This virus is so skillful in its infectious nature

They think that it's unlikely that it's come from goods shipped into NZ now, and are going with the theory that's it's from a worker in one of the quarantine hotels that houses all the positive cases that arrive (Kiwis returning home with the virus). We  have 17 confirmed cases in the community today and all of those have been moved into locked quarantine at a facility. There are another 12 or so suspected pending results and a few hundred more who are close contacts of the infected who are self isolating. 

We're all pretty pissed off by this new outbreak. I'm in the South Island and all the cases so far are in the North. Where I live, the general consensus is that we should stop all inter island travel and isolate from the North. I'm in favour of that. We're on level 2 which means social distancing but shops still open. The Auckland area is on level 3 which means no pubs or restaurants, no going to work if you can work from home. We're expecting the levels to change this evening when the PM gives us an update.

What a pain in the arse......

Hope it's contained...

Absolutely close off that border.....

Is it  to late though? 

Time will tell......

They said on the news here that the NZ public health said it has been circulating for weeks already and it maybe too late. At least you managed to keep it away  long enough that a standard treatment protocol has been working here Our deaths in US are significantly down because we know how to treat someone

well,we will find out within the hour,whats going to be done about the current situation here.

my heart is heavy as i write this. im worried for my fellow kiwis,who laughed at preppers. the complacency ive seen here lately has been mind-numbing,

and our country is paying the price of ignorance,and hubris.

i get zero joy from being fully prepped. i know my family will be safe,and fed,but the friends i tried to warn are only now realising the gravity of the problem.

anyways,i'll sit here on my laptop,refreshing the news sites every few minutes,until our government decides the best course ahead for our country.

theres not much else to say really,

nzdad over and out for now :)

stay safe preppers.

Well the lockdown levels are staying the same. What's interesting is that the strain that is now here is not a strain that was here before we eliminated Covid, so it's new in. They think patient zero had it around 1st August. We have 30 cases within the community. There will doubtless be more emerging over the next 2 weeks but hopefully we'll contain it. Mapping the genome of the strain and comparing it against all the active cases that have been stopped at the border will enable the government to trace it back to the facility from it it leaked and should show the chain of transmission. I wonder if a worker at a quarantine facility is an asymptomatic case and is spreading it. We'll see.

Some time ago there was talk of NZ limiting the number of its citizens who could return at any one time, the number being determined by quarantine places.  Does that restriction still hold?

it seems that the so called 'border-control'  has been a huge joke. not even border control front  line staff were tested until this latest cluster created the need for those in the front lines to be tested.

due to media and public pressure,all border staff and personnel have been tested within the last 72 hours or so.

too little,too late. an absolute joke in my [uninformed] opinion.

i have been using the time between the first lockdown,and this second one,to make sure our family preps are topped up,as i considered a second lockdown was going to happen before christmas.

as a tradesman, [who is able to work without contacts] i have been astounded by the amount of people who ,if home when i visit,will extend a bare hand for me to shake,and i always feel like a bit of a tool when i pull my gloved hand aside,and decline,but thats the kind of idiocy were seeing here.

i have been very critical [within my own circles :ie,my family] of the fact that our government has made arrangements for filmmakers and sailors into our country [often,directly from covid hot-spots] so they can do essential things.....like.......make epic space dramas about blue aliens,...or race sail boats around our harbours.

its pathetic to see support for these kinds of activitys during a global health crisis,and its been doing my head in recently to observe the collective insanity,so i was relieved tonight,to read the following article which i will post a link to here.......

thankyou to the person who wrote this,as i feel the same way.

article link as follows..........

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122432332/time-to-get-real-about-who-were-letting-into-nz - https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122432332/time-to-get-real-about-who-were-letting-into-nz

So this re-infection is not a mystery at all.  *sigh*

Good move to top off preps, NZDad.  Have the authorities figured out what strain this is?  All I've seen thus far is it is a strain not found in NZ before.  

hi witchmisspelled :)

i read online tonight that the genome testing indicated its the wuhan strain directly. i recall there may be another strain in there as well,but cant remember it right as i write this.

border control over here is a joke,and the jokes on us it would seem. we are still getting planes full of people each and every day,so yes,i

thought it would only be a short while until we went into lockdown once more. i figured it was likely before the end of the year.

little did anyone know it was to be done this week :(

there seems to be a fair bit of resistance to lockdown requirements this time around,and deniers/conspiracy theorists are having

an absolute field-day both online,and in the media. im troubled by the pushback,i dont think it will work out well for us.

our hospitals are already at max capacity even before the pandemic,so i fear that our system will/would become overwhelmed rather quickly.

not that i have any fears personally,or for my immediate family.

my plans with regards to prepping have always been for long term disruptions,economic collapse,and a complete collapse of the water supply,power grid,and just in time food distribution system.........so im in a good place relatively speaking right now considering whats going on around us here.

Thanks, nzdad.  You have every right to be concerned.  Look how well "push back" has worked in the U.S.  

Glad to say 120 days still no community transmission,

Few cases in returned West AUSSIES,

Mind if you want to come  back it's going to cost around $15k (from overseas) for flight if you can get one,  and the 2 weeks under guard in hotel at your expense Around  $3.5k that's all people inbound from wherever.....

Peeps here are 100% our Governor/Premier

Our Hard borders are here to stay for a  good while yet....

Phew....

Take care across the ditch my Kiwi mates....

Trying times....ahead.....

Take care all 😷😉

NZdad, you and I must be living in different countries. lol. Well we're certainly in different islands. I don't see our situation in the same negative way that you do. Also I have a number of close friends who are doctors and our hospitals aren't at full capacity and our medical system isn't straining at the seams. At least not here in the South Island. 

I also think the government is handling coronavirus better than any other government anywhere in the world. It's a bugger of a disease and highly infectious and short of shutting our borders completely - and by that I mean no returning Kiwis for any reason, no shipping, no air freight - then there will always be cases of it coming here. I do think that any idiot who flouts the quarantine restrictions and breaks out of their facility should be put on the next plane and sent back to where ever they came from. 

As for the workers required in the food industry, well perhaps some of the Kiwis who have lost their jobs since this began could go and fill those positions. I'm talking about the manual work here, not the specialists. But I have to say that the government is letting in agricultural specialists. They recently allowed exemption to a mushroom expert who was coming to advise on the setting up of a new fungi facility.

As with anything, there is always room for improvement, and it's easy to criticise, but all in all, Jacinda and her party are doing a good job, in my opinion.

Strong positive action....

Order of the day...

Better than running around like headless chucks.....

Well done Jacinta and team

It is hard to judge success unless you have a yardstick to compare to.

Well, the yardstick for this bug is other countries.  Ardern is not just out in front.  The rest of the field have been lapped, embarassed, disqualified and dragged off to the knacker's yard.  She is in a league of her own.

Take the UK (please!)  We have tens of thousands dead.  We had to build new hospitals - and then they remained mostly unused (not because we did not need them, but because we could not staff them).  The economy fell off a cliff, not 'the worst in living memory', just the worst ever; no contest!  The chart drops so abruptly it looks like it ran, full tilt, into a wall.  Our 'glorious leaders' break their own rules repeatedly: "Don't do as I do, do as I say." The less said about that hypocrasy the better.

Yet we are not the worst, not even in the 'civilized' Western World.  The USA, Brazil, India, Russia etc.  - 10 countries actually 'outperform' us for horror. Almost all countries, the World over, have more deaths and knock-on problems than New Zealand.  On top of that some are so embarrased by their failure they just hide it and lie about the figures; Iran, China, N Korea for instance.  Brazil outperforms us whilst lying as well.  I hate to contemplate how bad it really is there.

If you think NZ is a mess, you are probably right.  But compared to the rest of the world, you are a shining example of all the right choices, a perfect example of how to mitigate the pandemic's efects and a lesson in how to lead.

You really don't know how lucky you are.  I pray you never find out.

whoa,whoa,whoa. slow down,hold it right there.

nowhere did i criticise jacinda  adern,or her labour government.

im not saying she hasnt done a stellar job,i think she has,thats a certainty,so cool down folks.

Oh Dear, NZDad!  At 76 years old it was hard for Willowby Brat to struggle up off of his knees while he was worshiping the Goddess Jacinda Ardern, so I could force my wife, Maggie, to type this for me.

If it had not of been for an idiot in our Tory government , whom I say without prejudice, in my opinion committed treason by joining the EU without a vote by the British people on wether or not they wanted to (the vast majority didn't) I would have been able to return to God's own country, where you now reside, instead of being maroned in this uncivilized, barbaric, crap-hole.

So young man, please remember how lucky you are.  I would give anything to be home in Willowby.