Goroka town is under lockdown and remains tense as Papua New Guinea police mount a heavy presence following the brutal slaying of the PNG Ports chief executive Fego Kiniafa outside the Eastern Highlands provincial capital.

Kiniafa was slashed to death at Nagamiufa on Saturday after he allegedly shot a Nagamiufa man.

Four men who were with Kiniafa are alleged to have been taken hostage by Nagamiufa villagers.

• READ MORE: PNG Ports chief executive killed in Highlands fight

His relatives from Korofeigu, Lower Bena, are reported to have mobilised and attacked Nagamiufa village, sparking a tribal conflict that shut down businesses in Goroka and sent people scattering.

Highway travellers were left stranded as vehicles deserted the roads between Lower Bena and Goroka, and international visitors to the just ended Goroka Show were also stranded at the new airport.

Police reported the Lower Benas wiped out Nagamiufa village in a 4am dawn raid yesterday.

Most people had fled in fear of the attack to neighbouring villages.

Raid because of no arrest
The raid allegedly occurred because there has not been any arrest made in relation to the death of Kiniafa two days after he was slashed to death near Nagamiufa village.

Spears, guns and other weapons were used as Goroka town was deserted with businesses shut down and the Goroka General Hospital also on lockdown as security was tightened.

Travellers wishing to travel out of the province after the EHP show were left stranded and locked inside the terminal as the airport closed its gates.

On Saturday morning, Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the death of Kiniafa, 43, from a confrontation near Nagamiufa village.

EHP Police Commander Chief Superintendent Michael Welly said that the killing occurred between midnight and 6am on September 17.

According to police reports, Kiniafa was allegedly involved in a confrontation with several suspects from the surrounding settlements around Nagamiufa village in Goroka.

Kiniafa allegedly shot another man, and in retaliation the relatives of the man ambushed Kiniafa and his driver with bush-knives, killing them.

Four men allegedly kidnapped
Superintendent Welly said: “It is alleged that four men who were with Mr Kiniafa are said to have been kidnapped as well with police investigating the allegations and as well as investigating the incident on Saturday.”

Kiniafa was found at the scene and rushed to the hospital before being pronounced dead on arrival.

PNG Ports on Saturday afternoon released a short statement confirming Kiniafa’s death and announcing that chief operations officer Rodney Begley would manage and oversee the office of the CEO.

Kimiafa, who turned 43 on PNG’s Independence Day — Friday, September 16 — was one of the youngest chief executives of a government entity.

Republished with permission.

One year on from Aotearoa New Zealand’s longest covid-19 lockdown, an epidemiologist says further lockdowns cannot be ruled out, instead preparing to do them better.

On 17 August 2021, New Zealand went to alert level 4 because the deadly delta variant had arrived.

Aucklanders had no idea that day that they would still be in lockdown until December, and that after 18 months of trying to keep covid-19 out, it would be here to stay.

• READ MORE: Covid-19 update in NZ: 16 further deaths, 4489 new community cases
• Other NZ covid reports

The city was asked to hold the line so the country could get vaccinated, something critics said should have happened much earlier.

Auckland University epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson was vocal in urging the country to aim high and vaccinate more than 95 percent of eligible people.

Reflecting back, he said New Zealanders responded well, with most areas hitting that mark or higher by the measurements at the time.

Much had been learnt about the virus — and how to respond to it — since then, with the highly contagious but less harmful omicron variant changing everything at the start of this year, he said.

But the danger was not over.

Random severity of variants
“I think there are a lot of people who think, ‘oh look, it’s getting less severe over time so we’re fine,’ but it’s pretty random whether the next variant is going to be less severe or not,” he said.

Either way, it would need to be at least as spreadable as omicron to take over, he said.

The government has said lockdowns are not part of any future covid-19 plans, with the traffic light system taking its place.

But Professor Jackson said that may not “cut the mustard” if the worst happened.

“If we get a new mutation that is more severe, that kills more people, then we’ve got something huge to worry about,” he said.

“If that happens, if people start dropping dead in the street like the original version of covid, we will have little choice but to lock down.”

That was why the country still needed to be prepared for the worst, he said.

Frontline of delta outbreak
As an Auckland GP and co-leader of Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā, Dr Rawiri McKree-Jansen was at the frontline of the delta outbreak and lockdown and the vaccine rollout.

Some Māori and Pacific health teams had initially struggled to be given the resources they needed, or to be listened to.

The work they were able to do for their communities and the country showed what they were capable of and should be a lasting legacy, Dr McKree-Jansen said.

They were crucial to the vaccine roll out and helped the most vulnerable, especially those isolating.

“The mobilisation was impressive, relentless and co-ordinated,” he said.

“Those features are remarkable and give us a great sense of optimism about the contribution that Māori communities and Māori health professionals can make and I hope that is enduring.”

When it came to new variants, he said while it was important to be vigilant about what may come next, it was also important to focus on what was happening now.

“Omicron’s not done with us yet … I’m keen that we don’t forget the lessons we’ve learnt from the Delta and Omicron outbreaks – and supporting communities is fundamental to that.”

Both Professor Jackson and Dr McKree-Jansen acknowledged the people who had died since pandemic began, many more since the omicron outbreak that reached so many people.

But they said they were also grateful that many were protected by the lockdown and the vaccine rollout.

16 more people die
RNZ News reports that another 16 people with covid-19 have died and there are 4489 new community cases today, according to the Ministry of Health.

There are 496 people in hospital, 13 of them are in a high dependency unit

Yesterday the ministry reported another 21 people with covid-19 had died and there were 533 people in hospital, including 12 in intensive care or a high dependency unit.

Deputy Director-General and Public Health Agency head Dr Andrew Old told media this afternoon that modelling from Covid Modelling Aotearoa showed New Zealand was continuing to track at the lower end of what was expected in terms of a second wave this winter.

“We passed a peak in cases earlier that the modelling suggested and now hospitalisations are also declining suggesting these too have peaked. It’s sitting somewhere between 800 and 850 occupied beds across the country in late July,” he said.

Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand interim national medical director Dr Pete Watson said the recent drop in covid-19 cases was an encouraging trend.

“By each one of us sticking to public health measures we are making a difference,” he said.

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

Former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says his apology to journalist Charlotte Bellis does not extend to the Aotearoa New Zealand government’s MIQ system generally.

Bellis, a New Zealand journalist based in Afghanistan at the time, had gone public in January with her struggle to secure a spot in the managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) hotels while pregnant.

Hipkins publicly apologised to her in a statement this morning, admitting her MIQ application was deactivated in error and some of his comments about her case had been wrong.

• READ MORE:  Chris Hipkins apologises to Charlotte Bellis for comments on MIQ application
• Other MIQ reports

He later told reporters there was no settlement payment involved, and both parties wanted to leave the matter behind them.

“We’ve concluded the matter. I’ve conveyed to her privately and now publicly my apology and she’s indicated she wants to leave it at that — and I’m happy to do that too,” he said.

“Right at the beginning, clearly there were a few things that got lost in communication, lost in translation. I do regret that and so my apology in that sense is a very genuine one.”

Hipkins was removed from the covid-19 portfolio just over a week ago, taking over police instead, with Dr Ayesha Verrall taking over the pandemic response.

Timing of the apology
He said the timing of his apology to Bellis had been agreed with her.

“She indicated that’s the timing that she wanted,” he said. “Obviously it would have ideally been better to have had this done before I gave up the covid portfolio rather than the week after, but ultimately MIQ’s been winding down now since February so I think everybody’s moved on from it.

“She indicated that she wanted something more public. I was happy to do that, it took a little bit of time to negotiate that and to get all of that ironed out.”

The National and ACT parties urged the government to also apologise over the handling of MIQ generally.

National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said if Hipkins could apologise to Bellis, “then the government can surely apologise to all the Kiwis caught up in the lottery of human misery that was MIQ”.

“The High Court has found that MIQ unjustifiably breached New Zealanders’ rights from September to December 2021. The government should do the right thing and apologise for the way MIQ operated,” he said.

“There are countless other examples that haven’t hit the headlines. Other pregnant women who couldn’t return home. Kiwis trapped offshore who watched their visas expire in the countries they were in. People who missed the deaths of cherished loved ones and the birth of new lives.”

‘Caught out spinning’
ACT leader David Seymour said the government was not apologising for the misery its policy caused, just getting caught out spinning it.

“The government has rightly apologised for spreading misinformation about a citizen’s personal circumstances, now it should apologise for running MIQ selection so inhumanely and running it four months longer than necessary at enormous cost to the taxpayer and economy,” he said.

He said then Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield had advised MIQ was no longer necessary in December last year, and the government should be apologising for the $178 million it cost to maintain through to March.

“Included in that period was Charlotte Bellis’ repeated failed attempts to get a spot, forcing her to seek refuge with the Taliban,” he said.

Hipkins said they were very different matters.

“In this particular case there were some aspects of the information that I released that were incorrect and so I absolutely have acknowledged that and have apologised for that. In terms of MIQ I will maintain — and the courts in fact have maintained — MIQ was absolutely justified,” he said.

“What the court did find … the way we allocated space in MIQ wasn’t right. We tried a number of different things during that time to try different booking systems, to try and make that system fairer.”

Not contesting court ruling
He said he acknowledged the court’s ruling and was not contesting it, but repeated that the system as a whole was justified.

“Were MIQ ever to have to happen again in the future then those responsible for it would have to find a different way of allocating space within MIQ — but MIQ itself was absolutely justified.

“It’s the reason that we were able to go as long as we did without having covid-19 in the community.

“It’s also the reason why over the summer break, people managed to have a summer break and were able to have that opportunity to get their boosters before omicron arrived in the community.”

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

Independence leader and Nobel laureate José Ramos-Horta has declared victory in Timor-Leste’s presidential election, saying he had secured “overwhelming” support and would now work to foster dialogue and unity.

Data from the country’s election administration body (STAE) with all votes counted showed Ramos-Horta secured a decisive 62 percent win in Tuesday’s ballot, well ahead of his opponent, incumbent President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres with 37 percent.

“I have received this mandate from our people, from the nation in an overwhelming demonstration of our people’s commitment to democracy,” Ramos-Horta told reporters in Dili.

• READ MORE: Ramos-Horta declares victory in East Timor presidential election
• Other Timorese elections reports

The 72-year-old statesman is one of Timor-Leste’s best known political figures and was previously president from 2007-12, and prime minister and foreign minister before that.

Addressing concerns over political instability in the country, Ramos-Horta said he would work to heal divisions in Timor-Leste.

“I will do what I have always done throughout my life… I will always pursue dialogue, patiently, relentlessly, to find common ground to find solutions to the challenges this country faces,” he said.

Ramos-Horta said he had not spoken to his election rival Lu Olo, but had received an invitation from the President’s Office to discuss a handover of power.

Political instability, oil dependency
Home to 1.3 million people, the half-island and predominately Roman Catholic nation of Timor-Leste has for years grappled with bouts of political instability and the challenge of diversifying its economy, which is largely dependent on oil and gas.

Ramos-Horta said he expected Timor-Leste to become the 11th member of the regional bloc the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) “within this year or next year at the latest”.

Timor-Leste currently holds observer status in ASEAN.

The president-elect, who will be inaugurated on May 20, the 20th anniversary of the country’s restoration of independence, said he would work with the government to respond to global economic pressures, including the impact on supply chains from the war in Ukraine and covid-19 lockdowns in China.

“Of course, we start feeling it here in Timor Leste. Oil prices went up, rice went up, that is a reality of what has happened in the world. It requires wise leadership.”

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

It came up in my Facebook memories that it was two years to the day on March 23 since Aotearoa New Zealand started its first lock-down. Coincidentally also the day many of the remaining restrictions and regulations relating to covid were relaxed or removed.

On this day two years ago Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced, “New Zealand has moved to Alert Level 3, effective immediately. In 48 hours, New Zealand will move to Alert Level 4”. We had our first case of community transfer that could not be traced to the border.

It would be seven weeks before we went down to level 2

• READ MORE: Covid-19 surge: Christchurch Hospital coping as region’s infections outstrip Auckland
• NZ public health chief encouraged in spite of 34 covid deaths and ‘Mexican wave’ cases
• Other NZ covid outbreak reports

New rituals were started, the daily health update at 1pm became must watch viewing — were the numbers going up or down? There was much excitement from certain family members each time schools being closed was extended.

We changed time zones — the kids waking hours shifted, staying up and getting up late, and while you nagged them to attend online classes it didn’t really matter.

We spent a lot more time with our teenage children than we would have otherwise. Created lots of memories albeit mostly based in the lounge, things like playing charades and enjoying Netflix and popcorn.

We laughed at the Aussies for buying all the toilet paper, meanwhile here shops ran out of flour, yeast, icing sugar, as everyone baked. Sourdough starter was the thing to do.

Consciousness cooking
Diets improved, there was little meat and what was available was wildly over priced. The kids got more involved in cooking, there was less food waste as we became more conscious than normal about what he had and needed to use up.

A good life lesson, and of course no takeaways or Uber eats.

The working world changed with Zoom “you’re on mute” meetings. Always interesting if the person in the meeting hadn’t put a background on, realistically we were often not in even the most casual of office attire.

Teddy bears appeared in windows as people started walking or cycling round the neighborhood. There were many small acts of kindness.

Sure we missed out on a lot of activities, dance classes and competitions, football seasons, school camps, and of course seeing friends and family.

At the beginning of covid, as we saw things change from an event in a part of China we probably hadn’t heard of to spreading around the world, we realised planned events that had seen many hours of preparation and fund-raising could not proceed. There would be many more cancellations and disappointments along the way.

But there were good things too.

Team of five million
The pride that the team of five million felt in how well the lockdown was working to stop the spread.

The excitement the day we reached zero community cases, the PM said she did a little dance — I’m sure she wasn’t the only one.

We moved forward with restrictions and people mostly were happy to cooperate. There was little sympathy for those breaking the rules, not following lock down restrictions, breaking out of MIQ etc. It felt like those people were letting the rest of us down by not doing their bit.

We had periods of relative freedom then more lockdowns. We were used to this now, after the announcement of new cases we’d jump on the supermarket site and try to get a delivery window — bugger none available.

The last of the big lock-downs was predominantly only Auckland. It was a long one and something unexpected and unprecedented happened — the rest of the country started to feel the love for Auckland.

I have to say as a long time resident, who despite living in Tamaki Mākaurau half my life never fully considered myself an Aucklander, I felt pretty bloody proud of the people of my city.

Vaccinations arrived and we watched the progress — could we get a high percentage vaccinated before the next wave came? The Vaxathon reminded those of us of a certain age of Telethons gone by — it was such a positive Kiwi thing. And yes, we quickly became one of the most vaccinated populations on earth.

Along with the vaccines came the mandates and passes. Most of us got it, could see why they were necessary and were happy to go along with them — heck who wouldn’t want to get a free vaccine against a virus killing millions around the world and protect yourself and others?

Dissent and dissatisfaction
“Some people who were no doubt a little reluctant to got vaccinated so they could go to work or take part in things. But some people didn’t want to be told to take the vaccine.

They wanted to be free to not take it and continue to do their jobs, take part in leisure activities, which put them into contact with those of us who had been vaccinated. Many of us had limited sympathy for this point of view.

The dissent or dissatisfaction of some became rich material for the political opposition who had struggled for oxygen with the daily updates from the PM and the Ministry of Health.

They and some reporters in the media found that an individual who was having a tough time as part of the restrictions, someone in MIQ unable to be with with a sick relative, someone missing a funeral, someone stuck overseas unable to get home, was given a lot of air time.

More coverage it often seemed than was given to the vast majority who were happy with things and grateful that we weren’t seeing the serious illness and deaths occurring overseas.

So what were the changes flagged last week?

We’ll be keeping the traffic light system to handle new variants or pressure on the health system.

Pragmatic steps
From Friday red-level indoor gathering restrictions are raised to 200 people, and there will no longer be limits of for outdoor gatherings including sports events, concerts, etc. There will also be no need to scan or sign in from this time.

From the April 5 no more use of vaccine passes will be required, and there will be no more mandates for education, police, the military, and staff in places like restaurants and bars. There will still be some mandates required in the health system.

These are pragmatic steps given the level of community spread and the lack of measures that could realistically contain it. But we also need to continue to protect our most vulnerable people from exposure to covid, I can see why the government has kept some restrictions in place.

Will those who have complained so much, the mandate protesters, the politicians and media, now draw a line under it? Move forward accepting that even if the government didn’t always get it 100 percent right they did bloody well most of time?

Yeah right!

Even after all the precautions and vaccinations my family and I eventually got covid a few weeks ago, pretty unavoidable without isolating such was the infection rate of the omicron strain.

Isolation felt like another lockdown except everyone around you in the community carried on with life as normal, and there was no sending a designated person to queue at the supermarket. Whereas the earlier lockdowns has been quiet this one was full of noise traffic and construction.

Remembering best of times
As we return to life with fewer restrictions we‘ll no doubt remember those days of lockdowns, the extra time with immediate family, taking pleasure in simple things, and yes the hard times and missed events that caused us sorrow.

This time will remain in the memories of those who are kids today and be something they annoy their own children and grandchildren with tales of many years from now.

Some will continue to work remotely, perhaps there will be a bit more consideration for those in our community who could do with a helping hand — even if it is just dropping off a few things at the letterbox. If there is another pandemic, a more dangerous variant, or some other event, we’ll be well placed to handle it calmly.

Dogs will remember lockdowns as the best of times; all of their people were home, even if they didn’t really go anywhere.

Many of us will remember that feeling of the nation coming together and wonder if maybe, just maybe, we could apply that same collective effort to addressing other problems we face as a society.

The last two years haven’t been easy but we bloody did it, we saved lives — think of the awful final hours in ICU that didn’t result for so many additional people due to those actions. It was worth it.

Nick Rockel is a “Westie Leftie with five children, two dogs, and a wonderful wife”. He is the publisher of the Daily Read where his article was first published. It is republished here with the author’s permission.

Three new covid-19 cases have been confirmed in the kingdom of Tonga bringing the total number to five as the country went into a five-day lockdown.

In a press conference in Nuku’alofa yesterday afternoon, Tonga’s Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku said that a woman and her two children had tested positive for the virus.

The latest transmission comes less than 24 hours after two men were confirmed to have contracted covid-19 yesterday.

• READ MORE: Tonga’s covid cases not linked to aid delivered by HMAS Adelaide
• Tonga to enter 5-day lockdown as more covid cases recorded
• Tonga to enter lockdown after port workers test positive for covid-19

The two men were port workers and are currently now confined in isolation at Taliai Camp, a Tongan military base.

The pair had been collecting emergency supplies from foreign aid ships arriving in Tonga and were among 50 frontline workers who had been tested for the virus.

The prime minister did not reveal which ships the men had collected supplies from, leaving the source of the transmission open to speculation.

Nuku’alofa harbour is reportedly full of supply ships laden with aid, including the Australian  ship HMAS Adelaide, which had confirmed before arriving in Tonga that 29 of its crew were in isolation on board after testing positive for covid-19.

Source of virus unclear
Tonga’s Parliamentary Speaker, Lord Fakafanua, told RNZ Pacific today that it was not clear how the two men contracted the virus.

He said that the covid-19 outbreak could not have happened at a worse time with covid-19 restrictions interfering with much needed aid deliveries.

The kingdom is still in the early stages of recovery from the devastating Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption and tsunami, that left hundreds of Tongans homeless and properties damaged last month.

“The Prime Minister has reassured me this morning that the aid that is currently being distributed in Tonga will continue, the work that His Majesty’s Armed Forces is doing on the ground will continue under the lockdown because they are an essential service,” Lord Fakafanua said.

The country is polluted with volcanic ash that has fouled water supplies and carpeted the land with dust.

Two weeks after the disaster, telecommunications are yet to be re-established in most of Tonga, with no outsiders being able to make mobile or phone calls into the Vava’u and Ha’apai group of islands.

Lord Fakafanua also said there were worries about a potential covid-19 outbreak in Vava’u, as a close contact of one of the new covid-19 cases in Tonga had visited Vava’u over the week.

Contact tracing stepped up
The government has stepped up contact tracing measures in order to ring fence community transmission of covid-19.

Lockdown rules in Tonga will require everyone to remain at home, to practise social distancing, and to wear face masks in public.

Essential workers are exempted from restrictions of movement, such as Red Cross and aid distribution personnel, who would be allowed to operate freely.

According to Tonga’s Ministry of Health, more than 83 percent of the population of the eligible population (over the age of 12) have been fully vaccinated.

Exactly 73,938 people (over the age of 12) have been vaccinated at least once, representing 96 percent of those eligible for testing.

The Tongan government said at last night’s press conference that the lockdown would be reassessed 48 hours after its enforcement.

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

The kingdom of Tonga will go into nationwide lockdown from 6pm tonight.

Speaking via Tongan radio, Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni and Minister of Health Dr Saia Piukala held a media conference last night to announce the news.

They confirmed that two cases of covid-19 had been detected through routine testing at the wharf in Nuku’alofa.

• READ MORE: Fiji activist raises concerns about loss of nurses
• Covid-19 still spreading in French Polynesia
• New Caledonian covid outbreak still climbing
• Over 600 cases in Kiribati as Health Minister says just ‘tip of the iceberg’

Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku ordered the lockdown.

Dr Saia Piukala said 50 people were tested as part of routine surveillance and the two positive cases were found.

Tonga’s Speaker of the House, Lord Fakafanua — who is currently in Auckland waiting to return to Tonga — told RNZ Pacific the positive cases and their families were now in isolation at an army base.

Tonga reported its first positive covid case last year after an Air New Zealand flight arrived from Christchurch.

Recovering from volcano eruption
Tonga is currently recovering from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption on January 15 which triggered a tsunami that destroyed villages and resorts and knocked out communications for the nation of about 105,000 people.

Three people died as a result of the disaster.

Several countries, including New Zealand, have sent aid but have observed strict covid-19 protocols such as contactless delivery.

In Fiji, a human rights activist is demanding answers from the authorities after reports that hundreds of nurses in the country are resigning.

According to media reports, more than 300 nurses are leaving their jobs citing poor employment conditions including suffering from stress, fatigue and lack of compensation.

Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali said those who were resigning amid the covid-19 crisis were not speaking out because they feared victimisation by the health ministry and the government.

Tahiti, New Caledonia covid cases climb
in Pape’ete, authorities reported that French Polynesia had recorded a further 465 covid-19 cases over the past 72 hours.

There are now 900 active cases, but the outbreak appears to be stabilising. Two people are in hospital.

In Noumea, New Caledonian authorities recorded a further 1843 covid-19 infections over the past three days as the pandemic is again accelerating.

The latest figures have pushed the number of cases since the September 2021 delta outbreak to more than 20,000 with 21 people in hospital, including one in intensive care.

The seven-day average has neared 500 cases after being under 20 a month ago.

The virus has spread to all three provinces and most communes.

Kiribati infections top 600
Kiribati recorded its highest daily increase in new covid-19 infections yesterday, bringing the total number of positive cases to 629.

The Health Ministry said that there were 169 covid-19 cases — 155 of them from South Tarawa, Betio and Buota and 14 in Butaritari.

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.

A group of citizens in New Caledonia has asked France’s highest administrative court to postpone next Sunday’s third and final independence referendum.

In an urgent submission, 146 voters and three organisations said that given the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, it was “unthinkable” to proceed with such an important plebiscite.

They said that because of the lockdown, campaigning had been unduly hampered as basic freedoms were impinged.

• READ MORE: Emmanuel Macron’s dangerous shift on the New Caledonia referendum risks a return to violence
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia referendum reports

For weeks pro-independence parties have unsuccessfully lobbied Paris to delay the vote and they now say they will neither take part in the vote nor recognise its result.

They also say they will challenge the process at the United Nations.

France, which deems the pandemic to be mastered, last week flew in almost 250 magistrates and judicial officials to oversee Sunday’s vote.

It also flew in about 2000 extra police, including riot squads, to provide security for the referendum.

Wallisian party opposes ‘political nonsense’
New Caledonia’s Pacific Awakening Party also says next Sunday’s referendum is a “political nonsense”.

The party’s leader, Milakulo Tukumuli, said the vote should not go ahead as planned because the pandemic has made campaigning impossible and pro-independence Kanaks said they would not take part in the process.

The party, which represents Wallisian and Futunians and holds the balance of power in New Caledonia’s Congress, said all the same, the plebiscite on December 12 could not be legally challenged.

Tukumuli also said his party was against independence now because there was not the capacity to assume full sovereignty.

The December 12 vote will be the third and final independence referendum under the terms of the 1998 Noumea Accord.

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

New Zealand’s cabinet has decided to ease restrictions for some, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says cases may peak this month at 200 a day, and Tonga will enter a snap lockdown at midnight.

Restrictions are set to ease slightly in both Waikato and Tāmaki Makaurau, albeit at different times.

Prime Minister Ardern announced at today’s post-cabinet briefing that Waikato would move down to alert level 3 step 2 from midnight Tuesday.

• READ MORE: 162 new community cases in New Zealand today
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports

In Auckland, fewer than 5000 first doses remain before reaching 90 percent single-dose vaccination, and for Auckland as a whole 80 percent has had two doses.

“And that’s incredible,” said Ardern, praising Aucklanders for their progress.

“Case numbers, while growing, remain within some of our expectations as modelled and the public health assessment of the impact of changes like opening up retail include that this activity is generally not responsible for marked increases of new cases.”

Meanwhile, cabinet has decided in principle to move Tāmaki Makaurau to alert level 3 step 2 next Tuesday at 11.59pm.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said potentially slightly easing restrictions in Auckland was a pragmatic move.

Hipkins told RNZ Checkpoint tonight the in-principle decision was based on public health advice.

Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank earlier warned that relaxing restrictions in Auckland and parts of Waikato would accelerate case numbers.

The numbers

• There were 162 new community cases reported today
• Of the new cases 156 are in Auckland, five in Waikato and one in Northland
• There are 53 people in hospital
• More than 3.1 million New Zealanders are now fully vaccinated
• More than 20,000 vaccines were administered yesterday

Covid-19 cases may peak this month at 200 a day according to modelling that takes vaccination rates into account, Ardern said.

The government modelling suggested there could be 1400 covid-19 cases reported a week by the end of the month.

This would result in 150 new hospitalisations a week, with 11 of those patients requiring intensive care.

The modelling was based on a median scenario with a transmission rate of between 1.2 and 1.3.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said ICUs would not be overwhelmed with those numbers.

Tonga goes into lockdown
Two days ago the kingdom of Tonga recorded its first case of covid-19, now at midnight the main island Tongatapu will go into lockdown.

The lockdown will stay in place until next Sunday.

The positive case arrived in Nuku’alofa on a repatriation flight from Christchurch and while he is asymptomatic, he is being cared for alone in a special quarantine facility in Mu’a.

Tonga’s Ministry of Health Chief Executive Dr Siale Akau’ola said the remaining 214 passengers were in MIQ at the Tanoa Hotel while about 80 frontline workers who met the flight are also in MIQ at the Kupesi Hotel.

“In terms of gatherings this is the most significant part of the lockdown. No schools, all schools are closed, no church gathering, no kava club, no entertainment or any kind of gathering,” RNZ Pacific’s correspondent in Tonga, Kalafi Moala, said.

Safety fears as supplement sales soar
Sales of natural health supplements have risen since covid-19 arrived in New Zealand, but some products can have adverse effects such as anaphylaxis or death.

Supplements, however, are largely unregulated in New Zealand, with the Ministry of Health saying the pandemic has delayed new legislation.

Ten years of Medsafe data shows two people died from complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, and that 30 percent of suspected reactions are life-threatening or cause disability.

About eighty percent of New Zealanders have taken natural health supplements, and Nielsen data shows sales in supermarkets alone rose by nearly 14 percent in the past two years, reflecting worldwide trends.

Two positive community cases fled the Jet Park Managed Quarantine Facility yesterday, in a second breach of MIQ security at the weekend.

Police said one of the people has been found and returned to MIQ. He was found during a vehicle stop in west Auckland.

The whereabouts of a woman who also skipped MIQ on Saturday is known to police but public health officials said she did not need to return.

Police said a decision around any charges would be made soon.

Meanwhile, police said a 36-year-old man had been arrested and charged with Failing to Comply with Order (Covid-19) in relation to attending a gathering at the Auckland Domain and subsequent march through Newmarket on Saturday.

Ronapreve covid-19 treatment
A covid-19 treatment the government is purchasing can help reduce the number of people dying from the virus, says an expert from the University of Otago.

Pharmac revealed yesterday it is set to subsidise Ronapreve, also known as Regeneron or REGEN-COV, which is used for people in danger of becoming severely unwell.

It is expected to be in the country by Christmas.

University of Otago infectious diseases professor Kurt Krause told RNZ Morning Report it was a highly effective way of dealing with early infection and in preventing infection.

Medsafe is also considering molnupiravir for the treatment of covid-19.

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

Indonesia’s popular tourism islands of Bali opened for tourism last week, while Thailand announced that from November 1 vaccinated travellers from 19 countries will be allowed to visit the kingdom including its tourism island of Phuket.

Both those countries’ tourism industry, which is a major revenue earner, has been devastated by more than 18 months of inactivity that have impacted on the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people.

India and Vietnam also announced plans to open the country to vaccinated foreign tourists in November, and Australia will be opening its borders for foreign travel from mid-November for the first time since March 2020.

• READ MORE: New Zealand makes covid vaccines mandatory for doctors, teachers
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region — except for China — are now beginning to grapple with balancing the damage to their economies from covid-19 pandemic by beginning to treat the virus as another flu.

The media may have to play a less adversarial role if this gamble is going to succeed.

October 11 was “Freedom Day” for Australia’s most populous city Sydney when it came out of almost four months of a tough lockdown.

Ironically this is happening while the daily covid-19 infection rates are higher than the figure that triggered the lockdowns in June.

‘It’s not going away’
Yet, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet told Sky News on October 11: “we’ve got to live alongside the virus, it’s not going away, the best thing that we can do is protect our people (by better health services)”.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, addressing the nation on October 9, said: “Singapore cannot stay locked down and closed off indefinitely. It would not work, and it would be very costly”.

He added, “each time we tighten up, businesses are further disrupted, workers lose jobs, children are deprived of a proper childhood and school life”.

Singapore is coming out of lockdown when it is facing the highest rates of daily infections since the covid-19 outbreak.

Both Singapore and Australia adopted a “zero-covid” policy when the first wave of the pandemic hit, quickly closing the borders, and going into lockdown.

Both were exceptionally successful in controlling the virus and lifting the lockdowns late last year with almost zero covid-19 cases. But, when the more contagious delta virus hit both countries, fear came back forcing them back into lockdowns.

However, PM Lee told Singaporeans that lockdowns had “caused psychological and emotional strain, and mental fatigue for Singaporeans and for everyone else. Therefore, we concluded a few months ago that a “Zero covid” strategy was no longer feasible”.

‘Living with covid-19’
Thus, Singapore has changed its policy to “Living with covid-19”.

In a Facebook posting on October 10, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: “The phenomenal response from Australians to go and get vaccinated as we’ve seen those vaccination rates rise right across the country, means it’s now time that Australians are able to reclaim their lives. We’re beating covid, and we’re taking our lives back.”

On October 8, Australia’s Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said that though infection rates might still be a bit high, yet less than 1 percent of those infected were in intensive care units (ICUs).

Why didn’t political leaders take this attitude right from the beginning and continue with it? After all the fatality rate of covid-19 has not been that much higher than the seasonal flu in most countries.

True, it was perhaps more contagious according to medical opinion, but fatality rates were not that large in percentage figures.

According to the Worldometer of health statistics, there have been 237.5 million covid-19 infections up to October this year and 214.6 million have recovered fully (90.4 percent) while 4.8 million have died (just over 2 percent).

According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates, there have been between 39-56 million flu cases, about 700,000 flu hospitalisations recorded in the US during the 2019-2020 flu season up to April 2020.

They also estimate between 24,000 to 62,000 flu deaths during the season. But did the media give these figures on a daily or even a weekly basis?

New global influenza strategy
In March 2019, WHO launched a new global influenza strategy pointing out that each year there is an estimated 1 billion flu cases of which 3-5 million are severe cases, resulting in 290,000 to 650,000 influenza-related respiratory deaths.

This has been happening for many years, but, yet the global media did not create the panic scenario that accompanied covid-19.

Unfortunately, the media’s adversarial reporting culture has helped to create a fear psychosis from the very beginning of the outbreak in early 2020, which may have contributed to millions of deaths by creating anxiety among those diagnosed with covid-19.

During the peak of the delta pandemic in India, many patients died from heart attacks triggered by anxiety. Would they have died if covid-19 were treated as another flu?

In the US out of the 44 million infected with covid-19 only 1.6 percent died. In Brazil from 21.5 million infected, 2.8 percent of them died, while in India out of 34 million infected only 1.3 percent died.

But what did we see in media reports? Piles of dead bodies being burnt in India, from Brazil bodies buried in mass graves by health workers wrapped in safety gear and in the US, people being rushed into ICUs.

They are just a small fraction of those infected.

Bleak picture of sensationalism
I was the co-editor of a book just released by a British publisher that looked at how the media across the world reported the covid-19 outbreak during 2020. It paints a bleak picture of sensationalism and adversarial reporting blended with racism and politicisation.

It all started with the outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020 when the global media transmitted unverified video clips of people dropping dead in the streets and dead bodies lying in pavements. Along with the focus on “unhygienic” wet markets in China this helped to project an image of China as a threat to the world.

It contributed to the fear psychosis that was built up by the media tinged with racism and politicisation.

If we are to live with covid and other flu viruses, greater investments need to be made in public health.

In Australia, health experts are talking about boosting hospital bed and ICU capacities to deal with the new policy of living with covid, and they have also warned of a shortage of health professionals, especially to staff ICUs.

What about if the media focus on these as national security priorities? Rather than giving daily death rates and sensational stories of people dying from covid — do we give daily death rates from heart attacks or suicide?

We should start discussing more about how to create sustainable safe communities as we recover from the pandemic, and that includes better investments in public health.

We need a journalism culture that is less adversarial and more tuned into promoting cooperation and community harmony.

Kalinga Seneviratne is co-editor of COVID-19, Racism and Politicization: Media in the Midst of a Pandemic published in August 2021 by Cambridge Scholars Publishers. IDN is the flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate. This article is republished in partnership with IDN.

National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop has announced that there will not be a total lockdown of Port Moresby.

He said the decision was made after much deliberation with key stakeholders in the city and the national government.

“Instead we will focus on maintaining and upgrading the three-pronged approach we are currently pursuing to respond to the third wave of the covid-19 pandemic,” Parkop said.

• READ MORE: Port Moresby police unable to enforce the Pandemic Act 2020
• Other PNG covid crisis reports

NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Gideon Ikumu said it would also be a logistical nightmare for police to arrest people who breached the covid protocols because they did not have the facilities to lock up all those people.

He said city police would only encourage city residents to observe the new normal protocols of wearing facemasks, observing social distancing and other measures as part of their policing routines in the city.

Superintendent Ikumu said this as the City Hall announced on Monday that it would not enforce a complete lockdown as many people had expected, despite the rocketing number of deaths and covid-19 positive cases in the city since September.

“There is an absence of regulations to implement the specifics of the Pandemic Act 2020 and we cannot arrest someone for simply not wearing a mask as an example,” he said.

Defining legislation
A regulation is the subsidiary legislation that defines the essence of an Act.

It also provides guidelines that show the way the Act needs to be implemented.

Superintendent Ikumu reiterated Governor Parkop’s appeal to city residents that to stop unnecessary deaths and to get “us to overcome the crisis at hand, it needs everyone to step up and do their part”.

“For those who are still reluctant or afraid of the vaccine for one reason or another, the “Nupla Pasin protocols and testing must be your foremost priority on a daily basis,” he said.

“We will do our best to encourage compliance but it is up to each and every person in the city to comply.”

According to the John Hopkins University global covid dashboard, Papua New Guinea has 27,895 confirmed cases of the virus and 335 deaths, but these figures are widely believed to be an underestimate.

Grace Auka-Salmang is a PNG Post-Courier reporter.

Fiji’s opposition National Federation Party has blamed 1150 pandemic deaths on the Bainimarama government’s “shameful and despicable” ego-driven leadership.

“Stop bragging and taking the Lord’s name in vain when you have presided over the single biggest disaster and loss of lives in our country’s 51 years of independence,” said Dr Biman Prasad, a former professor of economics at the University of the South Pacific.

“Talk about issues like how to alleviate poverty that reached almost 30 percent at the time of the so-called ‘Bainimarama Boom’ but has now escalated to about 50 percent due to economic depression caused by covid-19.”

• READ MORE: The battle against covid is ‘about to end’ says Fiji PM
• Other Fiji covid crisis reports

This is the message to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama from Dr Prasad after a message posted on the Fiji government social media page this week showing the prime minister as saying the battle against covid-19 pandemic was about to end — and declaring he had proved critics wrong and was in firm control.

“This is a national leader who brags about himself and claims he will secure every Fijian from clear and present danger,” Dr Prasad said in a statement.

“The prime minister forgets what he announced at the start of the second wave of the pandemic on April 19.”

“Then, he spoke about a grave and present danger to the lives of our people and the need to comply with strict measures and enforcement of lockdowns to contain and eliminate the virus.

‘1150 citizens’ lose their lives
“Almost six months later with the virus out of control due to the PM’s egoistic and ‘My Way or the Highway’ leadership in deciding to open up containment zones, 1150 citizens have lost their lives through no fault of theirs and more than 51,200 people have so far been infected”.

The Johns Hopkins University global covid dashboard (with data supplied by the Fiji government) states 649 deaths and 51,386 confirmed cases in Fiji as at today.

“And in a bid to keep a lid on the death toll and rate of infection, the Health Ministry split the death toll into two categories as well as significantly reduced testing and contact tracing.”

Dr Prasad claimed the ministry was now announcing deaths that occurred in the last three months saying it took time to investigate and determine the cause of death.

“It is shameful and despicable that instead of sympathising with the families who have lost loved ones and offering his genuine and sincere condolences, the PM showers himself with praise for his handling of the crisis,” Dr Prasad said.

“Does he have the courage to go to each individual family, undoubtedly, still grieving the loss of a loved one, and tell them that he is in firm control and protecting them from the grave danger posed by the pandemic?”

‘From containment to containers’
It was the prime minister, his government and their “From containment to containers” policy — allowing the virus to spread freely by opening up containment zones and installing three 12m container freezers as morgues — who must be held responsible for the “needless loss of life of our citizens and heaping pain, suffering and misery on the people”.

“The nation is at the crossroads, at odds with itself, due to failed leadership. Yet, we have a PM who says he is in firm control of the situation,” he said.

“This is symptomatic of a typical dictator who thinks he or she is always right despite the fact that people are dying, poverty is increasing and people are struggling to put food on the table.

“This façade must end at the next elections,” Dr Prasad added.

Fiji faces a general election next year.

A new poll shows nearly two out of three New Zealanders want the border to remain closed until at least 90 percent of the country is vaccinated.

The poll, in partnership with the country’s leading daily newspaper The New Zealand Herald, which is also running a 90% Project in support of high vaccination, showed growing support for vaccination, according to the paper in a front age report.

The Herald said the Talbot Mills Research poll indicated that 89 percent of those polled planned to get vaccinated or had already done so.

• READ MORE: Covid-19 update: 12 new community cases in Auckland – Health Ministry
  
• Key’s ‘smug hermit kingdom’ covid comment dismissed as an ‘insult’ by Hipkins
• ‘Fear doesn’t work with unvaccinated’ – Sir John Key
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports

“The results contrast with a public appeal yesterday from former prime minister Sir John Key for New Zealand to break out of its ‘smug hermit kingdom’ by opening the border as soon as possible,” the Herald said.

The newspaper said that support for 90 percent was much higher than for the “option of opening the borders after everybody had been given a reasonable chance to get vaccinated, regardless of the overall rate – an option favoured by 26 percent of people.”

Political editor Claire Trevett wrote that support for the 90 percent plus threshold was “particularly high among Labour and Green supporters (70–72 percent support) – but about 60 percent of National and Act supporters also favoured it”.

The government had so far refused to set a specific threshold or date at which it would ease border restrictions, Trevett wrote. However, it had committed to trialling measures such as home isolation this year, as part of its road map.

“The poll of 1050 people aged 18 and over was taken from August 31 to September 6 – the third week of the lockdowns sparked by the delta outbreak. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 per cent,” wrote Trevett.

“The NZ Herald has joined with Talbot Mills Research for polling on vaccinations as part of the 90% Project, to help track public sentiment over the coming months.”

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Sir John Key – 5 ideas to transform our approach, via @nzherald https://t.co/HByf2xoANA Problem is Maori and Pasifika will suffer most while Key’s mates enjoy their overseas holidays. Lift vaccination first

— Colin Tukuitonga (@ColinTukuitonga) September 25, 2021

12 new covid community cases
The Health Ministry reported 12 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today, with all but two epidemiologically linked to previous cases.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said there were now a total of 1177 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the delta variant of the virus, RNZ News reports.

All of the latest cases were identified in Auckland.

The ministry said one of today’s community cases had previously been under investigation and was now confirmed and linked to the current outbreak.

“The case has now recovered. The case spent 14 days in a quarantine facility along with household members who also tested positive for covid-19,” the statement said.

Papua New Guinea authorities are preparing for a four-week lockdown in at least three provinces at the end of the month.

The move has been prompted by a spike in covid-19 infection rates in Eastern Highlands province as well as the two provinces which sit on the border with Indonesia, Western and West Sepik.

While testing for covid-19 is limited in PNG, the delta variant was confirmed as being in the country in July, preceding a spike in patients at hospitals in these provinces.

• READ MORE: Other PNG covid crisis reports

It is understood the lockdown would begin in a week’s time, and entail closure of businesses, schools and churches, and restrictions in movement.

The cabinet and PNG’s pandemic advisory committee are also considering lockdowns in the National Capital District, Morobe Province, and other affected parts of the Highlands, including Enga.

The containment move was hinted at by Prime Minister James Marape before he flew to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Marape told local media that they were seeing evidence of the delta variant spreading across the country, and people dying as a result.

With Marape now abroad, it is expected that the acting Prime Minister, Soroi Eoe, will sign off on the lockdown measures before the weekend.

Case numbers vague
Since testing for covid in PNG was scaled back in June, the available data on this third wave of the pandemic in the country has been vague.

As of Tuesday, the main agency overseeing PNG’s pandemic response, the National Control Centre, said the total number of confirmed covid cases in the country was 19,069, with the death toll at 212.

However, the limited level of testing and habitual delays in reporting of case loads from the provinces suggest the true figure of those infected is far higher.

Earlier, the Eastern Highlands Coronavirus Steering Committee enforced a blanket ban on all public gatherings due to a spike in infections and deaths.

Also, West Sepik and Western continued to attempt to restrict movement of traditional border crossers back and forth to Indonesia, however capabilities to monitor the border are also limited.

Around 2 percent of the country’s population have been vaccinated, according to the National Control Centre.

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

Auckland’s move to alert level 3 has also triggered speculation about whether the national covid-19 elimination strategy has failed or is even being abandoned. While the New Zealand government denies it, others clearly believe it is at least a possibility.

The uncertainty is troubling. If elimination fails or is abandoned, it would suggest we have not learnt the lessons of history, particularly when it comes to our more vulnerable populations.

In 1918, the mortality rate among Māori from the influenza pandemic was eight times that of Europeans. The avoidable introduction of influenza to Samoa from Aotearoa resulted in the deaths of about 22 percent of the population.

• READ MORE: New Zealand government takes a calculated risk to relax Auckland’s lockdown while new cases continue to appear
• The real challenge to covid-19 vaccination rates isn’t hesitancy — it’s equal access for Māori and Pacific people
  
• Research shows Māori are more likely to die from covid-19 than other New Zealanders
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports

Similar observations were seen in subsequent influenza outbreaks in Aotearoa in 1957 and 2009 for both Māori and Pasifika people. These trends are well known and documented.

And yet, despite concerns we could see the same thing happen again, there have been repeated claims that an elimination strategy cannot succeed. Some business owners, politicians and media commentators have called for a change in approach that would see Aotearoa “learn to live with the virus”.

This is premature and likely to expose vulnerable members of our communities to the disease. Abandoning the elimination strategy while vaccine coverage rates remain low among the most vulnerable people would be reckless and irresponsible.

In short, more Māori and Pasifika people would die.

Far better will be to stick to the original plan that has served the country well, lift vaccination coverage rates with more urgency, and revise the strategy when vaccination rates among Māori and Pasifika people are as high as possible — no less than 90 percent.

Least worst options
After 18 months of dealing with the pandemic, it’s important to remember that Aotearoa’s response has been based on sound science and strong political leadership. The elimination strategy has proved effective at home and been admired internationally.

Of course, it has come with a price. In particular, the restrictions have had a major impact on small businesses and personal incomes, student life and learning, and well-being in general.

Many families have needed additional food parcels and social support, and there are reports of an increasing incidence of family harm.

The latest delta outbreak has also seen the longest level 4 lockdown in Auckland, with at least two further weeks at level 3, and there is no doubt many people are struggling to cope with the restrictions. The “long tail” of infections will test everyone further.

There is no easy way to protect the most vulnerable people from the life-threatening risk of covid-19, and the likely impact on the public health system if it were to get out of control. The alternative, however, is worse.

We know Māori and Pasifika people are most at risk of infection from covid-19, of being hospitalised and of dying from the disease.

Various studies have confirmed this, but we also must acknowledge why — entrenched socioeconomic disadvantage, overcrowded housing and higher prevalence of underlying health conditions.

More than 50 percent of all new cases in the current outbreak are among Pasifika people and the number of new cases among Māori is increasing. If and when the pandemic is over, the implications of these socioeconomic factors must be part of any review of the pandemic strategy.

Lowest vaccination rates, highest risk
Furthermore, the national vaccination rollout has again shown up the chronic entrenched inequities in the health system. While the rollout is finally gaining momentum, with more and better options offered by and for Māori and Pasifika people, their comparative vaccination rates have lagged significantly.

Community leaders and health professionals have long called for Māori and Pasifika vaccination to be prioritised. But the official rhetoric has not been matched by the reality, as evidenced by our most at-risk communities still having the lowest vaccination coverage rates in the country.

Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā (the National Māori Pandemic Group) and the Pasifika Medical Association have repeatedly called for their communities to be empowered and resourced to own, lead and deliver vaccination rollouts in ways that work for their communities.

Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā have also said Auckland should have remained at level 4, with the border extended to include the areas of concern in the Waikato.

As has been pointed out by those closest to those communities, however, their advice has consistently not been heeded. The resulting delays only risk increasing the need for the kinds of lockdowns and restrictions everyone must endure until vaccination rates are higher.

There is a reason we do not hear many voices in Māori and Pasifika communities asking for an end to elimination. Left unchecked, covid-19 disproportionately affects minority communities and the most vulnerable.

“Living with the virus” effectively means some people dying with it. We know who many of them would be.

Dr Collin Tukuitonga is associate dean Pacific and associate professor of public health, University of Auckland. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Three more covid-19 deaths have been recorded in New Caledonia eight days after it was plunged sharply into the pandemic.

Official government figures as of today show 4 deaths and 1150 confirmed cases of covid-19 recorded since the delta variant outbreak began on September 6.

Until then there had been no covid-19 deaths in the French Pacific territory and only 136 infections recorded during two previous outbreaks.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonian covid-19 crisis reports

There were 329 new cases reported in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday and 15 people with the virus are in intensive care.

A curfew between 9 pm and 5 am has been put in place until midnight on Monday, September 27.

The government of New Caledonia has put out a public appeal for assistance to all medical personnel in the country, including retirees.

So far 112,334 people in New Caledonia have had their first covid-19 vaccination jab and 77,109 people have had both doses. The territory has a population of 288,000.

Borders closed
According to the government, this translates to 28.45 percent of the population who have so far been fully vaccinated against covid-19.

Following the outbreak, New Caledonia Tourism has been advising travellers that the territory’s borders have been closed off until December 31 and entry by plane or by boat remains strictly controlled.

It said all international passenger flights have been suspended, except for the transport of medical workers.

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

New Zealand’s largest and most influential newspaper has warned the country against “lockdown fatigue” as the major city Auckland entered its fifth week of isolation, saying “unrest is showing”.

Noting the rise in public “anger and recrimination” in response to New Zealand’s outbreak of the deadly delta variant — with a drop to 15 new cases yesterday — The New Zealand Herald warned in an editorial today against the country slipping into a record matching the worst loss of life during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

The paper called on New Zealanders to “stay true to the course” of elimination.

• READ MORE: 14 new covid community cases in NZ
  
• ‘Deeply sorry’ say Auckland Wanaka holidaymakers
• Look, we all thought Wanaka couple were white but not THAT white!
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports

“Past generations proved their worth as New Zealanders in wars and, yes, epidemics. They were less informed or resourced than we are today,” said the Herald.

“A lethal influenza pandemic that coursed through New Zealand between October and December in 1918 killed about 9000 people in two months. No other event has claimed so many New Zealand lives in such a short time.

“Do we want to be the generation that beats this tragic record?”

The newspaper said Auckland had now gone further in a lockdown than previous periods under the highest covid alert level 4 and unrest was showing.

‘Anxiety of the unexpected’
“That is to be expected. Last year’s rāhui [lockdown] was a bother and held the added anxiety of the unexpected,” said the Herald.

“This time around, however, there’s no novelty to Zoom meetings or breadmaking. There are few teddy bears in windows or scrawled chalk messages of support on footpaths.

“This time, Auckland knows what to expect; more of what little happened yesterday and the day before.”

Further cracks were showing too in the solidarity that “this team of New Zealanders once boasted of”, said the paper.

“Anger and recrimination leaped into the throats of many after a couple were charged with exploiting their essential services accreditation to skip through the cordons for a break in Wānaka [a high profile South Island resort].

“Even the brisk walk around the neighbourhood to reset the senses and ‘stretch’ the legs has become a strain on tolerance as people brush past each other on bush tracks, oblivious to the 2m physical distancing rules.

“Whether or not people are wearing masks has become a constant commentary for many on their trudge around the block,” said the Herald.

‘Kindness pushed back’
“Kindness is being pushed to the back teeth by impatience and a lack of forbearance.

“But we are not this. We need to remember we are still the same people who stared this virus down last year. Sure, the delta variant is more infectious, but the same measures are still the best means to break the chain of transmission.

“We cannot afford to relinquish the grip on the elimination effort yet.”

New Zealand’s rates of vaccination were still too low to protect loved and valuable members of New Zealand’s diverse communities.

Only 34 percent of New Zealanders are fully vaccinated with two doses in spite of a recent surge in the vaccination rollout. This is slightly more than the 33 percent unvaccinated

The Herald called on New Zealanders to stick with the government policy and observe the rules.

“Once enough people are inoculated to slow down rampant spread, then restrictions can ease,” it said.

“Let’s get on with it.”

French High Commissioner Patrice Faure in New Caledonia has declared an eight hour curfew for 15 days from tonight as health authorities reported 256 new cases yesterday in the covid delta variant outbreak.

The curfew will run from 9pm to 5am

Government spokesman Yannick Slamet and Health Director Dr Mabon de la Dass addressed last night’s media conference as the crisis entered its second week.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia covid reports

Dr De la Dass announced 256 new cases, taking the total to 821 cases since the outbreak began just over a week ago.

Seven patients were in intensive care and two people had died, one with other serious illnesses.

Eighty percent of the people hospitalised were unvaccinated.

Slamet said that local “tabac presse” shops — newsagencies — would be closed, but cigarettes and newspapers could be bought at supermarkets that remained open.

It was “inevitable” that the two-week lockdown declared last week would be extended.

New Caledonia has recorded its first death of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fatality was announced by territorial President Louis Mapou today in a televised address.

He said the victim was an elderly person — aged 75 — who had died in hospital.

• READ MORE: Other reports on New Caledonia’s covid crisis

The fatality comes four days after the first three cases of the latest community outbreak were detected.

Mapou said the delta variant crisis was unprecedented and the only means to counter the pandemic was vaccination.

He said another 51 infections had been detected in the past day, bringing the total to 117.

A lockdown has been in force since Tuesday.

New Caledonia’s members of the French legislature have asked France to send medical personnel because there were not enough specialists to staff the ICUs that had been set up.

In French Polynesia, a further three covid-19-related deaths were reported but health authorities say the latest wave appears to have peaked.

Almost 400 people have died since the surge of delta cases in late July, with the daily death toll reaching more than 20 two weeks ago.

However, the number of hospitalisations has remained high, with 303 covid-19 patients in care, 57 of them in ICUs.

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

Quatre jours après avoir plongé dans une crise sanitaire qui s’aggrave d’heure en heure, la #NouvelleCaledonie connaît son premier décès des suites de l’épidémie de Covid-19. Ce vendredi, une personne de 75 ans a succombé au Médipôle.https://t.co/3AGMeKpJvc pic.twitter.com/KvxHCjg2Lf

— NC La 1ère (@ncla1ere) September 10, 2021

New Zealand health officials are investigating a mystery case of covid-19 who spent time in hospital and interacted with seven police officers before she knew she was infected.

The woman was swabbed as a precaution when she went to Middlemore Hospital yesterday for a non covid-related reason.

She spent two hours at the hospital’s emergency department and short stay ward, and the positive result came back after she had left.

• READ MORE: Other NZ covid lockdown reports
• RNZ covid updates

She had also had contact with seven police officers on Wednesday morning.

The officers were wearing masks but have been stood down as a precaution.

The hospital staff were wearing full protective gear and are deemed to be low risk, but 36 patients were being asked to isolate.

New Zealanders are being told to keep covid-19 testing numbers up over the weekend ahead of next week’s alert level decision.

Monday alert levels meeting
Cabinet will meet on Monday to decide whether any parts of the country can move down an alert level.

More than 14,000 swabs were processed yesterday.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said 7000 of those tests were from the Auckland region.

“This continues to be giving us confidence about the outbreak, and whether or not it is controlled, and one thing I would like to emphasise is this weekend is critical that we get high testing numbers.

“So anyone who is symptomatic, particularly in Tāmaki Makaurau, please do go and get a test.”

The numbers

• There are 11 new cases of covid-19 in the community today.
• There are now 879 total cases, with 288 cases having now recovered.
• There are 29 unlinked cases, including six from today.
• Six new cases are in managed isolation and two historical cases were reported today.

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

New Caledonia has detected three cases of Covid-19 in the community and ordered a two-week lockdown from midday today.

The three cases are not connected and involve people who have not travelled, suggesting the virus is circulating in the community.

Territorial President Louis Mapou said investigations had been launched immediately to identify contacts and the chain of transmission.

• READ MORE: Three delta cases of covid detected in New Caledonia – schools closed
• Other reports on New Caledonia and covid

One of the cases is an unvaccinated person who had already been in hospital in Noumea.

The second infection was picked up in a vaccinated and asymptomatic traveller at a pre-departure check at the international airport in Noumea ahead of a flight to Wallis and Futuna, which has subsequently been cancelled.

The third case is an individual who fell ill on the island of Lifou and was flown to the main island’s hospital in Noumea and placed in intensive care.

Territorial President Louis Mapou addressed New Caledonians on the strict lockdown details last night in a joint television statement with French High Commissioner Patrice Faure.

Schools in the Southern province had already been closed yesterday for two weeks.

New Caledonia had its first outbreak in the community in March and managed to eliminate the virus with a month-long lockdown.

With the borders largely closed, anyone arriving must spend two weeks in a government-run quarantine facility.

Last week, the territory’s Congress voted to make covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for adults by the end of the year, triggering a rally on Saturday by thousands opposed to the measure.

Until today, New Caledonia had recorded 136 covid-19 cases but no fatalities.

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

A high school student is one of three people — including his two brothers — who has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for breaching a Solomon Islands trial covid-19 lockdown late last month.

The 18-year-old was sentenced by a magistrates court on Wednesday with his older brothers after pleading guilty to one count of restriction of movement contrary to clause 4 (1) and (2) (a) and (b) of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (Honiara Emergency Zone) (Restriction of Movement) Order 2021 and Regulation 15 (1) (a), (2) and (4) of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) (No. 2) Regulation 2021.

The court heard police had arrested the student and two other young men after attending a report of disturbances in the early hours of Monday, August 30, at Vavaya Ridge.

• READ MORE: Pacific health boost aims to meet urgent and sustained demand
• Other Solomon Islands covid reports

Police went to Vavaya Ridge at 2.45am and saw the three defendants on the main road main road.

Their lawyer, Donation Houa, from the Public Solicitor’s Office had told the court the student was drinking with his two brothers at his brother’s house before the lockdown exercise started at 6pm on Sunday, August 29.

“On his return home round 2am from his brother’s house, he was arrested,” Houa told the court.

He had asked the court to consider section 35 of the Penal Code (PC) to impose an unconditional discharge given that he was a student and that doing so would affect his education and future prospects.

‘I will not accept excuses’
However, principal magistrate Augustine Aulanga did not consider section 35 of the Penal Code when imposing the sentence.

“I will not accept those kinds of excuses,” he said.

“You are a student, you drink alcohol and then you commit an offence and then you plead to the court for mercy — I will not accept that,” Aulanga told the student.

In relation to the second defendant, the court heard that the 25-year-old was out looking for cigarettes when he was arrested.

“The reason why he was arrested was that he was away from his home looking for cigarettes,” Houa told the court.

The third defendant went out to the main road from his residence after hearing some boys drinking and they gave him alcohol.

“He took a sip and that’s when police arrived and arrested him,” Houa said, when he explained in court why his client was not home at the time of the offence.

Prosecution wanted a fine
The lawyer also asked the court to consider when imposing sentence that there was no community transmission and that this was an exercise lockdown.

The prosecution had asked court to impose a fine of $300 or a term of imprisonment term equivalent to $300 if the defendants could not pay the fine.

Crown Prosecutor Geitaba Waletofea asked court to consider the fact that the three young men deliberately breached the movement restrictions despite knowing about the lockdown.

She said the men decided to ignore the law and continue to cause a disturbance.

Waletofea also added that although she understood that the virus was not yet in the Solomon Islands, the government had seen fit to impose such laws to help prepare foer the virus, and to know how to contain it in the future.

Magistrate Aulanga imposed a 12 month imprisonment term for each defendant.

The three defendants were among 32 people arrested during the 36 hour lockdown exercise from 6am, Sunday, August 29, to 6pm, Tuesday, August 31.

Assumpta Buchanan is a Solomon Star reporter.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke at today’s 1pm press conference about the importance of mental health and support services in the community during New Zealand’s delta covid-19 outbreak.

“Having positive cases in our communities, along with the impact of lockdowns I know can be hugely unsettling, and that uncertainty can impact on everyone’s mental health,” she said.

“It’s OK to feel overwhelmed, to feel upset or even to feel frustrated, because this situation is often all of those things. But there are places you can go for support and help, even while you’re living with restrictions.”

• READ MORE: Covid-19 update: 83 new community cases reported in New Zealand
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports

The Ministry of Health and Unite Against Covid websites have a list of resources, Ardern said.

“These include tools targeted at young people, who may be finding this time challenging, in particular those isolating in hostels or halls of residence.”

Calls to health services and use of online services have risen during lockdown.

“We know for instance that early on in the lockdown there was a spike in calls to Youthline,” Ardern said, and the government has since boosted their funding by $275,000.

Extra $1m for community health projects
An additional $1 million in funding was announced today by Health Minister Andrew Little for community projects to support youth mental health in Auckland and Northland.

Ardern listed several different helplines available (see full RNZ list).

“There is also targeted mental health support available to Pacific Communities via a dedicated 0800 number: 0800 OLA LELEI 0800-652-535,” Ardern said.

Episodes of family violence have been reported during lockdown around the country.

“Family violence and sexual violence services are considered essential services and are continuing to operate at level 4,” Ardern said.

“If you feel you’re in an unsafe environment, you do not need to stay in your home or in your bubble. If you’re not safe at home you can leave your bubble. If you feel in danger, call 111.

“If you or someone you know is in danger and it is not safe to talk, police have the silent solution, phone 111 and if you do not speak you’ll get the option of pressing 55, you can then listen carefully to the call-taker’s questions and instructions so they can arrange assistance for you.”

There is also support for those struggling to access food.

“Yesterday we announced an additional $7 million for food security networks operating at alert level 4. The additional funding will help with the distribution of an additional 60,000 food parcels, and 10,000 wellbeing packs,” Ardern said.

83 community cases
There have been 83 new community cases of covid-19 reported in New Zealand today.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said 82 of the new cases are in Auckland, with one new case in Wellington. The Wellington case was a close contact of an existing case, and was in isolation with no exposure in the community while infectious.

Dr Bloomfield said 34 people are now in New Zealand hospitals with the coronavirus, including two people in ICU. All are in a stable condition.

Three of those cases are in North Shore Hospital, 18 in Middlemore Hospital, 13 in Auckland City Hospital, while one is in Wellington Regional Hospital. Dr Bloomfield said the hospitalisation rate in this outbreak is 6-7 percent which is higher than previous outbreaks.

The total number of confirmed cases associated with the Auckland outbreak is now 511 – 496 in Auckland and 15 in Wellington.

Dr Bloomfield said more than 60 percent of cases are under 30.

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

New Zealand’s largest city Auckland faces two more weeks of alert level 4 as the the rest of the country prepares to move to level three from Tuesday midnight.

Speaking at a media conference this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the districts below Auckland would remain in alert level 4 for four more days, but Auckland and Northland were “likely” looking at two more weeks of a full lockdown.

“We will need to be confident we’ve stamped it out and have cases contained and isolated,” she said.

• READ MORE: 70 new covid cases in New Zealand
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports
• RNZ’s live covid updates blog

Ardern said the lockdown in Auckland was working and was the best place for the region to be.

But Dr Ashley Bloomfield said officials would not need to see days of zero cases to move Auckland out of level 4.

Moving down alert levels in Auckland would require no new cases popping up unexpectedly over the coming week or two, Dr Bloomfield said.

Meanwhile, 19 people with covid-19 are currently being treated in Auckland hospitals, including one in ICU.

70 new community cases
In a statement – where it was revealed that there were 70 new community cases of covid-19 – the Health Ministry said all 19 patients were in a stable condition.

Two of the cases are in North Shore Hospital, eight are in Middlemore Hospital, and nine are in Auckland City Hospital.

The statement said the total number of cases linked to the current community outbreak was 347 – 333 in Auckland and 14 in Wellington.

Of the 70 new cases, 44 were Pacific peoples, 11 were Asian, six were European, six were Māori, and the ethnicity of three was unknown.

The lockdown move received a mixed response in Auckland, with some welcoming the caution, others hoping they would move to level 2 in time for the weekend, and leaders saying they want an indication on when they would move down alert levels.

Based on that number, Ardern said New Zealand “may be seeing the beginning of a plateau of cases”, but warned: “caution is still required.”

It was clear from the outbreak that delta was more infectious and moved more quickly, she said.

“Of the cases reported yesterday, roughly half were household contacts. Unfortunately we know from Australia that household members are almost universally becoming infected with covid-19, that means you can expect our numbers to continue for some time as household contacts continue to test positive,” she said.

Public health units were observing very fast infection times with delta, but it did not change the fact the strategy right now was elimination and “every New Zealander can play their part in that,” Ardern said.

“Lockdown is making a difference.

“We know covid’s not going away quickly, but our strategy can evolve.”

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

There is something decidedly sinister about the way the right-wing media is pursuing the “elimination strategy is madness” argument so doggedly. Yes, it’s always interesting to discover what people are saying about New Zealand overseas, but The New Zealand Herald republishing anti-Jacinda Ardern editorials from the Daily Telegraph — mouthpiece of the British Conservative Party — points to an altogether more disturbing preoccupation.

These misgivings are only reinforced when one considers the near unanimous hostility directed towards the Prime Minister and her government by New Zealand’s talkback hosts.

At the most superficial level, one could argue that the right-wing media’s editorial hostility is generated almost entirely by bottomline anxieties. With most of its advertising revenue generated by realtors, retailers, the hospitality industry and tourist operators, the big media outlets must experience significant financial pain whenever New Zealand and/or its most important economic hub, Auckland, goes into lockdown.

The pressure brought to bear on the media bosses to get the doors open for their advertisers’ paying customers is easily imagined.

More than anything else, commercial enterprises hate surprises. Certainty and predictability are what they need to go on generating profits for their shareholders. The sudden appearance of covid-19 in the community, followed by lockdowns of a severity to make the eyes of overseas commentators water, bring with them consequences that are costly, disruptive and generally bad for business.

Unsurprisingly, a significant fraction of the business community would very much prefer that covid-19 was responded to in a fashion less injurious to their financial health.

Those business leaders less bound by the short-term selfishness of their colleagues take a more responsible position. They understand how very bad it looks for businesspeople to convey the impression that they care a great deal less about people getting very ill, and quite possibly dying, than they do about making money.

Short, sharp, uncompromising lockdowns
They also know that New Zealand’s style of short, sharp, uncompromising lockdowns protect the economic interests of the business community a whole lot more effectively than the loose, dangerously porous, lockdowns on display in the UK, the USA, and across the Tasman in Australia.

Not that anything as mundane as “the facts of the matter” have ever slowed the government’s critics down. Neither New Zealand’s extraordinary success in keeping the number of covid-19 deaths below 30, nor the powerful bounce-back of its economy, cuts any ice with the “elimination strategy is madness” brigade. Indeed, the obvious success of Jacinda Ardern’s elimination strategy only seems to make them madder.

So what is it? What drives Ardern’s critics so crazy?

Sadly, a great many of her right-wing opponents seem to be inspired by nothing more edifying than sexist antipathy towards a young, female prime minister, from a tiny and powerless country at the bottom of the world, who has outperformed (by a wide margin) the male leaders of much larger and more powerful nations.

Something about this picture is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Young women are supposed to defer to the “big dogs” of the international community — not show them up. Ardern has produced a disturbance in the conservative “Force” that makes them shudder: as if an entire political ideology suddenly cried out in indignation and was rudely silenced.

They fear something terrible is going on.

And, in a way, they’re right. From the perspective of those responsible for creating a world in which the interests of business take precedence over even the ordinary person’s right to stay safe and well (some might say especially over the ordinary person’s right to stay safe and well) the sight of a young, female prime minister putting the interests of ordinary people first is a terrible thing.

Ardern’s “kindness” works way beyond neoliberalism’s explanation
Because Jacinda Ardern’s “kindness” doesn’t just work a little bit, it works way beyond neoliberalism’s capacity to supply a credible explanation.

Take Sweden, for example. For a while it was the “who needs lockdowns?” brigade’s poster child. But Sweden, with just twice the population of New Zealand, racked-up a horrifying 14,000+ covid fatalities. Had Ardern followed the Swedish prime minister’s example, her country would have sustained upwards of 7,000 deaths.

By following its leader’s strict elimination strategy, however, New Zealand’s “Team of Five Million” kept their country’s covid death toll to 26.

On the Right, however, this sort of science-guided, humanitarian response to covid-19 just doesn’t compute. Conservatives around the world react by accusing Ardern of political cowardice. She simply doesn’t have the balls to adopt a strategy that will lead directly to hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths.

Look at the Brits; look at the Yanks; they had the courage to condemn tens-of-thousands of their people to early and unnecessary deaths; they know that “you can’t live in a cave forever”; that, in the end, the economy must come first.

This is the upside-down world towards which the right-wing media’s wayward editorial decisions are dragging its readers, viewers and listeners. A world in which saving New Zealanders’ lives is the wrong thing to do. A world where “freedom” means nothing more than being able to go shopping wherever and whenever you want – without a mask.

That the big media companies haven’t quite arrived there yet is because there are still some executives who understand that, ultimately, the news media relies on ordinary people to read its copy and listen to its broadcasters’ opinions.

Ordinary people who, if right-wing editors and producers ever get around to actually swallowing the insanity-inducing Kool-Aid swishing about in their mouths, will be offered-up to deranged conservatives (and the advertisers) as unavoidable human sacrifices to the Moloch god of the free market.

The only elimination strategy the right-wing media will ever wholeheartedly support.

This essay, by Chris Trotter, was originally posted on the Bowalley Road blog of Thursday, 26 August 2021, under the title: “A Disturbing Preoccupation: Why the Right-Wing Media Hates Jacinda’s Covid Elimination Strategy”.  It is republished by Asia Pacific Report with the permission of the author.

While covid-19 case numbers are still rising in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the lockdown is having an obvious impact in the fight against the delta variant outbreak.

Ardern and Director of Public Health, Dr Caroline McElnay, provided the latest update on the government’s covid-19 response today.

The number of community cases rose by 68, taking the total to 277.

• READ MORE: ‘God bless them’ – church in covid cluster brushes off racist abuse
• More NZ covid lockdown stories
• More live covid-19 updates

But Ardern said the first sign that the lockdown was having an effect was the fact that health authorities had not seen a spread beyond Auckland and Wellington, where there was a known link to the Auckland outbreak.

“If it wasn’t for lockdown, I’m sure we would have seen cases spread further,” Ardern said.

The second factor could be seen in the locations of interest, which were not growing at the same rate that the case numbers were.

“That’s because people are staying at home.”.

There have been an additional 20 new locations of interest since the last covid-19 update, although just three were added today.

Ardern said across the locations of interest reported on the ministry’s website, 13 currently had generated additional cases.

Ardern warned that the country still needed to be incredibly vigilant, especially with the delta variant.

Watch the covid-19 update here:

‘Lockdown is having an impact’ – NZ PM. Video: RNZ News

With delta, today’s numbers were not necessarily unexpected, she said.

“With delta, people are infectious much sooner and they appear to give it to a lot more people.”

Nothing was unexpected at the moment but “New Zealand does need to be incredibly vigilant”.

“Delta has changed the rules of the game, that’s why we’ve changed our game plan.”

We should be able to see the impact of delta being in our community for a week or more for a time to come, Ardern said.

The elimination strategy recommended by experts was the best strategy to have at the moment and vaccinations “provide everyone with their own individual armour”, she said.

The government’s plan was not to use lockdowns forever.

Get vaccinated, says PM
To avoid lockdowns, get vaccinated, Ardern said.

After RNZ yesterday revealed a mix-up at a vaccination centre may have meant five of the 732 vaccinations performed on July 12 could have been saline solution, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield earlier today repeated that it had always been the ministry’s intention to contact those affected.

He said in the afternoon briefing yesterday those people would now be contacted within 24 hours, but admitted the decision to contact people was not made until after RNZ News started making enquiries about it.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins called the delay “regrettable”.

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

The government-designed vaccination rollout in New Zealand has not mobilised Pacific communities to respond safely and effectively, the Pacific Leadership Forum said.

More than 50 percent of covid-19 infections in New Zealand are of Pacific descent.

But they have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

• READ MORE: 41 new covid cases in New Zealand community, says Bloomfield
• Other NZ covid lockdown reports
• LISTEN TO RNZ CHECKPOINT: Call for change to Pasifika strategy (duration  3′:04″)

Pakilau o Aotearoa Manase Lua is chair of the Pacific Response Coordination Team (PRCT) and said this showed the current vaccination strategies were not working for Pacific peoples.

The Tongan community leader said this was despite millions of dollars being allocated towards covid-19 vaccination stations, communications and PR companies to drive awareness and engagement.

“I don’t blame our communities at all. A lot of them are hearing a lot of misinformation through social media on the vaccines,” he said.

“There’s uncertainty because now they hear that their children don’t even need permission. It’s all on the Ministry of Health’s website. Children who want to get vaccinated don’t need to tell their parents.”

PRCT helped mobilise Pacific communities
Pakilau said during last year’s outbreak in April, the PRCT helped mobilise Pacific communities to get tested at the Ōtara South Seas, when Pacific testing was low.

In August, the PRCT and other Pacific providers set up a pop-up community testing station at a Māngere church, “when a government response was not forthcoming”, he said.

“That’s not going to help our communities feel safe. They want to know what’s going on,” Pakilau said.

“It just feels like the government, DHBs and the officials are forgetting the community, and forgetting to communicate with us. Come and talk to us. The biggest problem is they are not willing to listen to Pacific voices.”

One location of interest in this latest outbreak is the Samoa Assemblies of God Church in the south Auckland suburb of Māngere.

Reverend Victor Pouesi is the minister at the EFKS Puaseisei Magele Sasa’e – Māngere East Congregational Christian Church of Samoa.

He said the church was one of the clusters in last year’s outbreak and some people are still confused about the “whole vaccination thing”.

Engaging church, community
He said the government should have engaged the church and community leaders in their response efforts.

“Now it shows in this vaccination campaign, people feel more comfortable coming to church and getting vaccinated especially our Pacific people because that’s where they go for comfort, for spiritual nourishment and this is where they always meet,” he said.

“If we are not able to get together and be a part of this response effort, things will get out of hand. Our people are already panicking, most of them fearing the worst.”

Minister for Pacific Peoples ‘Aupito William Sio says more Pacific providers are needed and work is continuing on the roll out in Pacific communities.

Aupito also said church leaders should advise their congregations to get tested, after it was revealed an infected person attended Sunday service.

“We’re not blaming anybody other than the virus. But we really do need the cooperation of our church leaders, particularly when there is a positive test in and among your congregation.”

‘Aupito was adamant Pasifika will not be judged based on their ethnicity.

Strategy worries health experts
Two Pacific clinical health experts and members of the government’s covid-19 response teams have expressed their concerns about the effectiveness of the strategies.

Dr Collin Tukuitonga said the DHB’s mass vaccination event held in Mānukau, earlier this month, was ineffective in reaching Māori and Pacific communities.

Dr Api Talemaitoga said “the event lacked Māori and Pasifika input”.

“Current vaccination rollout strategies are highly top-down in approach and lack authentic Pacific community dialogue or initiative,” he said.

“There have been some positive gains in information dissemination, however they have failed to mobilise Pacific communities to be vaccinated.”

Pakilau said that to increase Pacific vaccination numbers a “by community for community approach” was required — “that is a bottom-up approach.”

“Pacific communities are at risk during the rising pandemic, and we must take community action.

Top-down continues inequitable outcomes
“The government rhetoric and top-down approach imposed on our communities continues inequitable outcomes.

“To increase vaccination uptake for Pacific communities, a truly community designed, partnered approach that is resourced is required to equip and empower our leaders to mobilise their communities across the nation.

“Pacific people stand with Māori when they fervently said ‘He tangata, he tangata, he tangata’. It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.”

The Pacific Response to Covid-19 Team is a committee of the Pacific Leadership Forum and represents up to 10 Pacific ethnic groups from across the country.

It was established in March 2020 to provide a community response to the pandemic.

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

A Pacific health and social service provider in Auckland fears the city’s fifth lockdown will push families back into hardship.

Fono chief executive Tevita Funaki said that before the latest covid-19 outbreak, many whanau had been getting back on their feet economically.

But the prospect of a prolonged period at alert level 4 would be a real setback for them, he said.

• READ MORE: NZ reports 21 new covid community cases – outbreak total now 72
• Other NZ covid virus outbreak stories

“We are very concerned around the level of hardship of families, I think families were starting to get back into normality.”

The lockdown would be a tipping point for many and Funaki said many people would be feeling stressed and anxious.

In previous lockdowns, they had also seen an increase in family violence.

The Fono is gearing up to provide more food, financial, welfare and mental health support in the coming weeks.

Funaki said Pacific agencies across Auckland would be working with community leaders to ensure families have access to what they need.

Families with children would be experiencing added pressure, with schools reverting to online learning.

Funaki said many households were overcrowded and still did not have access to devices or internet connections.

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

As we write this article, the delta strain of covid-19 is reminding the world the pandemic is far from over, with millions of Australians in lockdown and infection rates outpacing a global vaccination effort.

In the northern hemisphere, record breaking temperatures in the form of heat domes recently caused uncontrollable “firebombs”, while unprecedented floods disrupted millions of people.

Hundreds of lives have been lost due to heat stress, drownings and fire.

• READ MORE: The rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: climate change affects our mental health, too
• In a landmark judgment, the Federal Court found the environment minister has a duty of care to young people
• New polling shows 79 percent of Aussies care about climate change. So why doesn’t the government listen?

The twin catastrophic threats of climate change and a pandemic have created an “epoch of incredulity”. It’s not surprising many Australians are struggling to cope.

During the pandemic’s first wave in 2020, we collected nationwide data from 5483 adults across Australia on how climate change affects their mental health. In our new paper, we found that while Australians are concerned about covid-19, they were almost three times more concerned about climate change.

That Australians are very worried about climate change is not a new finding. But our study goes further, warning of an impending epidemic of mental health related disorders such as eco-anxiety, climate disaster-related post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and future-orientated despair.

Which Australians are most worried?
We asked Australians to compare their concerns about climate change, covid, retirement, health, ageing and employment, using a four-point scale (responses ranging from “not a problem” to “very much a problem”).

A high level of concern about climate change was reported across the whole population regardless of gender, age, or residential location (city or rural, disadvantaged or affluent areas). Women, young adults, the well-off, and those in their middle years (aged 35 to 54) showed the highest levels of concern about climate change.

The latter group (aged 35 to 54) may be particularly worried because they are, or plan to become, parents and may be concerned about the future for their children.

The high level of concern among young Australians (aged 18 to 34) is not surprising, as they’re inheriting the greatest existential crisis faced by any generation. This age group have shown their concern through numerous campaigns such as the School Strike 4 Climate, and several successful litigations.

Of the people we surveyed in more affluent groups, 78 percent reported a high level of worry. But climate change was still very much a problem for those outside this group (42 percent) when compared to covid-related worry (27 percent).

We also found many of those who directly experienced a climate-related disaster — bushfires, floods, extreme heat waves — reported symptoms consistent with PTSD. This includes recurrent memories of the trauma event, feeling on guard, easily startled and nightmares.

Others reported significant pre-trauma and eco-anxiety symptoms. These include recurrent nightmares about future trauma, poor concentration, insomnia, tearfulness, despair and relationship and work difficulties.

Overall, we found the inevitability of climate threats limit Australians’ ability to feel optimistic about their future, more so than their anxieties about COVID.

How are people managing their climate worry?
Our research also provides insights into what people are doing to manage their mental health in the face of the impending threat of climate change.

Rather than seeking professional mental health support such as counsellors or psychologists, many Australians said they were self-prescribing their own remedies, such as being in natural environments (67 percent) and taking positive climate action (83 percent), where possible.

Many said they strengthen their resilience through individual action (such as limiting their plastic use), joining community action (such as volunteering), or joining advocacy efforts to influence policy and raise awareness.

Indeed, our research from earlier this year showed environmental volunteering has mental health benefits, such as improving connection to place and learning more about the environment.

It’s both ironic and understandable Australians want to be in natural environments to lessen their climate-related anxiety. Events such as the mega fires of 2019 and 2020 may be renewing Australians’ understanding and appreciation of nature’s value in enhancing the quality of their lives.

There is now ample research showing green spaces improve psychological well-being.

An impending epidemic
Our research illuminates the profound, growing mental health burden on Australians.

As the global temperature rises and climate-related disasters escalate in frequency and severity, this mental health burden will likely worsen. More people will suffer symptoms of PTSD, eco-anxiety, and more.

Of great concern is that people are not seeking professional mental health care to cope with climate change concern. Rather, they are finding their own solutions. The lack of effective climate change policy and action from the Australian government is also likely adding to the collective despair.

As Harriet Ingle and Michael Mikulewicz — a neuropsychologist and a human geographer from the UK — wrote in their 2020 paper:

For many, the ominous reality of climate change results in feelings of powerlessness to improve the situation, leaving them with an unresolved sense of loss, helplessness, and frustration.

It is imperative public health responses addressing climate change at the individual, community, and policy levels, are put into place. Governments need to respond to the health sector’s calls for effective climate related responses, to prevent a looming mental health crisis.

If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline in Australia on 13 11 14.

By Dr Rhonda Garad, senior lecturer and research fellow in Knowledge Translation, Monash University; Dr Joanne Enticott, senior research fellow, Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), Monash University, and Dr Rebecca Patrick, director, Sustainable Health Network, Deakin University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

Indonesian police have begun tightening entry controls in Manokwari district and Sorong city as part of the enforcement of an emergency partial lockdown this week.

West Papua Police Inspector-General Tornagogo Sihombing yesterday inspected a checkpoint at Maruni village intersection in Manokwari Selatan sub-district to review his men’s preparedness for the partial lockdown.

Police will take strict action against those found violating the government’s partial lockdown, which has been enforced to curb the spread of covid-19 infections in communities, he said.

• READ MORE: Partial lockdown enforced in West Papua’s Manokwari, Sorong
• West Papuan hospital buckles amid covid surge, stops admitting patients

People must comply with the rules for the sake of everyone’s safety and to avoid penalties, he added.

Several checkpoints have been set up to monitor the mobility of people through Teluk Bintuni, Manokwari Selatan, Pegunungan Arfak, Maybart, Tambrauw, Teluk Wondama, Fakfak, and Kaimana districts, as well as Sorong city, he said.

Only those working in essential sectors and in possession of vaccination certificates are being allowed to pass through the checkpoints, he said.

On Monday, West Papua Governor Dominggus Mandacan had announced the start of the partial lockdown from July 12 to 20 to help the provincial government cope with a resurgence of infections.

Surge of infections
The decision to impose the partial lockdown was made after considering the recent surge in infections, the conditions in hospitals, and the vaccination rates in Manokwari and Sorong, he said.

The imposition of the partial lockdown is supported by assessment level 4 criteria such as hospital bed occupancy, which has exceeded 65 percent, and a significant spike in covid-19 cases, he said.

Vaccination rates in the two areas, which have remained below 50 percent, are also among the parameters considered for the lockdown, Mandacan said.

He added that West Papua remained categorised as a red zone, or an area with a very high risk of infection.

Since the start of the pandemic last year, West Papua province had recorded 13,476 confirmed coronavirus cases, he said.

During the partial lockdown, the provincial government has ordered all shopping malls, houses of worship, offices, shops, tourist sites, and public facilities to remain closed.

People were prohibited from outdoor activities, Mandacan said.

Essential sectors such as banking, healthcare services, energy and staple food supplies, and export-oriented industries were exempt from the partial lockdown.

Those involved in logistics, food industries, transportation, construction, disaster mitigation, nation’s strategic projects, and provision of basic necessities would be allowed to operate, but in compliance with health protocols, the governor said.

The Fiji government’s response to the covid-19 pandemic outbreak is an utter failure, but it is not too late to follow New Zealand’s lockdown example, an opposition leader says.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told media her advice was that the lockdown strategy had saved lives.

Fiji is in the grip of a covid-19 outbreak that has infected 791 people and left three more dead in the past day.

• READ MORE: SODELPA leader blasts PM, Attorney-General over Fiji covid ‘recklessness’
• Almost 6000 people battle covid-19 in Fiji – fears of new pandemic spike
• Backgrounder on the delta variant
• Other reports on the Fiji covid crisis
• LISTEN: ‘We are facing a very, very dire situation’ – Dr Biman Prasad (duration 17′:19″)

Fiji’s deputy opposition leader Professor Biman Prasad told RNZ’s Nine to Noon programme that the government’s strategy had been a complete failure and needed to change.

“Change the strategy now. It’s about life and death now. It’s about fixing the health public health emergency right now, which will also be good in the long term for the economy.”

“The stupid, stubborn, ego-driven policies of this government and the leadership of this government has been utter failure, you know, complete nonsense.”

He said people were fearful and anxious, and the government was putting all its eggs in one basket – vaccination.

‘People are dying’
“Vaccination is important, we’re encouraging people to get vaccinated. But right now we are having a public health emergency – people are dying, our health systems are giving up.”

It was not too late for the country to follow the examples of New Zealand and Australia and lock down, he said.

“If there is a proper planned lockdown with appropriate provision of support such as food rations, etc, for people in the lower income categories I think a lot of people will understand why the government would do that.”

Ardern told New Zealand media this afternoon it was up to the Fiji government to make its own decision, but offered some advice.

“Lockdown, for us, has saved lives and it’s also benefited our economy. But these choices are for governments,” she said.

“Our help and assistance will be there regardless of what strategy they adopt, they’re our neighbours and I think no one wants to see any country suffering under the full effects of an outbreak.”

Ardern said she had spoken to Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama last week and offered wide ranging support, having already provided NZ$40 million in aid, plus protective equipment, specialists, and offered future vaccines.

“Acknowledging that they of course have the right to make their own decisions.”

Fiji should seek more help
Dr Prasad said the government should seek more help from Australia and New Zealand to help with testing.

“People are dying, you know, on arrival to the hospitals because the health system cannot cope … if the cases continue to rise – and more and more people seek medical attention – any health system is gonna give up,” he said.

“I’m afraid that’s what is happening right now in Fiji.”

Dr Prasad said he suspected the government was ignoring advice, and its messaging had been contradictory.

“It’s very, very clear that this government has completely lost the plot.”

“They need to convince the people … they haven’t explained very clearly as to what and why they’re doing what they’re doing right now.”

The people of Fiji were grateful for the assistance from Australia and New Zealand, he said, but the Fiji government should ask for more help in the form of support for those who may be unable to care for their children and put food on the table.

Donations to help Fiji could also be sent to non-government organisations that were already providing help, he said.

Civil society groups in Fiji have urged the government to release data to help them provide an effective response to the crisis.

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

Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

Indonesia’s most populated and popular islands are bracing for emergency lockdown measures from this weekend, with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo touting the inevitability of shifting policy amid soaring covid-19 cases, reports The Jakarta Post.

The country recorded another record-breaking day with 21,807 new covid-19 cases and 467 deaths in a day, according to official figures published on Wednesday.

That brings the country’s overall caseload to 2,178,272 and deaths to 58,491 – a toll among the highest in Asia.

• READ MORE: Other articles about the Indonesia covid crisis

The numbers are widely regarded as conservative estimates because of severely inadequate testing outside Jakarta.

The Health Ministry also reported alarming bed occupancy rates (BORs) in Jakarta, Banten and West Java – all of which have surpassed 90 percent – followed by Yogyakarta and Central Java at 89 and 87 percent, respectively.

President Widodo said the restrictions would begin tomorrow — Saturday — and last until July 20 on the most populous island of Java and the tourist island of Bali, reports Al Jazeera.

In a televised address yesterday, Widodo said: “This situation requires us to take more decisive steps so that we can together stem the spread of covid-19.”

Worst-hit nation
The details of the measures were being announced later, he added.

Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s worst-hit nation with new cases topping 21,000 every day. The surge has overwhelmed hospitals and resulted in a shortage of oxygen in the capital, Jakarta.

A government document said the new restrictions aim to cut daily cases to below 10,000, and will include work-at-home orders for all non-essential sectors and the continued closure of schools and universities.

The document also said public amenities like beaches, parks, tourist attractions and places of worship must close, while restaurants can offer only take away or delivery services.

Constructions sites can continue operating as normal, however.

Udayana University Professor Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, a virologist on the island of Bali where the number of daily confirmed cases have more than quadrupled in two weeks, said the proposed restrictions were not enough.

“I have seen the new emergency measure but I am sceptical. We need a lockdown but the problem is there is just no money to keep people at home,” he said.

Infection rate far higher
Infectious disease experts say modelling suggested Indonesia’s true daily infection rate was at least 10 times higher than the official count.

“The problem in Indonesia is that testing rates are very low because only people who present themselves at hospitals with symptoms receive free tests. Everyone else has to pay,” said Dr Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist who has helped formulate the Indonesian Ministry of Health’s pandemic management strategy for 20 years.

“Based on the current reproduction rate in Indonesia that has climbed from 1.19 in January to 1.4 in June, I estimated there at least 200,000 new cases in the country today.

“But if I compare that with modelling by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, it is much higher, about 350,000 new infections per day. That’s as high as India before the peak.”

A virologist in Java advising the Ministry of Health, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the virus spread so quickly because many Indonesians exhibiting symptoms of covid-19 prefer to stay home.

“When we see the hospitals full with patients it’s only the tip of the iceberg because only 10 to 15 percent of sick people in Indonesia go to hospitals,” the virologist said.

“The rest will stay at home and self-remedy because they prefer to stay with their family.

“This has happened since the start of the pandemic but with the delta variant now becoming dominant it’s a much more serious problem because the secondary infection rate in households for the delta variant is 100 percent.

“That means if one member of a household is infected, they all get infected. But as their symptoms become worse and people experience trouble breathing, we expect many more people will come to hospitals, like what we saw in India.”

Given the rapidly rising number of contacts stemming from new Fiji cases of covid-19 in the Suva-Nausori area, a full lockdown that was announced yesterday by Health Secretary Dr James Fong has been extended to 4am next Wednesday, May 19.

This has been confirmed in a statement by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services.

Dr Fong had announced last night that a full lockdown of Suva and Nausori would commence from Friday night at 11pm until Tuesday morning at 4am to enable widespread contact tracing.

• READ MORE: Lockdown must work, says Dr Fong

The ministry has advised Fijians living in the Suva and Nausori containment areas to prepare for an all-day stay-at-home order that will remain in force from tomorrow evening at 11pm until Wednesday morning at 4am.

“As stated yesterday, food rations will be available during the later stages of the lockdown period for Fijians living within the Suva-Nausori lockdown zone who have a genuine need for an emergency food supply.”

Escalated lockdown measures
The RNZ News correspondent in Suva, Lice Movono, reports that the Fiji government has decided to escalate lockdown measures, as health authorities recorded nine more community cases of covid-19 over the past day.

The total number of community cases now stands at 44, as an outbreak of the B1617 (Indian) variant of the virus prompted the government to announce the lockdown.

It is in this area that the government said it expected to have “many” more cases recorded in the coming days.

As the government works to trace infections from an outbreak at a large supermarket in Flagstaff, near the capital Suva, health authorities have admitted they may not have employed the best communications strategies in this second wave of the virus.

The government has in recent weeks conducted once daily updates, sometimes starting close to 10pm.

“We do need to improve our communication strategy. That is something that I for one will be working on, that I’ve been working on with a few others,” Dr Fong said.

“We have put a plan together and we have thought about it. It’s just that when we can implement it, is the issue that we will have to work with

There was a delicate balance between ensuring that he had all the information that he needed to share, and that what he shared was accurate and at the right time, Dr Fong said.

Admitting the public information campaign part of the government’s response had not been easy to implement, Dr Fong said the team he headed would need to segregate “between the team that’s driving the response and the overseeing of the response, and the team that’s driving the narrative”.

Fiji’s Lautoka Hospital is now closed to members of the public after a new positive case announced last night was that of a patient who was admitted for a surgical procedure at the hospital.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said all medical services would now be re-routed to a network of back-up hospitals in Nadi, Ba, Sigatoka, as well as the Punja and Kamikamica health centres in Lautoka.

“We’ve activated the entire government machinery to ensure these critical services remain accessible to our people,” Dr Fong said.

• READ MORE: Fiji records third death from coronavirus
• Other Fiji covid-19 reports

The Fiji Times reports that a 53-year-old patient at Lautoka Hospital had died – the third death from covid-19 in Fiji.

Fiji has recorded four more new cases, and among these are two returning peacekeepers from the Golan Heights.

As announced before, he said the borders of the containment areas were open to those travelling for medical emergencies.

“Given we expect more cases, and more severe cases, sections within the Lautoka Hospital are being converted into intensive care units which will house additional beds and ventilators,” he added.

Staff accommodated in hospital
Dr Fong said the staff of Lautoka Hospital would be accommodated and work within the hospital while contact tracing continued.

“Remember, our staffing capacity was already stretched due to quarantine of the close contacts of our two doctors,” he said.

“Those who are working will operate on high-alert, fully-equipped in the proper personal protective equipment.

“They will be screened regularly and tested often.

Patient 125 dead: #COVID19Fiji
A 53yo man has succumbed to #COVID19 in Lautoka. Originally admitted for surgery, the patient is also the suspected origin of 2 infections at Lautoka Hosp.
The hospital w over 400 staff & patients has been closed in by military&police. #FijiNews

— Lice Movono (@LiceMovono) May 5, 2021

“We are going to provide them with any and all support that they need. Food, supplies, bedding, whatever they require, we will provide.”

Earlier last night, Dr Fong said some staff who had left the hospital had been called back in, and Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) personnel and police officers had ring-fenced the entire hospital. They would strictly manage who was allowed onto the premises.

“More than 400 patients, doctors, nurses, and other staff have been sequestered and will be effectively quarantined within the hospital until we can determine who else may or may not have had contact with this patient,” Dr Fong said.

Timoci Vula is a Fiji Times reporter.

Today marks one year since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the call to put New Zealand into a covid-19 lockdown.

At the time, Aotearoa had 102 confirmed cases of covid-19 and the Ministry of Health said the virus was spreading in the community.

The borders were already shut.

• READ MORE: Timeline: The year of covid-19 in New Zealand
• Other NZ covid-19 reports

The level 4 lockdown started at 11.59pm on 25 March 2020, two days after the prime minister’s announcement, and meant non-essential businesses and schools closed.

New Zealanders were urged to stay at home to save lives, and to leave home only for essential purposes such as grocery shopping.

Panic buying made headlines with long queues forming at supermarkets around the country just ahead of the lockdown.

Countdown pleaded with the public to only buy what they needed, but empty shelves and out-of-stock items, such as flour, were a common sight.

Felt like ‘the apocalypse’
Bella, who works in Auckland, had a glass of wine with her flatmates the night of the announcement, before jumping on a bus to Thames to spend lockdown with her family.

She said it felt like the apocalypse, but she found the first lockdown the easiest as she was with family and out of the city.

The successive lockdowns for Auckland were the real challenge as being stuck in the inner city took a toll on her mental health and that of her friends, she said.

For Auckland resident Fiona Cameron, the level 4 lockdown was manageable and she considered herself lucky.

Some of her work colleagues had to juggle many responsibilities at once during this time, including working, home-schooling and keeping the household running.

Six, who is from Auckland, believes the lockdown helped bring people together.

She lived in a Housing New Zealand complex where organisations delivered kai during the lockdown.

“One lady turned up in a Porsche with a whole load of frozen chickens. People were thinking about others,” she said.

She expected New Zealand to be in and out of lockdowns for the next year or so.

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

The trial of a former US priest accused of child abuse in Timor-Leste due to resume tomorrow at the Oecusse Court has been postponed until May 24, according to judicial sources.

The president of the Court of Appeal, Deolindo dos Santos, confirmed the postponement to Lusa news agency, explaining that he was asked by the lawyers for the defendant, Richard Daschbach. He was concerned with the current conditions due to the covid-19 sanitary lockdown in the Timorese capital.

The judge explained that the rules of the lockdown obliged anyone who has to travel to present negative covid-19 tests, and that the conduct of the trial required the trip to the Oecusse enclave of one of the judges hearing the case, the translator, the lawyers of defence and the defendant, members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and other parties involved.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the defrocked priest case
• ‘Don’t be disrespectful. He will be upset with you if you don’t sleep with him.’

“An application was made for the defendant’s defence to the Oecusse Court, which notified the Public Ministry to respond. The court received this response and issued an order to postpone it until May 24,” said dos Santos.

Daschbach, who is under house arrest in Dili, began trial in February for crimes of child abuse, child pornography and domestic violence.

The trial, which is closed to the public, had two sessions scheduled on March 22 and 23.

Daschbach was expelled from the Congregation of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in East Timor and from the priesthood by the Vatican for the “committed and admitted abuse of minors” in an orphanage in the country, Topu Honis.

“SVD Timor-Leste wants to emphatically reiterate that based on the heinous crime committed and admitted of child abuse at the Topu Honis orphanage, Mr Richard Daschbach was expelled, after an ecclesiastical criminal process, from the religious and clerical state by the Congregation for Doctrine da Fé, in the Vatican, on November 6, 2018,” said a recent communiqué of the organisation.

Deolindo dos Santos told Lusa that given the evolution of the cases of covid-19 and with sanitary fences in effect, the judiciary was working to “enable judgments to take place at a distance” by video conferencing.

Wallis and Futuna has been rushed into a two-week lockdown from this morning after yesterday’s tests revealed another 12 covid-19 positive cases in the community.

The first infection was reported on Saturday in a school principal who had left mandatory quarantine weeks ago after returning a negative test result.

His case appears to be linked to a simultaneous community outbreak in New Caledonia which went into a lockdown at midnight after recording its first nine community cases.

• READ MORE: Covid outbreak forces New Caledonia into snap two-week lockdown
• New Caledonia orders lockdown after first community covid cases

The authorities in Wallis now report 19 cases in total, including the first on the island of Futuna.

Passenger air traffic has been suspended.

Until the weekend, both New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna were the only French-administered territories without covid-19 in the community.

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

New Caledonia, one of the Pacific territories to have avoided the covid-19 pandemic so far, is to go into strict two-week lockdown after detecting nine cases, reports Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes.

The outbreak on the French archipelago was detected after a school headteacher fell ill on the Wallis and Futuna islands leading authorities to screen for cases, France 24 reports citing AFP.

“According to the first indications, the patient developed symptoms in mid-February and could have been infectious in Wallis and Futuna from the end of January,” the president of the terrotorial government in New Caledonia, Thierry Santa, told reporters.

• READ MORE: Le coronavirus circule… le confinement revient

Travel between the two French territories had previously been unrestricted, while anyone arriving from elsewhere had to undergo a strict 14-day quarantine in a hotel.

Santa announced a two-week lockdown for New Caledonia starting from Monday evening, to “break the transmission of the virus while there is still time”.

The islands had previously succeeded in stopping community transmission of the novel coronavirus, which has reached almost all corners of the globe.

New Caledonia was once used as a penal colony by French authorities owing to its remote location from Europe. It has a population of 288,000 and Wallis and Futuna have a population of 15,000.

RNZ Pacific reports it is almost a year since the first covid-19 case was diagnosed in French Polynesia. This was also was the first in the Pacific Islands.

Maina Sage, a member of the French National Assembly, brought the virus from Paris, triggering a sharp lockdown.

#DirectLNC #LncPays Covid-19 : 9 cas positifs, la Calédonie confinée pendant 15 jours https://t.co/xZhqGVMgrH

— Les Nouvelles calédoniennes (@lncnc) March 7, 2021

But once the virus had been eliminated, Tahiti and its island opened for tourists but saw covid-19 spread throughout the community and infect thousands.

Now the borders have again been shut on orders from Paris.

French Polynesia has had 18,452 covid cases and 140 deaths. The population is 280,000.

New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says the actions of the Destiny Church leaders in leaving Auckland on the eve of the alert level 3 lockdown were “completely irresponsible”.

Earlier today it was revealed that church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki left Auckland on Saturday night, arriving around midnight in Rotorua, where they told a crowd gathered for the Sunday morning service they had “escaped” to avoid the level 3 lockdown.

It comes as concern mounts over some churches defying lockdown rules and spreading misinformation about the covid-19 pandemic.

• READ MORE: NZ’s Auckland in lockdown for second time in a month

On Tuesday, Hannah Tamaki posted on Facebook to say the couple were now touring the country and would be in Invercargill this weekend.

In this afternoon’s daily update, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the Tamakis’ actions were “completely irresponsible”.

He said he encouraged everybody to exercise their own judgment.

“Sneaking out of Auckland right at the beginning of a lockdown and having large gatherings of people is simply putting people at risk unnecessarily.”

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said any breaches of the current health order which underpinned alert levels were a wider government responsibility.

The Destiny Church is a Pentecostal fundamentalist Christian movement founded in 1998 by the Tamakis, who continue to serve as visionary and senior ministers. It is based in South Auckland and has a strong Māori and Polynesian membership.

No new community covid cases
RNZ News reports that despite more than 16,000 tests being processed yesterday, no new cases of covid-19 have been found in the community.

Dr Bloomfield said two new cases were found in managed isolation and quarantine, and one of those was a historical case.

Dr Bloomfield had said yesterday that any positive cases that may have resulted from potential exposure to the virus in Auckland last week would start to turn up today.

Hipkins said tests were still coming in, however, and “we’re still in the critical period … we’re not quite there yet” in terms of being certain the latest cluster had not spread further.

As of midnight last night, 9431 people have received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, including over half of New Zealand’s covid-19 frontline border workers, Hipkins said.

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

A ragtag group of about 150 people gathered on the New Zealand Parliament’s forecourt today to demand an end to covid-19 lockdowns.

The so-called freedom rally – led by political firebrand Billy Te Kahika – kicked off shortly after 1pm and lasted about an hour.

Members of the group wielded banners and placards describing the coronavirus as a scam and decrying vaccines and lockdown measures, echoing online conspiracy theories.

• READ MORE: Billy Te Kahika – the NZ conspiracy theorist with a hidden following

Others waved pro-Trump flags or signs protesting anything from 1080 pest control to fluoride to the Chinese Communist Party.

Te Kahika told the crowd they stood together against the “gang of corruption” that exists at Parliament.

“We are here as many different ethnicities. We are here as people with different ideals, different persuasions,” he said.

“But we stand united for one purpose: to defend our right to choose for ourselves and our families, our whānau, how we will live.”

Covid-19 likened to winter flu
Te Kahika continued his practice of spreading misinformation in his speech, including that covid-19 is no more fatal than the winter flu.

Covid-19 has so far claimed the lives of almost 2 million people worldwide.

Te Kahika also praised the Covid-19 Plan B group, which argues against lockdowns, despite the measure helping successfully eliminate the coronavirus in New Zealand’s community.

New Zealand spent nearly five weeks under a strict level four lockdown measure last year and then about two weeks more under level three.

Auckland returned to level three in August for two and a half weeks after the virus briefly re-emerged in the community.

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

The announcement that Auckland was going into lockdown for a second time was met with a deluge of conspiracy theories and misinformation, including from several prominent political figures.

That “infodemic” is forcing journalists to confront the question of how they should report on the rapid rise of social media-fueled conspiracy movements.

In the hours after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Auckland would be moving back into lockdown, Billy Te Kahika Jr did something he had done many times before, and switched on Facebook Live.

LISTEN: Confronting the deluge of conspiracy theories (31m53s)

The New Zealand Public Party leader launched into a familiar refrain.

“We have been saying for over a month now this lockdown was coming. We did say it would be the second week of August,” he said.

Te Kahika’s insinuation that this week’s lockdown was planned in advance was false.

Ardern and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have both said they found out about the new covid-19 outbreak roughly five hours before the lockdown announcement.

Telling the truth
There is no evidence they are lying, and plenty they are telling the truth.

In the past, theories like Te Kahika’s might have been more easily sidelined. But the blues musician from Whāngarei has built up a substantial following on social media since he started posting screeds of misinformation and conspiracy theories during the last lockdown in March.

Thanks to what he calls his “research”, his Facebook audience has grown from a few hundred to more than 20,000. His New Zealand Public Party meetings have been met with packed halls.

On Tuesday, Te Kahika’s theory spread rapidly online.

It was echoed by celebrities, including the Australian chef Pete Evans, who said the lockdown was a “scam”, in a post that linked back to the New Zealand Public Party.

Popular Instagram influencer Zoe Fuimaono, who goes by the handle @blessedindoubles, implied the new health measures were helping usher in military rule.

Even National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee was accused of engaging in conspiratorial thinking, after hinting that the government had known more about the resurgence of covid-19 than it was letting on in a press conference on Wednesday.

Ardern addresses misinformation
These sorts of ideas became so prevalent that Ardern had to address them multiple times at press conferences on Wednesday.

“I’ve heard suggestion that we may have had this information earlier than we had said. There is no reason why we would ever do that,” she said on Wednesday morning. “I do worry that those kinds of theories do nothing to support what needs to be collective action from all of us.”

That afternoon, Ardern characterised Brownlee’s implied allegations as “nonsense”.

The media was also quick to cast a sceptical eye over the outbreak of conspiratorial thinking, with RNZ’s Kim Hill repeatedly bringing up Brownlee’s claims during a withering interview with National Party leader Judith Collins on Thursday’s Morning Report.

A group of 50 health experts signed an open letter urging politicians to stop undermining public health messages on covid-19.

But even if it was strongly condemned by the government, medical professionals and the media, the boil-up of misinformation highlights a problem facing authorities as they try to stamp out covid-19 for a second time.

They are now essentially dealing with two parallel crises: the virus and the maelstrom of misinformation surrounding it, which the WHO has termed an “infodemic”.

Sheer-scale of ill-informed belief
Recent news reports have hinted at the sheer scale of ill-informed, and often conspiratorial belief driving that infodemic.

An internal Facebook report leaked to NBC showed the social media platform hosts thousands of pages linked to the conspiracy theory QAnon, with millions of followers between them.

Even a recently-elected Republican member of the US House of Representatives is associated with QAnon.

Widespread conspiratorial thinking has fed into that country’s disastrous covid response, helping to undermine public health messages.

In an article on Thursday, Newsroom’s Sam Sachdeva argued comments like Brownlee’s risk moving New Zealand in the same direction.

“Making ominous references to ‘interesting facts’… runs the risk of undermining public buy-in for a longer lockdown, should one be required,” he wrote.

“As the US has torn itself apart over a politicised covid response as deaths shoot upwards, we have patted ourselves on the back.

“Such complacency on the health front has proved to be a mirage – we can only hope the quality of our political discourse does not similarly evaporate.”

Brownlee has since backtracked on his comments, saying it was not his intention to play into the hands of conspiracy theorists.

Even if Brownlee didn’t mean to aid those groups, modelling from Te Pūnaha Matatini shows the latest lockdown has been met with a spike in online disinformation.

How to cover conspiracies
Despite the increasing real-world harm caused by conspiracy theories, many media outlets devote few resources to covering online misinformation, and those that do are often guilty of delivering uncritical coverage.

Nelson’s Mainland TV has been criticised for airing the discredited documentary Plandemic in full, despite it containing an abundance of falsehoods and misinformation about covid-19.

A Gisborne Herald report on one of Te Kahika’s meetings from July 8 was simply headlined ‘Global plandemic’. It lead with the startling header:

“Labour “communists” Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield are complicit in a global agenda of state control that involves construction of the coronavirus “plandemic”.

“New Zealand Public Party founder and lay minister Billy Te Kahika made that claim to a packed room at Waikanae Surf Life Saving Club on Saturday night.”

The Raglan Chronicle struck a similar tone in its coverage of one of those meetings, spelling out many of his more outlandish beliefs without surrounding context, under the headline ‘Post-lockdown Billy Te Kahika event attracts many’.

Stuff’s Charlie Mitchell, who recently wrote a lengthy feature on Te Kahika’s rise, said he had to wrestle with some ethical questions before embarking on the story.

Two competing ideals
He had to weigh two competing ideals: his desire to not give a platform to information that is false or misleading, and his imperative to cover matters of public interest in a way that is fair, and gives people a right of reply.

“In this case those two ideas are in conflict with each other. You can’t really have both. To accurately characterise what Billy Te Kahika believes, you have to by definition have to repeat information that is false or at best unsubstantiated.”

Mitchell decided not to take an adversarial approach with his feature, opting instead to put Te Kahika’s beliefs in proper context.

“We didn’t go in all guns blazing, prosecuting a case against conspiracy theories or Te Kahika specifically. We just wanted to recognise that these conspiracy theories exist and if you want to understand why you have to listen to these people and talk to them in a way that isn’t judgemental, which is a very fine line to walk.”

Documentary maker and journalist David Farrier advocates a similar approach to dealing with conspiracy theorists.

“I think being kind and open to these people is important and also just showing there are shades of grey. You can talk to your friend that’s into that stuff say ‘yeah I don’t always trust institutions and the government either, I don’t always think they have my best interests at heart, but where I start to become a bit skeptical is that I’m pretty confident that 5G towers aren’t being installed to spread Covid-19’,” he said. “Chip away, slowly.”

Farrier keeps tabs on the rise of movements like QAnon in New Zealand through his blog Webworm. He regularly features interviews with conspiracy theory experts on how to debunk misinformation, and deter people from falling into online rabbit holes in the first place.

More media attention needed
But that’s not enough, he said. He wanted more media attention to be devoted to conspiracy movements, as they make a social media-enabled move from the fringes into the mainstream.

“I would love to see this stuff we’re talking about going out to a much wider audience,” he said. “I think we need to be talking about this stuff on a much grander scale, and contextualising it, because you can’t just report that ‘hey a bunch of people out there believe that 5G is giving us cancer or it’s actually going to give us Covid-19’.

“We have to explain why this stuff’s happening, why we’re hearing all this dialogue. We have to critically pull it apart so hopefully we can stop it from spreading further.”

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

• All RNZ coverage of covid-19
• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.

Auckland will remain in alert level three for a full two weeks, with the New Zealand government announcing that the country will remain at current covid-19 alert levels for 12 more days.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have announced the decision today at a briefing at the Beehive theatrette.

Ardern said Cabinet had unanimously decided today that the country would remain at the current alert levels.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Global deaths top 750,000

“Auckland will remain at level 3 and New Zealand will remain at level 2 … until 11.59pm 26 August,” she said.

But she said the settings would be reviewed on August 21.

“There is nothing to suggest we need to move to a level 4 lockdown at this stage.”

Ardern said construction would continue and hospitality services would continue under the existing level 3 operating protocols.

‘Strong health response best’
“Cabinet also does not want Auckland to be in level 3 any longer than is needed to ensure the outbreak is contained.

“The best economic response is a strong health response.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement today. Video: RNZ News

Ardern said if it was found over the next seven days that the perimeter of the cluster was found, there would be time in the rest of alert level 3 to consider the situation.

“We have had a number of theories [about the source] that we have tried to chase down and we will continue to pursue.”

Ardern said closing the cluster did not mean the source had to be found – that had been demonstrated overseas.

“It is heartening to see at this stage that linkage between all the cases. If you make a wrong move with covid you can see the long term impact of that, and Australia has demonstrated that so we are looking to the experiences of others to inform our decision making.

“Hong Kong or the likes of Australia where they have taken a little more time, and existed with a more open environment while they’ve determined the perimeter of an outbreak, our view is it’s better to assess that with restrictions in place so we can get back to freedom faster.”

Decision on rest of NZ
A decision on moving the rest of the country out of level 2 would be made at the same time as choosing to move levels in Auckland.

The final game of the competition between the Blues and Crusaders scheduled for Sunday at Eden Park has been cancelled.

It was not expected that more than 12 days in alert level 3 would be necessary

Dr Bloomfield said the government’s decision followed closely the information provided by himself and other public health experts.

Ardern said elimination remained the country’s overall covid strategy.

“Together we have got rid of covid before. We have been world leading in our covid response. We can do all of that again. 1.4 million New Zealanders are carrying a heavy load for our team of 5 million right now.

“Here’s what I ask today. If you’re in Auckland, stay at home in your bubble. Wear a face covering if you can.”

Cabinet extends wage subsidy
It was important to remember that level 2 would allow for more economic activity than level 4, Ardern said.

“We will use what tools we have to protect jobs, incomes and businesses as well as people’s health.”

She said the wage subsidy scheme will be extended nationwide until the end of the level three restrictions.

Details will be finalised over the weekend.

“We do have an underspend currently for the second extension. We had an estimate that it would be roughly $2.6 [billion] to $3.9 billion, in terms of the drawdown on that. It’s actually come in closer to two [billion dollars]. There is already an appropriation we can draw on for a wage subsidy extension.”

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the extended wage subsidy decision was made following the fact that a level 3 situation in Auckland would impact the rest of the country.

“Making the wage subsidy (extension) nationwide is a reflection of that.”

Changes to other business support schemes was being considered, including the Covid-19 leave scheme, he said.

Robertson said that was to ensure that people could have certainty about being able to remain at home.

“Our expectation is that access to the scheme will be similar to previously.”

Applications to the current wage subsidy are still open, Robertson said.

Election date decision still to come
Ardern said today the most important focus was alert levels. She has not made a decision yet on the election date.

“I will make sure we have detail on the election. Keep in mind, the Electoral Commission has done planning around offering an election in a level 2 scenario.”

She said a decision would be made over the weekend.

“I’ve got another 48 hours. I’m going to use it, and I’ll come back on the question of the election.”

Face masks decision
Making masks mandatory had not been decided on yet.

Tokoroa was not in a higher alert level due to the clear link between the two cases there and another case, Ardern said.

“The reason we have treated that different to Auckland – Auckland is the source.”

She said the country was still a team of five million, and asked people who knew others in Auckland to reach out and be kind.

Over the weekend, roads and aviation borders out of Auckland would be assessed to see if any changes had to be made, Ardern said.

Dr Bloomfield said it was reassuring how early on in showing symptoms people were getting testing.

That was key in assisting quick containment and contact tracing, he said.

Modelling clusters not easy
Ardern said the latest modelling information she had was clusters were not an easy thing to successfully model.

“It’s when you have wider modelling and multiple clusters that modelling is more effective.”

But past clusters were a good indicator of how they worked.

Dr Bloomfield said the pattern of the spread over the next 7-12 days was critical.

“Partly is about the number and whether there is geographical containment and whether … there could be other spread.”

Ardern said having zero new cases was not necessary for moving back down levels.

She said the actions taken were to ensure the country could move back down alert levels as soon as possible.

The criteria for level 4 lockdown was “multiple outbreaks, multiple scenes of community transmission, just a much larger scale of things than we are seeing here”, Ardern said.

That was nothing that was being seen at the moment.

Cluster found ‘early in its life’
The government is attempting to get things back on track after the 102 days without community transmission came to an abrupt end on Tuesday. In less than 24 hours Auckland was in level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country had moved to level 2.

The prime minister said today there were signs the latest cluster has been found “early in its life”.

The earliest case to date is a worker at Americold who first become sick on July 31.

“It’s the earliest sign of the re-emergence.”

The source was still not clear, Ardern said, but genome sequencing “suggests it is not a case of the virus being dormant or of a burning ember in our community, it appears to be new to New Zealand”.

Today’s briefing comes in the wake of Dr Bloomfield’s announcement earlier today that there are another 12 new cases and one probable case of Covid-19 in Auckland and Waikato.

There are now a total of 48 active cases, with 30 linked to the community outbreak first identified in a family in South Auckland. The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is now 1251.

Two of the 13 new cases are in Tokoroa.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

• All RNZ coverage of Covid-19
• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.

PNG Defence Force soldiers are undergoing mass testing for covid-19 while there is controlled access into Murray Barracks to reduce further possible spread of the coronavirus, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Defence Minister Saki Soloma in response to a confirmed case of covid-19 at Murray Barracks said yesterday the case had been identified as an officer serving with the Australian Defence Force working with the Defence Cooperation Programme team.

“I wish this officer a speedy recovery. He has been in isolation for nearly three weeks and is showing strong signs of improvement.”

READ MORE: Al Jazeeera coronavirus live updates – Judge orders Bolsonaro to wear mask

• Two new cases in NZ – now 10 active

Soloma said the PNGDF had put in place measures to reduce the possible further spread of the virus, the Post-Courier reported.

“Firstly, there is now controlled access to Murray Barracks with only authorised personnel and their families permitted to enter.

“This will be extended to other PNGDF bases in Port Moresby and similar restrictions will be put place at other bases in PNG.

“There has also been a rigorous contact tracing program put in place to ensure we know where the patient may have contracted the virus and who he had been in contact with before going into isolation,” he said.

Mass testing programme
“The PNGDF was also undertaking a mass testing programme, led by the chief of the Defence Force, the Secretary of Defence and their senior staff.

“And adjusting their work patterns for the next two weeks to reduce the potential for further cases to occur.”

Soloma said he was proud of what the servicemen and women had done, and continued to do, in support of the national covid-19 response programme.”

“I again thank the PNGDF and our Australian Defence Force partners for their hard work – Kumul Karim,” Soloma said.

SBS News reports that an Australian Defence Force officer has tested positive to coronavirus while posted in Papua New Guinea.

The officer, who has been in PNG since January, self-isolated on June 5 after reporting cold and flu-like symptoms.

The officer will stay in isolation until cleared by doctors, the Department of Defence said.

“The High Commission has conducted contact tracing and provided this information to the PNG government,” Defence said in a statement.

Another five Australian Defence Force officers were last month flown home after contracting coronavirus in the Middle East.

• Earlier story