Coronavirus Update #20
August 28 - There are 12 new cases today. Five in the community and a whopping seven in managed isolation. Four community cases are part of the Mt. Roskill “mini cluster” though it isn’t that mini anymore. It’s got 12 members and growing. What is scary is that the Mt. Roskill cluster is genomically linked to the Auckland cluster, but there aren’t any known contact links. This is the same case as the man on the North Shore and it really makes me question exactly how contained this wave of cases is. We’re supposed to move to Level 2 at the end of the weekend.
In related news, we got an email from my daughter’s school today that announced some students were considered close contacts of a positive case. The students and their families were getting tested, but there was no guarantee at this point that the school would open as planned on Monday. Most of the parents I’ve talked to are planning on keeping their kids home anyway, so I wonder what type of attendance there will be even if school does open up. What a mess!
August 29 - There are 13 new cases today. Eleven in the community, one of which is not clearly linked to the greater Auckland cluster, though the tracers are clearly going to be following up with this individual. To me, this says that this case was not on their contacts lists from previous positive case contacts and that the cluster is not completely fenced in. To make matters even scarier, the Ministry of Health is posting all over Facebook and Instagram that if you’re in south or west Auckland you should go get a test whether or not you have symptoms. That is frightening!
August 30 - There are only 2 new cases today, a healthcare provider in Tokoroa and another case linked to the Auckland cluster. At the 1 pm daily update, Jacinda very clearly stated that the communication about everyone in south and west Auckland needing to get tested was bad communication and was not the message they were trying to send. There is no need to panic. Auckland is moving to “Level 2.5” at midnight. There is a lot of community outcry about how this is a wasted lockdown because they’re ending it too soon.
I went for a walk down by the beach this morning and I saw that mask usage has increased, but I’d say it is still well under 10% of the people out and about are wearing masks and there was no sign of social distancing at the queues outside of the coffee shops. We also got word that all of the kids and my daughter’s school who were considered contacts of a positive case have tested negative so school will go ahead and open tomorrow.
We’ve been having a lot of discussion at our house about what the right move is regarding school tomorrow. On the “go to school” side of the argument there is:
No immediate signs of widespread covid
The kids are driving us nuts
On the “stay at home” side of the argument there is:
There is still some unaccounted for covid in the community
Its really relaxed not worrying about getting places in the morning
There is less anxiety about getting sick if we don’t go anywhere
August 31 - Alright. We did it. We sent the kids to school. We decided that if there was ever a day when they were safe to go back, it is probably today. In a few days when covid has had a chance to circulate, it may not feel safe anymore, but today was probably better than next Monday.
I was pleasantly surprised to see about 75% of the people out and about wearing masks. What a big change from yesterday! Even at my daughter’s school, almost all of the kids and staff were masked up. My son’s school, however, was a hot mess and they are doing absolutely nothing to encourage social distancing or mask wearing. I nearly had a come apart at drop off when I saw what was going on, and I’ve since sent a scathing email to the administration. He might be staying home tomorrow while my daughter might be going to school.
There are nine new cases today - five in the community and all connected to the Auckland and Mt. Roskill clusters. Jon and I got into a big discussion today about why we feel so uncomfortable with the reporting the government is doing on the new cases and it comes down to this: we want a breakdown of whether or not the new cases were known at-risk and contact-traced people or if they were previously unknown to the tracing teams. There are a number of cases that the media reports as not linked or with unknown links, but then no follow up to explain how covid spread. Sometimes we’ll hear that a previously unconnected case is genomically linked, but that doesn’t explain how the new person got sick, how it could be prevented in the future, or how the contact tracers didn’t know about the new case prior to being tested.
And finally, Chris Hipkins, he Minister of Health, needs a serious public admonishment. At today’s press conference, he said that it was not okay to keep kids at home despite parents’ concerns about the safety of their kids in school. This type of tone-deaf comment boils my blood.
September 1 - There are 14 new cases today. Before you freak out, nine are recent arrivals who tested positive in managed isolation. This reflects just how pervasive coronavirus is everywhere else. There are five new community cases, all linked to the Auckland cluster. I ventured out of the house to run some errands yesterday, and it was interesting to see how many people were wearing masks. It is definitely more than level 3, but not universal and definitely not universally wearing masks properly. I saw a lot of noses and a lot of masks on chins, but it is better than nothing. I also saw a lot more people using the covid tracer app. Apparently more than 2 million people have downloaded it now - that’s about half of all people over 15. One of my stops was to the library, and I gave a socially distanced lesson to an elderly woman on QR codes. She didn’t understand that she needed to hold her phone far enough back so that it could scan the whole square. She finally got it, and I fell like I deserve my “helping the elderly” badge for the day.
September 2 - There are five new cases today, three in the community and all tied to the Mt. Roskill cluster. The number of hospitalizations is down to seven. The government is still apologizing for freaking out the entirety of Auckland over the weekend when the “get tested if you’re in south or west Auckland” message went out. They are also advising people who have left already or are planning on leaving Auckland now that we’re in level 2 to act as if they’re in Auckland no matter where they are - meaning don’t be a part of gatherings of more than 10, wear masks, use the contact tracer app, etc. I think they are delusional if they think people are going to do that. The whole point of getting out of Auckland right now is to feel normal again and not follow the strict guidelines. We can only hope that the Auckland cluster is as contained as they claim it is and hope that there aren’t the seedlings of massive country-wide spread now.
September 3 - There are only two new cases today, one in the community and one in managed isolation. That brings us to 1408 confirmed cases overall and 150 in the current cluster with 78 still active. Seven people are in the hospital with two people in the ICU. Today is the first day I start thinking that maybe - just maybe - this really might be adequately fenced in. I know we really need to wait until next week to see if there are more community cases popping up because there hasn’t been enough time in Level 2.5 to see if coronavirus is starting to spread from previously undetected cases, but I’m hopeful. People have been taking more precautions during Level 2.5 than they were during Level 3, so perhaps the government has done it again. (I’m knocking on wood as I say this as a precaution.)
In other news, I had a conversation with someone in the US yesterday that made me realize exactly how deep in the mind games people are over there. I know people are just trying to survive and justify their reality to be able to get my day to day so I should feel more compassionate, but the absolute insanity in this conversation - the justifications and excuses - was shocking and I didn’t respond very well. It makes me sad that people are so far in it that they can’t see the forest for the trees. And I hope people stay safe.
