at their own expense. Testing negative before flying from Australia also applies.
In NZ I don't know how the vaccinations are going, I understand from my brother there that they are a bit slow and behind the Australian rollout. AstraZeneca is freely available in my part of Queensland but Pfizer supplies not so. Australia is also sending vacc supplies to the Pacific islands and Indonesia afaik. NSW has declared a state of emergency as the delta infections have spiraled out of control, VIC state is also infected. There has been a total of 32,582 cases in Australia, 915 deaths, 23,663,500 tests conducted. There has been 10,654,563 vaccinations (assuming 2 per person) or approx 21% of the population. Hope this helps
I survived two pandemics, 1957 and 1968 and both went through the countries very quickly. Both originated in China (as every major plague has). The "Made in China" covid-19 virus is very different and I would bet the farm it's been created and designed to do exactly what it is doing. I think you could safely now call it endemic because it shows no sign of going away and becoming seasonal like other SARS-type viruses. My thoughts are to let it go while protecting the vulnerable. Use and freely provide Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, Vit D etc (the US marxist-democrats hate these and don't want the population to have them because it interferes with their control and population reduction plans). Fauci should be tarred feathered and run out of town on a rail for his complicity.
Can't argue with much of what you said except -
You may be right Red leg and I hope you are. Talking about bat shit crazy, with the way the administration is going, we are going to find out. Do you know why the democrats are so anti the medicine mentioned. ?. I can think of one reason, because Trump promoted it
I believe that is absolutely true.
I think it's on or before 13 Jan 2024. I don't think voting the labour govt out will make any difference. It seems these days all political parties are rowing the same boat. The electorate may change the govt just for the sake of it. I think the current administration may be on thin ice but then I'm not in the country. Wise pundits vote for the candidate and not the party, it's called strategic voting. It helps if you know about the candidate first.
Yes there is a plan. With NZ the govt is firm on quarantine requirements for incoming travelers for the next 8 weeks. If no further infections then the country will be opened again but with strict quarantine conditions. It also depends on what stage Australia is at with Delta, and it is Delta they are concerned about, and what states have their infections under control. I don't think you can have a hard and fast plan with this fast moving virus - as the Queensland Premier has stated, we will assess our status every day and react quickly. Currently Queensland doesn't have a high infection rate like the more southern states but that can change in the blink of an eye because a QANTAS cabin crew in Queensland became ill, didn't get tested for a week and continued flying all over the place. More people are getting vaccinated and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. I think masks are a waste of time, like trying to stop a mozzie flying through a 6 wire fence.
We must have about the lowest vaccination rates in the developed world. 12.8% (628) fully vaccinated and 18.8% (925K) partially vaccinated.
NZ had an election in October of last year, and the Labour government won 50% of the vote (first time in NZ history one party could government alone under MMP). The only party against lockdowns got less than 1% of the vote and did not make it into parliment.
I think that will have to change. Even vaccinated there will be infections. It's just the severity of the infection that is reduced. If they chase infection rates you folks could be doing this for a long time. From what I have seen I believe they will have to switch their focus to hospitalization rates, not just infection rates. Good luck!
@Cervus elaphus
Yes the hospitalization and ICU rates are being reported by state rather than overall. Some media are being misleading and irresponsible in inferring that vaccination prevents getting infected and spreading it.
