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What a clusterf..k!
If this was not replicated all around the world I would not believe the stupidity of the government and health officials who are taking their marching orders from the WHO that seems to have sat on information on this outbreak since the beginning of December when the Chinese informed them.
From what I can glean from comments on social media and from what people have reported to me of conversations the public at large really do get it where the authorities pretend not to.
They may not get abrupt climate change or the threat of thermonuclear war but they get this.
Afterall they have been told to fear a pandemic since time immemorial.
Coronavirus outbreak: Chinese tourists on the same flight as person with deadly illness arrive in NZ
27
January, 2020
There
are now more than 2000 cases and at least 56 deaths from the virus,
which emerged from the Chinese city Wuhan.
Health
Minister David Clark confirmed to The AM Show on Monday some
passengers had travelled to Australia along with an infected person
before coming to New Zealand.
People
arriving in New Zealand from China will now be screened as the spread
of the virus shows no sign of slowing down.
Clark
says the situation is being closely watched, adding those tourists
who arrived in the country have been checked by St John staff for
symptoms.
"The
vast majority were clear," he told The AM Show on Monday. "Those
that had minor snivels have been monitored and are going to continue
to be monitored by St John.
"My
understanding is that they'd voluntarily kept to themselves and also
that they're being monitored by health professionals - we think it's
very unlikely that they have this condition at all."
Clark
said it had been a rapidly-evolving situation.
"We
are still finding out more about the virus as it goes on," he
said.
"We're
moving in step with what the clinical experts tell us.
"All
of the time we have different things arriving in New Zealand and
we're taking the steps that the medical experts tell us are the right
things to do."
As
a fifth case of the virus has appeared across the ditch, Australia
correspondent Jason Morrison told The AM Show it's likely more will
emerge.
'Looking for a needle in a
haystack'
RNZ,
27
January, 2020
This
morning, health professionals were for the first time standing at the
ready at Christchurch and Auckland airports to hand out information
and check any unwell passengers from flights arriving from China.
The
virus, which has killed 56 people so far, is believed to have emerged
late last year from illegally traded wildlife at an animal market in
Wuhan, Hubei. Cases have been confirmed in Japan, Taiwan, Nepal,
Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, the US, and France.
Up
to 1800 people a day arrive in Auckland and Christchurch from China
on six flights from Shanghai and Guangzhou. Both cities have dozens
of confirmed cases.
Most
passengers coming into Auckland on flights from China were wearing
masks and were handed pamphlets by health officers with information
about what do if they were unwell. One woman, Jennifer, told RNZ
passengers were wearing the masks while on the plane.
Auckland
Regional Public Health Service director and incident controller
William Rainger told Nine to Noon that no-one had volunteered to be
checked so far today and authorities had no power to compel them to,
even if someone was suspected of having the disease.
"Technically,
it is not quarantineable but we would be working with suspected
cases, and people who had been exposed to the suspected cases, and
asking them to stay in isolation for a period of time and we would
support them in that," Dr Rainger said.
Border
protection staff had been briefed on the outbreak and ambulance and
hospitals staff were on standby if any passengers were suspected of
being infected, Dr Rainger said.
The
latest information suggested any infected person was likely to infect
two others, a much lower infection rate than measles which was one to
15, he said.
Director
of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said the news that had come in
overnight that the coronavirus could infect people during incubation
had yet to be reviewed.
"That's
not something we have been informed about officially. My team are
looking at what we have received and exactly what the facts are in
terms of what's known about infectivity before symptoms. Yes, it
makes it much more challenging to contain and manage this virus. But
we need to be really clear about what the facts are.
"The
nurses are there along with other public health staff to make sure
people coming of the planes from China are aware of the symptoms of
coronavirus. We expect that anyone off that plane is already well
aware because they have come from China."
There
is now a facility at the airport for people found to have high
temperatures to be directed to.
One
of the challenges was that a high temperatures could be a symptom of
other infections. At present it was influenza season in the Northern
Hemisphere, and people with high temperatures were more likely to
have the flu than coronavirus, McElnay said.
"It's
a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack."
The
only test for coronavirus - a blood test - takes a couple of days for
results to be returned, but New Zealand doesn't have the ability to
do that test yet. Samples must be sent to Australia.
McElnay
said the test would be available here later in the week.
She
said the situation was being reviewed daily and the evolving
situation was what led to the positioning of staff at the airport on
Monday.
Information
in Chinese languages and Chinese language speaking staff were on hand
to help at the airport and via Healthline.
Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern said cabinet would discuss the virus on
Tuesday.
"We
are really rolling out everything we can" - Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern
It
would go through a process to ensure coronavirus was listed in New
Zealand as a notifiable disease.
"That
is not getting in the way of the response, it's just a more formal
part of the process we need to go through."
Dr
Rainger told Nine
to Noon making it a notifiable disease would give
them more powers to isolate and quarantine people who might have been
exposed, as well as monitor their health.
Virologist
Lance Jennings told Nine
to Noon it was important to make the disease
notifiable. Although it did not appear to be as deadly as the
previous SARS and MERS strains, there was still much to learn about
it, he said.
Ardern
said the government made no apologies for the fact that "even
though we do not have a case to date in New Zealand we are really
rolling out everything we can including work at the border... We have
taken the extra steps of putting health officials at the airport even
though we don't have direct flights from (Wuhan)."
The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) hadn't contacted Ardern
about evacuating any New Zealanders from the Wuhan area, she said.
"That's
something I'll talk to MFAT about."
MFAT
said it was responding to four requests for consular assistance but
had no plans for evacuations.
Sixteen
New Zealanders are registered in Hubei Province, where Wuhan is the
main city.
Asked
about the National Party's criticism of the government's response to
coronavirus, she said they were "doing what oppositions do".
Student to self-quarantine
An
international student arriving in Auckland this morning planned to
wear a face mask for the next 10 days.
The
man, who didn't want to be named, arrived on the flight from
Guangzhou.
He
said while no one asked him to, he would try and quarantine himself.
"I'm
pretty afraid, they argue about the people from China which is
wearing the mask so I think I should keep it on.
"I'm
going to stay at home."
If
he did go out in public he will keep the mask on, he said.
The
student said the flight was normal except for everyone wearing masks
on the plane.
"The
only have a temperature test at Guangzhou airport but it's like
before boarding, it's not even before the security."
https://10daily.com.au/news/australia/a200126utnkf/australia-to-evacuate-citizens-from-coronavirus-epicentre-as-riots-break-out-abroad-20200126
There was silence about this over the weekend when I became aware of this, but news is starting to percolate through, drip-by-drip.
There was silence about this over the weekend when I became aware of this, but news is starting to percolate through, drip-by-drip.
An expert advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) has described the coronavirus outbreak as potentially "thermonuclear pandemic level bad".
Dozens
have been killed by the virus 2019-nCoV since it was first detected
in early December, and as of Sunday morning (NZ time) there were 1441
confirmed cases.
But
research into the disease - which at present has no vaccine, and
might not for months - has doctors worried. Some have estimated for
every person that gets infected, they will infect up to four more.
Others
have come to figures of 3.8, 3.3, and 2.6, all above the WHO's
estimate of between 1.4 and 2.5.
It's
also been discovered people can carry the virus without showing
symptoms, doctors calling them "cryptic cases of walking
pneumonia".
Only
5.1 percent of all cases in Wuhan have been identified, researchers
in the UK estimate, with perhaps more than 11,000 infected by January
21.
"HOLY
MOTHER OF GOD," Dr Eric Feigl-Ding wrote on his Twitter account
on hearing the news.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/01/harvard-expert-calls-coronavirus-outbreak-thermonuclear-pandemic-level-bad.html
Are the authorities not capable of doing more to assist their citizens trapped by this in Wuhan?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/408253/new-zealander-stranded-in-wuhan-the-nz-government-is-falling-behind
Are the authorities not capable of doing more to assist their citizens trapped by this in Wuhan?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/408253/new-zealander-stranded-in-wuhan-the-nz-government-is-falling-behind
New Zealander trapped in Wuhan as coronavirus spreads
A New Zealand software technician trapped indefinitely in Wuhan by the coronavirus outbreak believes New Zealand should be doing more to get its people out of the city.
Joanna, who wants only to be know by her first name, went to visit her father for the Chinese new year.
She says hasn't left the house for five days because she's worried about catching the virus and a lot of information circulating is unreliable and pretty scary.
Joanna describes the atmosphere in the city, where large gatherings and travel in and out of the city is banned.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed there are 21 New Zealanders registered as being in Wuhan, with MFAT receiving a small number of requests for consular assistance.
It says it is aware that some countries are providing their citizens with assistance to depart Wuhan and is working with its offices in China and consular partner countries about how to assist New Zealanders in Wuhan.
Surgical masks were first introduced into hospitals in the late 18th Century but did not make the transition into public use until the Spanish flu outbreak in 1919 that went on to kill over 50 million people.
Dr Chris Smith, consultant virologist at Cambridge University, told RNZ people should not buy them and instead save their money.
"Go and spend it on something useful that you enjoy doing, like having a beer. Those face masks are absolute rubbish and they do nothing."
"Those face masks are absolute rubbish and they do nothing" - consultant virologist Dr Chris Smith
However, he did say they had a placebo effect.
Listen to Dr.Smith HERE
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/408255/wuhan-coronavirus-face-masks-do-nothing-virologist
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