The Niue government has confirmed the country is experiencing covid-19 community transmission for the first time since the virus was recorded at the border in March.

“We don’t have additional resources to be finding sources of infection, previously we haven’t done that before.

“This is the first time we have had community transmission in Niue,” Acting Secretary of Government Gaylene Tasmania said.

• READ MORE: Other Niue covid reports
• NZ covid-19 update: 27,076 new cases, 58 deaths and 328 in hospital

Out of the seven cases recorded in the reporting period to November 28 local time, four were listed as covid-19 community transmission.

On November 29, 12 new cases were recorded taking the total number of active cases to 33 and the total number of cases since covid-19 arrived at the border in March 2022 to 136.

Community transmission means a case has not been linked to any other infections, Tasmania said.

“We are unable to link it back and we stopped linking it back because we need to look at containing the spread,” she said.

New Zealand-based public health specialist Sir Collin Tukuitonga said this marked a new chapter in Niue’s covid-19 response,

“You can have a community case that is not from a community transmission, this is a case that is in the community connected to the border but this person is now in the community, that is not community transmission,” Sir Collin said.

What is ‘community transmission’?
There has been confusion around what community transmission means with the term being used by the public.

“You have got to be careful, for public health people like myself, we have a very strict definition of what constitutes a community transmission,” Sir Collin said.

Any case that starts in the community and can’t be linked to the border is called a case of community transmission, according to Auckland University.

“A case comes through the border, negative tests and therefore goes into the community but nobody knows they have covid-19 because they are asymptomatic and they test negative but they are carrying the virus with them.

“So that individual could go home and be with family and be the source of infection,” Sir Collin gives an example of how community transmission can occur.

Tasmania said at the moment Niue residents could assume that there were people in the community that were positive that had not yet been identified.

“People are just picking it up just by being around the community,” Tasmania said.

The cases deemed community transmission were not been able to be linked back to any of the positive cases or any of the close contacts, she said.

New phase for Niue covid-19 health response
As of Tuesday, 29 November, the government covid-19 website is set to change and will not report “community cases” just “active cases”, Tasmania said.

“It is not an unusual response,” Sir Collin said.

He said New Zealand “gave up”, or placed less emphasis on contact tracing when the covid-19 numbers became high and the system was stretched.

“They have accepted the fact that there will be cases. Why would you persevere with all of that if you have changed your focus,” he said.

“Like us they’ll probably see a blip like increasing cases you are seeing here [in New Zealand] but given the high vax status I expect the peak to be lower and not as many sick people.”

No request has been made to New Zealand for support but Tasmania said there were options if needed.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

The Solomon islands government endorsed a 60 hour lockdown in the capital Honiara last night after an urgent special national address by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare confirming covid-19 community transmission.

Honiara Emergency Zone will be in lockdown from 6pm last evening to 6am, Saturday, 22 January 2022.

The lockdown comes with restriction of movements of people as ordered by the Prime Minister under Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (Honiara Emergency Zone) (Restriction of Movement of Persons) Order 2022.

• READ MORE: Lockdown looming for Honiara
• SI government has failed the country by failing to protect borders, says Suidani

The order reads: “A person must not enter or leave the emergency zone on and from 6.00 pm on Wednesday 19 January 2022 until 6.00 am on Saturday 22 January 2022.”

The order also spelt out that a person must be at his or her residence during the lockdown period.

And it further stated that a person must not be away from his or her residence during the lockdown period.

Essential workers exempt
Those who are exempt to travel during the lockdown are essential services workers who are covered under the Essential Services Act (Cap. 12).

The lockdown in the Honiara Emergency Zone is important for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to continue to carry out contact tracing of people who travelled on MV Awka from Ontong Java on January 10 after a passenger on that trip was tested positive for covid-19.

Prime Minister Sogavare said: “The full extent of the covid-19 infection in Honiara is yet to be established, since this diagnosis.

“Given that the positive case lives in a household with other people, and some other passengers that travelled on the vessel have been reported to be unwell, I am sad to inform you that we already have community transmission of covid-19 in Honiara.”

Members of the public are requested to practise basic health activities such as washing hands for 20 seconds or use hand sanitizers, keep social distancing of at least 2 meters apart from another person, always wear face masks and avoid congregating together.

Other measures that have been put in place include:

• Temporary suspension of all domestic flights to provinces until further notice;
• Suspension of all incoming passenger service from international flights — humanitarian cargo flights to continue; and
• Suspension of all incoming passenger services from international flights until further notice.

Humanitarian cargo services will continue. Other cargo services will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Overseas cargo vessels, fuel and gas tankers will continue to operate as Solomon Islands depend on these vessels for its survival.

They do not pose high covid-19 risks so they will continue to operate during the lockdown period if necessary.

The Honiara Emergency Zone boundary is from Alligator Creek in the East to Poha in the west end of Honiara.

Earlier warning
RNZ Pacific reports that Prime Minister Sogavare had earlier warned the country could expect a rapid spread of covid-19 and deaths.

This came after 10 people had illegally entered Solomon Islands at Pelau in Ontong Java – six of them were confirmed positive with covid-19.

One of those infected is a doctor and Sogavare said he was greatly saddened by this distressing news.

A foreign national on a flight from Brisbane has also tested positive.

It took the Solomons tally of positive cases to 32.

Sogavare spoke on Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC), saying the number of positive cases was expected to grow rapidly in the coming weeks, and loss of life was expected.

The SIBC reports the prime minister saying the government had sent 31 personnel, including five additional police, to Pelau to bring the outbreak under control.

Republished with permission.

The announcement this week that New Zealand will introduce a vaccination certificate by November is welcome news. Whether by “carrot” or “stick”, vaccination rates must keep climbing, as it is now likely case numbers will climb under alert level 3 conditions in Auckland.

We’ve seen a growing number of mystery cases over the past couple of weeks – people testing positive after going to hospital for non-covid reasons, or from essential worker surveillance testing.

These cases suggest there is a significant amount of undetected community transmission, and that makes it much harder to stamp out.

•  READ MORE: NZ needs a more urgent vaccination plan — with nearly 80 percent now single-dosed, the majority will support it
• New Zealand cannot abandon its COVID elimination strategy while Māori and Pasifika vaccination rates are too low
• New Zealand government takes a calculated risk to relax Auckland’s lockdown while new cases continue to appear

While the slight easing of restrictions announced on Tuesday may or may not accelerate the growth in cases, it is unlikely to slow it.

This has led to some debate about whether the government has abandoned its elimination strategy in favour of suppression of cases.

To some extent this is a semantic argument. Elimination has been defined as “zero tolerance” for community transmission, as opposed to zero cases. The fact that New Zealand was able to get to zero cases for much of the past 18 months has inevitably come to define what elimination has meant in practice.

Before vaccines were widely available, having zero cases was crucial in allowing us to enjoy level 1 freedoms.

But New Zealand is now transitioning into a new phase of the pandemic, and this was always going to happen. Borders can’t remain closed forever and the virus was always going to arrive sooner or later.

Return to tougher restrictions still a possibility
In an ideal world, our border defences would have kept delta out and New Zealand would have been able to stay at alert level 1 until the vaccine rollout was complete.

But the delta outbreak has forced our hand to some extent.

Whether another week or two at level 4 would have been enough to eliminate this outbreak is impossible to know. Given the outbreak is spreading in very difficult-to-reach communities, stamping out every chain of transmission is extremely challenging.

As we shift from an elimination to a suppression strategy, the country will have to tread a very narrow path to avoid overwhelming our hospitals and throwing our at-risk populations under the bus.

This includes Māori and Pasifika, who were effectively put at the back of the vaccine queue by dint of their younger populations, despite being at higher risk of severe covid-19.

We are now relying on a combination of restrictions and immunity through vaccination to prevent cases growing too rapidly. As vaccination rates increase, restrictions can be progressively eased.

But if we relax too much, there is a risk the number of hospitalisations could start to spiral out of control. When the R number is above 1, cases will continue to grow relentlessly until either more immunity or tougher restrictions bring it back under 1.

Getting vaccination rates up is crucial but will take time, so the government may yet be forced to tighten restrictions to protect our healthcare systems.

The vaccination advantage
New Zealand was always going to have to grapple with these really tough decisions, though delta has forced us to do this earlier than we would have liked.

But our elimination strategy has given us has an important advantage – almost 70 percent of the total population has had at least one dose of the vaccine before experiencing any large-scale community transmission.

We still have a lot of work ahead, but having access to the vaccine before being exposed to the virus is a luxury people in most countries didn’t have.

There is a lot that could happen between now and Christmas. Currently, the Australian state of Victoria has more than 100 people in intensive care, which is equivalent to almost a third of New Zealand’s total ICU capacity.

Those ICU beds are normally full with patients with conditions other than covid-19.

The implications for the healthcare system are obvious. If New Zealand goes the way of Melbourne, harsher restrictions will probably be inevitable.

Not a white flag
The more optimistic scenario is that a combination of restrictions, vaccination and contact tracing is just enough to keep a lid on the case numbers. It’s almost inevitable cases will increase. But if it isn’t too rapid and hospitals can meet the demand, it could tide us over until we have the high vaccine coverage we need.

And while vaccination rates are not yet high enough, they are still helping a lot, cutting the R number to around half what it would be with no vaccine.

The country is in a far better position now than it would have been if the Auckland outbreak had happened in May or June.

Everyone can do their bit by doing two things: help and encourage those around you to get vaccinated, and stick to the rules.

We have to keep community transmission rates low to keep pressure off our hospitals and help us get to the next step of the road map. Moving away from a literal interpretation of elimination does not mean waving a white flag.

Dr Michael Plank, professor in applied mathematics, University of Canterbury. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says a breach in protocol in relation to the 53-year-old woman now testing positive of covid-19 should not have happened.

The woman who was working as a maid in a border quarantine facility developed symptoms last Thursday, but continued working and failed to notify authorities.

The woman who tested positive for covid-19 today has a “highly transmissible” case.

• READ MORE: Fiji on high alert as contacts of covid-19 cases are confirmed

“Our investigation has revealed that she had an interaction with the soldier when he showed up early to his room as it was being cleaned.

“Protocol dictates that overlap should not have happened, that is why the woman was not tested before re-entering the public. We have to wait and see what further is revealed in the investigation.”

Bainimarama said the woman, who was a daytime worker, had travelled between Nadi and Lautoka and also attended a funeral in Tavakubu in Lautoka on Friday and Saturday.

“Perhaps most worryingly she attended a funeral in Tavakubu, Lautoka on Friday and Saturday traveling alongside other passengers by minivan.

“Her movement using public transport and her attendance in close proximity alongside many other Fijians at the two-day funeral makes further transmissions in the community highly likely.”

Fiji ‘faced with danger’
The Prime Minister said Fiji was faced with danger and the breach in the protocol should not have been repeated.

He said to limit the risk of mass transmission, authorities had established containment areas in Nadi and Lautoka and from Qeleloa, Vakabuli, and the Waiwai crossing bearing towards Ba.

Bainimarama said new stringent health protection measures had come into effect.

He said the Ministry of Health and Medical Services personnel and disciplined forces had rapidly established screening points at this entry point.

Praneeta Prakash is a multimedia journalist with FBC News.

New Zealand is one of a handful of countries where community transmission of covid-19 has been eliminated.

But with two new cases announced on June 16, we have learned that elimination is not the end – rather, it’s the start of the next phase.

After 23 consecutive days with no new cases, the June 16 announcement that two people returning from overseas have tested positive does not mean New Zealand’s elimination strategy has failed. Just two weeks ago, we estimated we were likely to see one or two cases a week at New Zealand’s border.

READ MORE: New Zealand hits a 95% chance of eliminating coronavirus – but we predict new cases will emerge

The two travellers in question came from the UK, where the disease is still very active.

The two women arrived in New Zealand on June 7, via Doha and Brisbane, and stayed in a managed isolation hotel in Auckland. But they were granted an exemption on compassionate grounds on June 12 to travel to Wellington to visit their dying parent.

Such compassionate exemptions from managed isolation have now been temporarily suspended.

This development shows how important our border controls are. Currently, all new arrivals must remain in quarantine for at least 14 days, unless they receive an exemption. It is unlikely someone is still infectious after 14 days without showing symptoms, so this should minimise the chances of spread from overseas arrivals.

It does not mean zero risk
But as these cases show, this doesn’t mean the risk is zero. Whether from an exemption on compassionate grounds as in this case, people working at the border, or from people getting infected shortly before leaving quarantine, it is inevitable that new cases will make it across the border.

As we explained in our previous article, to stop the virus coming back, we need more than just good border controls.

New Zealanders will need to keep avoiding the three Cs of possible infection – closed spaces, crowded places and close contact – as best they can. And it’s crucial we keep meticulously tracking where we’ve been and who we’ve been in contact with.

It also shows the importance of getting tested. One of the travellers reported mild symptoms, but didn’t associate these with covid-19. Anybody with symptoms should get tested and stay home until the results come through, especially if they have had contact with someone who has been overseas or work in a high-contact job.

Now that New Zealand is at alert level 1 and 40,000 people can go to the rugby, it’s more than important than ever that we don’t let our guard down.

Dr Shaun Hendy, Professor of Physics; Dr Alex James, Associate professor, University of Canterbury; Dr Audrey Lustig, Research scientist, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research; Dr Michael Plank, Professor in Mathematics, University of Canterbury; Nicholas Steyn, Research assistant, and Dr Rachelle Binny, Research scientist, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.