Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Toffee in Jandals]

Been my point too.

Same with Aus, though Melbourne is slightly more of a hub there (and no surprise to see that was the most hard-hit place in Aus).

It's 2.5 hours flight from Sydney to Auckland (I know, I've done it).

There's around 1.8m people in the Auckland region - nearly half of NZ's entire population. On the south island (@Toffee in Jandals can back this up) the drive from Christchurch down to the tourist hotspot of Queenstown is around 9 hours IIRC. And you pass through about four tiny towns on that drive.

They have done brilliantly and it's a testament to their PM, who has had to deal with some horrific stuff in her tenure (the Christchurch shootings for example). Think we can all agree that we'd rather have her than Johnson.

However, if you could pick a country that would be able to effectively control a pandemic just based on location, population, the fact that it's in no way a transport or trade hub, then it'd be NZ.

Haha, I don't mean to be too picky mate but it's only six hours drive from Christchurch to Queenstown, and there's a lot more than four tiny towns, guess it depends on your definition of what size a town is though. Anyways population-wise it would be roughly comparable to driving for a couple of hours in rural Scotland.

 

[Toast]

Horrible numbers today.

It’s almost like meeting up at Christmas was an utterly stupid idea isn’t it ?

Never would have seen that coming though.

 

[BlueStevie35]

Figures are seriously grim, highest figure for the 28 day cut off since April 24th, the 60 day figure is a new high as well

Hospital figures - 868 deaths were announced today, up 63 on yesterday and up 369 on last Friday. 717 deaths were in English hospitals, up 56 on yesterday and up 297 on last week. The 7 day rolling average rises to 627.29

All settings - for the 28 day cut off, 1325 deaths were announced today, up 163 on yesterday and up 669 on last Friday. The 7 day rolling average rises to 809.29

For the 60 day cut off, 1457 deaths were announced today, up 178 on yesterday and up 716 on last Friday. The 7 day rolling average rises to 887.14

 

[bullybeef]

It’s almost like meeting up at Christmas was an utterly stupid idea isn’t it ?

Never would have seen that coming though.

Boris played to the populist opinion instead of doing the right thing.

Blood all over his hands.

 

[bullybeef]

Well it should do if Stanley Johnson gets his second dose today.

Disgusting Tory cronyism again.

 

[BlueToff]

Haha, I don't mean to be too picky mate but it's only six hours drive from Christchurch to Queenstown, and there's a lot more than four tiny towns, guess it depends on your definition of what size a town is though. Anyways population-wise it would be roughly comparable to driving for a couple of hours in rural Scotland.

maybe the route we took then – we went through (as in drove through) four-five that I can think of before getting to Queenstown. But we did take the more scenic route IIRC.

But yeah, and if you look at the cases in the Scottish highland areas, it's very low.

Not at all taking away from what NZ have achieved. Wish I was there now!

 

[daza_1973]

I had a welfare call from my youngest lads Junior school today, seems like they have 150 kids in, which is the equivalent to roughly a third of the full school.

Last time they had around 50.

Makes you wonder what the difference between this time and the last with working from home ?

The difference is - as with the company I work for- the dog eat dog to survive gene has kicked in and all of a sudden companies that shut down last march are reluctant to do so and are class
ing themselves as key/essential services- it won't end good this....

 

[Toffee in Jandals]

maybe the route we took then – we went through (as in drove through) four-five that I can think of before getting to Queenstown. But we did take the more scenic route IIRC.

But yeah, and if you look at the cases in the Scottish highland areas, it's very low.

Not at all taking away from what NZ have achieved. Wish I was there now!

Sorry yeah, you can of course make it a scenic nine hour drive, perhaps if you went via the west coast? Which is also a great deal more sparsely-populated, you're right.

Anyways... back on topic. As I've said before New Zealand does of course have a lot of obvious geographic advantages in a pandemic, we're isolated, we have an ability to close borders easily & effectively, a smaller population, and economically we're perhaps not as reliant on a near-neighbour as much as the UK is on Europe, for instance.

However, we also have a few economic disadvantages which we've had suffer for, chiefly a heavy reliance on tourism (which pre-COVID was our #1 earner). Clearly our government though has taken the pandemic more seriously than Johnson's government in the UK. From the outset the direction was clear - Ardern has always said her goal was to keep COVID out of the country. The messaging has been entirely consistent since March last year. Which compares to the slip-shod mixed-messaging coming from those in power in the UK.

I mean, it still amazes me that for me as a foreiger to travel to the United Kingdom tomorrow, all I need to do is complete a Passenger Locator form and I could walk on to the plane. A British national (or any other foreigner, for that matter) can't enter New Zealand. Even New Zealand citizens wanting to fly back to New Zealand from the UK need 1) a negative COVID test, and 2) a voucher confirming accommodation for two weeks in a managed quarantine hotel facility (the quarantine is managed by the Army).

 

[roydo]

Sorry yeah, you can of course make it a scenic nine hour drive, perhaps if you went via the west coast? Which is also a great deal more sparsely-populated, you're right.

Anyways... back on topic. As I've said before New Zealand does of course have a lot of obvious geographic advantages in a pandemic, we're isolated, we have an ability to close borders easily & effectively, a smaller population, and economically we're perhaps not as reliant on a near-neighbour as much as the UK is on Europe, for instance.

However, we also have a few economic disadvantages which we've had suffer for, chiefly a heavy reliance on tourism (which pre-COVID was our #1 earner). Clearly our government though has taken the pandemic more seriously than Johnson's government in the UK. From the outset the direction was clear - Ardern has always said her goal was to keep COVID out of the country. The messaging has been entirely consistent since March last year. Which compares to the slip-shod mixed-messaging coming from those in power in the UK.

I mean, it still amazes me that for me as a foreiger to travel to the United Kingdom tomorrow, all I need to do is complete a Passenger Locator form and I could walk on to the plane. A British national (or any other foreigner, for that matter) can't enter New Zealand. Even New Zealand citizens wanting to fly back to New Zealand from the UK need 1) a negative COVID test, and 2) a voucher confirming accommodation for two weeks in a managed quarantine hotel facility (the quarantine is managed by the Army).

Need a neg test to come to the UK now.

A year too late, but what can you do?

 

[Toffee in Jandals]

Need a neg test to come to the UK now.

A year too late, but what can you do?

Nope, don't even need that. Just a passport and passenger locator form if you were coming to the UK from New Zealand via Singapore, for instance. https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

 

[BlueDraka]

People don't seem to understand what the vaccine does... it doesn't necessarily stop you getting COVID. That's why these vaccines have an efficacy rate of around 70 to 90%. Even at 90%, 1 in 10 will still catch COVID after the vaccine.

However, the key point - and this has been borne out by every study with these vaccines and has been since the very earliest ones with rhesus monkeys in around June - is that the vaccine will stop you getting seriously ill from COVID.

That is why people say we can't eradicate it (because we can't get full immunity from it) but we can live with it, because as long as we are innoculated against it then the lethality of the virus is greatly reduced.

There's no doubt at this point that vaccines will beat COVID as we know it today. It will mutate, and we'll mutate the vaccine to meet what it does. We'll beat it. It's just a matter of time. We just won't destroy it.

Agree with all is. Do you think we will need annual vaccinations as per the flu?

 

[roydo]

Nope, don't even need that. Just a passport and passenger locator form if you were coming to the UK from New Zealand via Singapore, for instance. https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

Changed today. Neg test within last 72 hours.

Thats what the news said anyrate.

 

[BlueDraka]

Need a neg test to come to the UK now.

A year too late, but what can you do?

Think there talking about bringing this in in the next couple of days. They should have done it straightaway but they listened too much to the economic arguments from the airlines and the airport companies

 

[Toffee in Jandals]

Changed today. Neg test within last 72 hours.

Thats what the news said anyrate.

Oh yep, just found it. They haven't even updated their own .gov.uk page yet. Effective from 08 January. As you say, only nine months too late.

UK - Entry Restrictions - Nationwide Upd. 14

Effective Jan. 8, all international arrivals must produce negative COVID-19 test results before departing for England or Scotland, UK.

 

[Tubey]

Agree with all is. Do you think we will need annual vaccinations as per the flu?

Yes. If not annual, then once every 2-3 years at the best case scenario depending on when immunity drops off.

This isn't like a varicella vaccine; there's no chance it provides lifelong or even long term immunity, due to nature of virus but also due to mutations.