Tag Archives: New Zealand

Last night/this morning.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reponds to a Wellington court decision on Friday to overturn police and defence vaccine mandates

Govt faces legal ultimatum: End mandates and vaccine passes, now (Newsroom,co.nz)

Meanwhile…

Ah.

This morning.

Via Reuters:

Greek authorities said they would impose a €100 fine on every individual over the age of 60 who was not vaccinated.

The measure would apply each month from 16 January onwards.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he struggled with the decision, but it was necessary to protect more than half a million elderly Greeks who had failed to get the jab.

Its the price to pay for health,” he said.

Earlier: Stabilise Your Socialising


New Zealand.

Via 1News:

The Ministry of Health has added an additional death to the national Covid-19 figures on Thursday.

1News understands this person is Robert James Hart, a father of two who was shot dead in a driveway in the Auckland suburb of New Lynn.

Since his death on November 5, the 40-year-old tested positive for the virus.

Police have since confirmed these details.

New Lynn shooting victim was positive for Covid-19 (iNews)

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Last night/this morning.

New Zealand has  abandoned its long-standing strategy of eliminating coronavirus amid a persistent Delta outbreak, and will instead look to live with the virus and control its spread as its vaccination rate rises.

The Pacific nation was among just a handful of countries to bring COVID-19 cases down to zero last year and largely stayed virus-free until an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant in mid-August frustrated efforts to stamp out transmission.

“With this outbreak and Delta the return to zero is incredibly difficult,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference in a major policy shift.

“This is a change in approach we were always going to make over time. Our Delta outbreak has accelerated this transition. Vaccines will support it,” she said.

New Zealand drops COVID-19 elimination strategy under pressure from Delta (Reuters)

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Meanwhile, in Australia…

The second domino.

FIGHT!

Friday: Gladys All Over

This afternoon.

New Zealand

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (above) has extended the country’s harsh Covid lockdown until at least Friday.

Via Mail Online:

While New Zealand has been one of the most successful countries in battling the Coronavirus, their vaccination rates remain low with only about 20% of people fully vaccinated.

The strict lockdown means most people must remain at home, leaving only to buy groceries or medicine, or to exercise.

The lockdown extension has been harshly condemned by opposition leader Judith Collins: ‘At a time when New Zealanders have the harshest lockdown in the world and have lost our freedoms because of the government’s failure to vaccinate and secure the border, this move by Jacinda Ardern is unfathomable.’

Meanwhile…

Splutter!

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Meanwhile…

Over the weekend.

Big boned, vax happy CNN Irish reporter Donie O’Sullivan laughs at Iowans for their voting habits and unhealthy life choices.  Seat belt/vaccine argument @2.22.

FIGHT!

This afternoon.

New Zealand.

Tsunami Warning Issued After Strong Earthquake Causes Severe Shaking in New Zealand (The Weather Channel)

Oh.

This afternoon.

Jacinda Ardern declares 2021 ‘the year of the vaccine; (Stuff.co.nz)

Meanwhile…

…in Ireland…

…Since last August, the Solidarity-People Before Profit and Rise group have been enthusiastically pursuing this approach [Zero Covid Strategy].

Hot on the heels of the committee presentation in August, Richard Boyd Barrett was the first to raise it in the Dáil, saying the strategy was needed to replace the “rollercoaster strategy going up and down with nobody quite knowing where it ends”.

The Social Democrats have, for some time, been advocating for much stronger restrictions on travel into the country, and have called for a Zero Covid or elimination strategy, which it says is supported by the public.

The Labour Party has avoided the term Zero Covid, and is instead advocating what its party leader Alan Kelly calls a “national aggressive suppression strategy” (he has even come up with the acronym NASS), which essentially amounts to the same thing: mandatory hotel quarantining for all those arriving into the country, rapid antigen testing in the community and serial PCR testing at health care facilities.

Sinn Féin now says it agrees with most of the premise of the Zero Covid approach, but does not believe it is possible without the political will to pursue the same strategy in Northern Ireland.

There is some support among Government TDs and senators for this approach. Fianna Fáil TD Christopher O’Sullivan said he was “disappointed” that the Cabinet stopped short of the kind of mandatory quarantine measures in place in New Zealand and Australia…

Um.

Hints of Government inching towards Zero Covid approach (RTÉ)

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Meanwhile…

Crowne Plaza Hotel in Christchurch, New Zealand is now an isolation facility with fencing separating the building from the public.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand

Jordan Schachtel writes:

Military has been deployed to make sure people don’t leave their quarantine camps, which are mandatory for COVID-19 positive individuals and their families.

From what I understand, police are prohibiting the press from taking photos and videos of the current situation in the facility, citing privacy concerns. Still, it would be nice to know what the heck is going on there.

Found a couple testimonials from the mandatory quarantine facilities. Military checks in “constantly on our well being but also our adherence to the rules.”

The first person in the conversation had a sore throat and was sent to the quarantine camp as a precaution.

Of course, the families are left out of the decision making process, but don’t worry, the state knows what’s best for them!

A lot of the rebuttals from the Kiwis point out the fact that they are being quarantined at nice hotels, as if that justified the incarceration of citizens without any due process.

What starts as a nice, contained arrangement ends up a very different situation when the virus inevitably surges through the population. What happens when they start running out of rooms? White collar prison-style incarceration quickly goes south.

What happens when you run out of nice hotels to put COVID infected people in them? The not-so-nice makeshift “hotels” prop up in your local neighborhood which require a different policing structure to ensure compliance.

Unfortunately, this represents the mainstream viewpoint here. They have bought into the pseudoscientific delusion that they can fully eliminate the virus. So of course, forced incarceration is on the table. It will not end well when the bubble bursts….

Time to look at our quarantine hotel contingency plan (newsroom.co.nz)

Pic: Stuff.co.nz

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

This afternoon.

Via Mail Online:

For three months, New Zealanders enjoyed the return of usual freedoms after an autumn lockdown proved effective in eliminating the deadly virus.

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern scheduled an unexpected press conference for 9.15pm on Tuesday night and announced those freedoms would be put on hold.

Stay-at-home orders will be implemented throughout Auckland for 72 hours from midday on Wednesday after the four new cases were identified in the city.

More than 1.6million people won’t be allowed to leave their homes except for essential reasons.

The rest of the nation will enter a level two lockdown – mandating social distancing and placing caps on gathering sizes.

More sheep than people, they say.

FIGHT!

Jacinda Ardern plunges New Zealand BACK into lockdown amid COVID-19 outbreak with 1.6million Kiwis told they can’t leave home after nation recorded just FOUR new cases

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Mark Geary writes:

New Zealand has a published threat system. They went to Level 3 today and will go to Level 4 on Wednesday.

Australia’s PM said Stage 2 hadn’t been discussed yet, when he was asked what Australia’s Stage 2 was.

Does Ireland have a system like NZ or a dud one like Australia?

Anyone?

Coronavirus: New Zealand has a threat system, here’s how it works and how it will affect you (Stuff)