New Zealand: Cruising Related COVID-19 News

[GordMay]

Bloomberg's Tracy Withers seems a little uncertain, about N.Z.'s economic future:

New Zealand Economy Surges Out of Recession In V-Shaped Recovery
By Tracy Withers, December 16, 2020
➥ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...spending-spree

Double-Dip Recession Beckons for Covid Outperformer New Zealand
By Tracy Withers, March 17, 2021
➥ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...fourth-quarter

New Zealand Avoids Recession as Economic Growth Surges
By Tracy Withers, June 16, 2021
➥ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...c-growth-jumps

[El Pinguino]

New Zealand is doing remarkably well compared with Australia where Sydney has just gone into a two week lockdown.
Combine leaky hotel quarantine with a Prime Muppet who says the vaccine rollout is 'not a race '- we have fewer than 3% of the population fully vaccinated - and we are about to find ourselves living - once again - in interesting times.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/a...25-p584ds.html

This case will be interesting...

https://www.theage.com.au/national/n...26-p584i2.html

[GordMay]

New Zealand was widely expected to become the first advanced economy to raise interest rates, but the central bank left rates unchanged on Wednesday, after one Covid case led the country to announce a nationwide lockdown [2] a day earlier.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand said, in a statement [1], the decision to hold rates at 0.25% was made "in the context of the Government's imposition of Level 4 COVID restrictions on activity across New Zealand."
Due, in part, to its zero-Covid strategy, the number of Covid cases, in NZ, has so far been kept at about 2,500 cases, including 26 deaths — among the lowest in the world.
The combination of minimal Covid restrictions, and generous stimulus, has led to a booming economy, and rising inflation, leading analysts to expect higher interest rates.

[1] Official Cash Rate on hold at 0.25 percent ➥ https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/news/2021/0...at-025-percent

[2] Nation in 3-day lockdown, Auckland shut for 7 days
Cases rise to seven; all linked

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put the nation under strict lockdown on Tuesday [2], after one new case of the coronavirus was reported in its largest city of Auckland, the country’s first in six months.
All of New Zealand will be in lockdown for three days, from Wednesday, while Auckland and Coromandel, a coastal town that the infected person had also spent time in, will be in lockdown for seven days.
Imposing its toughest level 4 lockdown rules, schools, offices, and all businesses, will be shut down, and only essential services will be operational.

COVID-19 update, 17 August ➥ https://www.health.govt.nz/news-medi...date-17-august

[SeanPatrick]

Boating banned in New Zealand

https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...n-new-zealand/


The Yachting New Zealand offices are now closed and staff are all working from home. All yachting and boating clubs should also be closed and activity on the water is prohibited

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by SeanPatrick

Boating banned in New Zealand

https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...n-new-zealand/


The Yachting New Zealand offices are now closed and staff are all working from home. All yachting and boating clubs should also be closed and activity on the water is prohibited

Both alert levels 4 and 3 ban recreational activities that pose risk to participants and consequently to their rescuers, including recreational boating. The rule for live aboard boats is that they must remain in the same place as when lockdown started, or have up to 48 hours from the start of lockdown to move back to their home base. For cruisers who anchor that means staying out and only moving to another anchorage due to weather.

We had notified NZ Customs of our departure date a couple days before the level 4 lockdown began - the departure date was the day after lockdown started. We were told to show up for clearance as normal, but to wear masks, and we were cleared out and could leave despite lockdown. I suppose NZ Customs is defined as an essential service and could be in their office, and that our movements could fall under the 48 hour relocation rule? In any case, thankful that we were able to leave.

A group of mountain bikers today were warned (New Zealand doesn’t seem to do fines) that their presence in a mountain bike park was against lockdown rules - they were busted due to one suffering injuries in a fall and paramedics being called.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by David Abercrombie

... Hopefully this is only a short-term measure. I know this is not easy but we’ve succeeded before and can do it again. Look after yourselves and each other and we’ll hopefully see you on the water soon ...

Yachting New Zealand advice to clubs during COVID 19 alert level announcements [Aug 18/21]
➥ https://www.yachtingnz.org.nz/sites/...evel%204_0.pdf

[GordMay]

Can ‘zero COVID’ countries continue to keep the virus at bay once they reopen?

Parts of the world, that have stuck to elimination strategies for COVID-19, such as China, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia, are considering how they might live with the virus, in the long term.
Australia announced on 6 August that it will abandon the elimination strategy, once most of its population is vaccinated.
New Zealand is, so far, sticking with its strict approach.
These places are grappling with how vaccination will change the equation; and how to balance the desire for more openness, with an expected rise in severe illness and deaths.

More ➥ https://www.science.org/content/arti...ce-they-reopen

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Can ‘zero COVID’ countries continue to keep the virus at bay once they reopen?

Parts of the world, that have stuck to elimination strategies for COVID-19, such as China, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia, are considering how they might live with the virus, in the long term.
Australia announced on 6 August that it will abandon the elimination strategy, once most of its population is vaccinated.
New Zealand is, so far, sticking with its strict approach.
These places are grappling with how vaccination will change the equation; and how to balance the desire for more openness, with an expected rise in severe illness and deaths.

More ➥ https://www.science.org/content/arti...ce-they-reopen

Both Australia and NZ squandered the time they had to roll out vaccines. Aus is 35% vaccinated and NZ is only 30% according OurWorldInData site. Don't know where the article got 60% for Aus.
If they had organized a fast vaccine rollout, they would be in a very different position.

[GordMay]

New Zealand to abandon zero-Covid strategy amid Delta outbreak

New Zealand will begin to move away from a zero-Covid strategy, instead, focusing on increasing vaccination rates, and learning to live with the virus.

Ardern said her strategy has never been to have zero cases, but to aggressively stamp out the coronavirus. She said strict lockdowns would end once 90 per cent of the eligible population is vaccinated. About two million New Zealanders have so far been fully vaccinated, or about 48% of the eligible population.


➥

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag5ubS_EHWU

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by GordMay

New Zealand to abandon zero-Covid strategy amid Delta outbreak

New Zealand will begin to move away from a zero-Covid strategy, instead, focusing on increasing vaccination rates, and learning to live with the virus.

Ardern said her strategy has never been to have zero cases, but to aggressively stamp out the coronavirus. She said strict lockdowns would end once 90 per cent of the eligible population is vaccinated. About two million New Zealanders have so far been fully vaccinated, or about 48% of the eligible population.


➥

Yeh, right, whatever, etc.

A good start would be de-barking and locking up Brian Tamika.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

... A good start would be de-barking and locking up Brian Tamika.

Do you mean Brian R. Tamaki?

Brian Tamaki charged after anti-lockdown protest at Auckland Domain
➥ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-...QVN2LVJ2W5WZU/

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Do you mean Brian R. Tamaki?

Brian Tamaki charged after anti-lockdown protest at Auckland Domain
➥ https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-...QVN2LVJ2W5WZU/

Yes , him too

But he isn't alone

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/30...e-megachurches

[GordMay]

“Jacinda Ardern’s COVID stumble may cost Maori lives” ~ OPINION by Aaron Smale
New Zealand should not abandon its COVID elimination strategy while Maori vaccination rates remain low.

“... New Zealand’s total death toll from COVID-19 remains under 50 – thanks to strict and timely lockdowns – and the low number has been the envy of the world.
But now that the Delta variant has established a toehold globally, those numbers could escalate rapidly. And there are already signs that the rates of death will be higher among Maori ...
... New Zealand had a period when it was COVID-free, which Ardern and her government can rightly take credit for.
But then there has been a lag in getting the country vaccinated and the rollout has prioritised old, white people.
Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world and the south of the city, where most Maori and Pacific Island people reside, is the location of the international airport. Maori and Pacific Islander residents of South Auckland are also facing housing, health and economic inequalities and are thus more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Nevertheless, the state has prioritised white baby boomers over them in its vaccination efforts ..."

More ➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2...st-maori-lives

[goboatingnow]

New Zealand’s strategy was not universally admired as virtually none else on the planet actually tried to emulate it.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

[1]New Zealand’s strategy was not universally admired as [2]virtually none else on the planet actually tried to emulate it.

[1] Fair enough, but:
[2] China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam [for instance], initially, all had Zero-Covid strategies, similar to those of Australia and New Zealand.

Early on, Zero-COVID was spectacularly effective, at preventing deaths, and allowing a certain level of normality within national borders, in countries that moved rapidly to shut their borders, and where the geographical, political, and economic factors were favourable.

True, no countries in Europe, or the Americas, attempted it.

But the huge jump in virus transmissibility, and the swift development of highly effective vaccines, has forced changes in the response, pivoting instead to vaccination, to protect people from serious illness and death, while easing off on attempts to control the number of infections.

“China, Isolated From the World, Is Now the Last Major Country Still Pursuing a 'Zero COVID' Strategy”
➥ https://time.com/6104303/china-zero-covid/