The big omicron crunch
New Zealand’s health systems are bending under the weight of an unprecedented number of Covid-19 cases
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, February 21, by Justin Giovannetti. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Police face off with protesters; Queen tests positive for Covid; Islamophobia warnings before Dunedin attack; but first, the stunning spread of omicron.
The omicron outbreak is like nothing before seen in New Zealand. (Getty Images)
The number of new Covid-19 cases is expected but staggering. Fuelled by the highly infectious omicron variant, more cases were reported yesterday alone in New Zealand than the country’s cumulative total over the first 13 months of the pandemic. As The Spinoff’s live updates reports, 2,522 new community cases were reported yesterday. Going back in time, New Zealand's first Covid-19 cases was detected on Feb. 28, 2020. It would take until April 5, 2021 for the country to report its 2,522nd case. The country has now detected over 31,000 cases, nearly half of them over the past three weeks.
Testing capacity is at a ‘crisis’ point due to non-symptomatic demand. The country’s lab system is currently facing two compounding problems, along with near-record demand for tests, the number of tests coming back positive has smashed through the 5% warning threshold set by the World Health Organisation. That means some of the easy ways to boost capacity are unavailable. The problem is acute in Auckland, where most new cases are being detected. As Newshub reports, labs put out public pleas over the weekend for people without symptoms not to seek tests. To ease demand, One News details how the government is scrapping the day three testing requirement for close contacts in Auckland. Instead of PCR tests, many Aucklanders will also be tested on rapid tests from today.
The tourism industry warns it’s in ‘crisis’ as domestic travel disappears. The association that speaks for Aotearoa’s tourism operators put out an unusually blunt warning on Friday: These are the worst trading conditions yet for the country’s tourism industry. Worse than a national lockdown. Rather than a slowdown after Christmas, domestic travel all but stopped and there’s no massive government support scheme this time. Owners in the hospitality industry told RNZ that the government is to blame because it “has over-cooked the fear and the health rules”. They’ve called for an end to self-isolation for cases and international travellers.
Facing omicron, New Zealand’s political debate is pulling apart. So is health advice. Act’s David Seymour said yesterday that the government should end vaccine mandates, using the term “segregation” for the first time to describe Covid-19 rules. He then repeated it twice. To back his position, Seymour claimed vaccination rates have no impact on infection rates under omicron. Experts told the NZ Herald that the Act leader’s amateur analysis of health data was “naïve, irresponsible and even misinformation”. A more surprising intervention came from the medical director of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, who spoke on RNZ and described omicron as “much more like a common cold” and said it should be treated as such. He concluded the prime minister should tell people that “Covid is OK” and get over it. A professor who got out of hospital and is still struggling with Covid doesn’t think it’s OK at all, as The Southland Times reports.
The Spinoff’s Covid data tracker has the latest figures.
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Parliament plans to erect fence as protest continues to grow. The Sunday Star-Times broke the news that a plan is being considered to build a permanent fence around the parliamentary complex to stop demonstrations in the future. Public access would be significantly curtailed, ending free access to the grounds. One News has reported on a number of Wellingtonians who have been attacked and say they don’t feel safe with the ongoing occupation.
Before dawn today a large number of police officers began moving protesters off Lambton Quay, The Dominion Post reports. Police have been told to arrest anyone abusing or intimidating members of the public. It’s a significant shift from last week where police all but disappeared from the area around parliament.
How the Wellington protest might end. One of the largest law enforcement operations in Canadian history is near its end as police finish arresting stragglers at the protest that gave rise to Wellington’s occupation. Ottawa saw thousands of police, with mounted officers and others in riot gear clearing encampments over the weekend. The main leaders have been arrested and face criminal charges, as do any parents who brought children to the protest. Anti-terror laws were used the seize the bank accounts of those who participated and police have promised to hunt down any protesters who left in the final days. They face over a year in jail and fines over $100,000. My former colleague in Ottawa Marieke Walsh told Q+A about the situation. The programme also spoke with New Zealand police commissioner Andrew Coster about why he won’t do the same thing here. For now.
The Queen tests positive for Covid. The BBC reports the Queen is experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms” but is expected to keep up light work over the coming week. The 95-year-old monarch was in contact with the Prince of Wales, who tested positive last week.
Government emergency housing bill hits record $365 million last year. The more than 10,000 New Zealanders needing emergency housing cost the government $1 million daily, One News reveals. With record-low unemployment, it’s partly a reflection of how bad the country’s rental affordability situation has become. A director at one of the hotels where many are staying described the emergency stays as people who treat the units as their homes, take their kids to school and go to work. The government blamed Covid-19.
Warnings of Islamophobia at Otago Girls’ High School before attack. Members of Dunedin’s Muslim community told RNZ that the school didn’t act on warning signs of festering racism in its halls before Hoda Al-Jamaa was beaten by three students in an Islamophobic attack. Teachers and the principal didn’t deal with earlier verbal abuse directed at Muslim students, they said. The ODT reports on an international call for the school to respond to the attack. The school’s principal said she’s trying to “understand every side of every story” and the board said it completed its disciplinary process, but won’t reveal any details about anything done.
Documents reveal the reason for the state of disrepair at Te Urewera. The former national park around Lake Waikaremoana and its Great Walk reopened after months of closure. Stuff investigates how local iwi and DOC, who co-govern the site, couldn’t agree on how to maintain trails, bridges and huts. Documents show that iwi complained DOC was too focused on fixing infrastructure while they wrote that they wanted to focus on “the re-connection of Tūhoe with Te Urewera. So you can see our problem.” DOC didn’t. It offered to pay the entire cost of fixing infrastructure alone, but its partners wouldn’t approve any maintenance plan.
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Right now on The Spinoff: Toby Manhire has details on a poll concluding a quarter of the country thinks Covid rules are too weak, while a quarter think they are too harsh. Felix Walton examines the causes and what can be done for rising food prices. Justin Latif reports from South Auckland where a church is stepping up to help families struggling to self-isolate. Calum Henderson looks at the coming schedule of TV shows. Claire Mabey reviews The Frog Prince, the debut adult novel by Canterbury poet and children’s fiction writer, James Norcliffe.
New Zealand’s most successful winter games ends. With two golds and a silver, New Zealand’s 15 athletes in Beijing brought home a record haul of hardware. Stuff reports that the team could encourage a new generation of athletes to aim for the podium in 2026. Beyond that, these games will long be remembered as the shame Olympics. The AP has written about the rotten spectacle of doping, sleazy deals and the fact that it was all done in a country waging an active genocide on its Uyghur minority. Even people close to the Olympic movement now admit it only has a few years left to clean things up before it might be lost for another millennia. Onwards to Milano Cortina in 2026.
So "The AP has written about the rotten spectacle of doping, sleazy deals and the fact that it was all done in a country waging an active genocide on its Uyghur minority.' is your sleazy repetition of the anti-China lies in blatant propaganda about the so-called Uyghur "genocide". In this you have joined Peter Bale's obvious US-UK biased reporting on China that undermines any confidence or hope that The Bulletin can present decent and impartial journalism.