Posts
If this doesn't make your blood boil there is something wrong with you.
I would have expected an item like this to come from March, not late May.
The official propaganda lets us believe that there are no international flights coming into the country and that people are being widely tested.
As we come out of weeks of lockdown where New Zealanders we get this!!
Coronavirus: Why aren't all new arrivals to New Zealand tested for Covid-19?
18 May, 2020
A Kiwi who travelled through a country she described as a coronavirus "hot-bed" to get home has questioned why all new arrivals aren't being tested for the illness.
Aucklander Alison Perkins is on day 14 of her managed isolation in a hotel in the CBD, having returned home from Mexico where she was living for almost six months.
To get home she had travelled from Cancun through Dallas and Los Angeles, in the United States, — where more than 1.4 million people have contracted the virus – including an overnight stay and 13-hour wait in an airport.
While Perkins is symptom-free and "feels great", she said she "found it weird they're not just testing everyone" returning to New Zealand as a general rule.
"Though I tried to take lots of precautions. such as wearing a mask and practising good hand hygiene, there were lots of opportunities [on the trip home] to become infected", she said.
Given people can be asymptomatic carriers, she questioned why not all Kiwis coming home were screened for Covid-19.
Perkins said there were 150 arrivals to the hotel on Saturday and nearly 60 more on Sunday, sparking concerns that "statistically in the mix, someone could have it".
While all guests at the hotel had been practising social distancing, they were all using the same lifts and were going on daily walks together, just as she was preparing to leave, she said.
"Because we don't test, we don't know," she said.
And now for the official propaganda
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said "there is no doubt that at present people who are returning to New Zealand are the most likely to bring Covid-19 with them — given the significant outbreaks that are occurring in most parts of the world."
As such, every traveller entering New Zealand was screened for Covid-19 on arrival, they said.
If a person was symptomatic on arrival, they would be tested and placed in a quarantine facility for 14 days.
Those without symptoms — like Perkins — would be placed in an approved managed isolation facility for 14 days.
New arrivals were contacted daily to find out if they have any symptoms. Those with symptoms were tested, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said while there was capacity in the laboratory system to test all those going into isolation, "it is better to test at the right time in the illness — which is when they have symptoms".
While asymptomatic people are known to still be able to carry and spread Covid-19, the test used to diagnose the illness is "most useful" in those who are symptomatic, because it depends on being able to pick up virus particles, the spokesperson said.
Even if a traveller was tested and had a negative result, they would still need to stay in managed isolation, the spokesperson said.
"Unless a person has been in New Zealand for two weeks, we need to consider and treat them as though they are Covid-19 positive," they said.
More than 2000 Kiwis are currently in managed isolation or quarantine. Since facilities were first established, 25 coronavirus cases have been caught.
In putting together I found this from March
Jacinda: "We will continue to be your sole source of information"
In putting together I found this from March
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has dismissed speculation on social media that the Government is poised to announce a nationwide lockdown to combat coronavirus.
"We will share with you the most up-to-date information daily. You can trust us as a source of that information," she told reporters in Rotorua.
"Do feel free to visit covid19.govt.nz - otherwise dismiss anything else. We will continue to be your single source of truth.
"Everything else you see, a grain of salt."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.