Two new unlinked Covid cases in Waikato, five more days of level 3 for parts of the region
Wednesday, 13 October 2021
Two more Waikato people have caught Covid-19 but it’s not clear how, so parts of the region will stay in level 3.
The two new community cases in Waikato are members of the same Hamilton household, but are not linked to any existing cases, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
“They are being transferred today to a local quarantine facility. At this stage, the cases are unlinked, but interviews will be carried out today to help determine any links to known cases,” a statement said.
“Two workplace exposure events have been identified but Hamilton residents are encouraged to please keep checking the ministry’s website for any locations of interest.”
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The level 3 lockdown in place for parts of the region will now continue for another five days, until 11.59pm on Monday, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at the 1pm briefing on Wednesday.
“The Waikato’s done a phenomenal job over the last few weeks of getting tested and getting vaccinated, the region’s achieved a record increase in the number of people vaccinated within one week, recording a five per cent jump in first doses,” he said.
“So thanks to everybody who went out and got vaccinated to keep themselves and their whānau and their community safe.”
Hipkins said in a statement that based on the latest public health information, ministers decided maintaining the status quo in parts of the Waikato is the safest course of action.
This will be reviewed by Cabinet on Monday, October 18.
A potential alert level drop on Thursday night had previously been foreshadowed by the Government, provided health officials could satisfy themselves there hadn’t been undetected transmission.
Information on the new cases – “that are as yet unlinked to the existing cluster” – came on Wednesday morning, Hipkins said.
“Health believes the risk from these cases – a couple – is low and there will be few locations of interest. However we need to assure ourselves that there is not undetected transmission before lowering alert levels. Genome sequencing is under way and will hopefully shed new light on these cases.”
Hipkins said at the 1pm briefing that the Government was not willing to step down alert levels in the Waikato when there are two cases “where, at this point, we don’t know how they were infected, we don’t have yet a full understanding of who else might be involved in the chain of transmission”.
The toing and froing of possible alert levels isn’t doing anything to help ease the apprehension in Waikato’s business sector, Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive Don Good said.
“I think that businesses are highly concerned about the fact that we are yo-yoing in and out of lockdown.
“That sort of toing and froing is costing businesses in terms of obviously dollars and cents, but equally the well-being of not only the owners but also their staff, people are very unsure about their positions.”
Good said no-one can plan on a five-day horizon, he believes businesses would be better off if a longer lockdown was announced and then when things are looking better come out of lockdown earlier.
“People would respond to that far better than they are with the bad news we received this afternoon.”
Good said the rest of the economy in the Waikato is doing reasonably well, especially anything associated with agriculture.
“I think this is going to be the saviour of the Waikato, and certainly we are seeing more and more happening in the tech space which is absolutely wonderful.”
But he admits that we are an economy of two halves at the moment.
“Certainly that which relies on people getting out and about are really, really struggling, it’s really sad to see.
“Those who can operate from home, or are essential are continuing on but obviously not at the level they would like.”
Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate told Stuff she was disappointed by the news, “as I know most Hamiltonians will be”.
“I was hoping that we could go to level 2, so that our businesses could start to get up and running again and have some more business confidence but, at the same time, a little bit realistic, I know that Delta variant of the virus spreads so easily and is so highly contagious that the Government’s taking a very cautious approach.”
Southgate said the two new unlinked cases announced on Wednesday are “very disappointing” after there were no new cases on Monday and only three isolated household contacts on Tuesday.
She said the uncertainty “is the hardest thing of all” and moving in and out of lockdown “plays with the way you feel”.
“There are some people who really genuinely thought our numbers are so low that it looked reasonable for us to drop a level. And I think other people, like me, just realise how dangerous this virus is and maybe we’re not out of the woods yet.”
Southgate hoped the Super Saturday vaccination drive would see “super high levels” of vaccination “because the Government’s made it quite clear that vaccination is the key to greater freedoms”.
Waikato now has 37 community cases, according to the ministry, and one of those cases has now recovered.
Vaccination rates in Waikato remained high on Tuesday with 7434 people getting a dose, the ministry said.
There were 2980 tests processed in Waikato on Tuesday.