Hansard Transcript
30 August 2021
POST-CABINET PRESS CONFERENCE: MONDAY, 30 AUGUST 2021
HANSARD TRANSCRIPT
PM:
Kia ora koutou and good afternoon, everyone. Cabinet met this afternoon to
discuss our alert level settings, but before I move on to those decisions, I thought it would be
helpful for Dr Bloomfield to give a quick update on today’s cases and a bit more detail and
reflection on yesterday’s, in case anyone missed the press statement earlier today. Thanks,
Dr Bloomfield.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Thank you, Prime Minister. Kia ora koutou katoa. So, as you
will know, there are 53 new cases of COVID-19 in the community today; they are all in
Auckland. While that is 30 fewer cases than yesterday and the lowest number of cases in
five days, it is just one data point. However, it is an encouraging sign, and there are others.
Of note: 52 percent of new cases reported yesterday—that is, the 83 cases from yesterday—
are household contacts of an existing case, indicating and confirming the high rates of
household transmission, as we expect with the Delta variant. And of yesterday’s 83 cases,
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72 percent did not create any new exposure events, implying that they have been isolating
since lockdown started and thus reducing the potential for new chains of transmission. So, of
those cases reported yesterday, on the converse only 28 percent are considered to have
been infectious in the community, which may simply have been a visit to a supermarket, as
is allowed under alert level 4, or a healthcare provider, or they may be an essential worker.
We actually have a total of 101 essential workers now amongst our cases. However, many
of those are from early on in the outbreak, and we have just four essential workers who have
been infectious in their workplace and seven essential workers who have been infected in
the workplace.
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Furthermore, based on the modelling, the R value of the virus, the R effective value, in this
outbreak now looks like it is under 1. We need to keep that coming down, but it’s good when
it is under 1 as this means cases wil continue to decline. The lower that R value gets, the
more rapidly the case numbers wil decline. So these are all encouraging signs that our
lockdown is working as intended, breaking chains of transmission and gradually drawing a
net around the outbreak.
Also visible to us are the harms that we can see from COVID-19 in this outbreak. We have
37 people in hospital, including five in intensive care, and three of those are ventilated.
Yesterday, there were 16,370 tests processed, and our seven-day rolling average is 34,620.
This high rate of testing is giving us increasing confidence that we are finding any cases of
COVID-19 out there. We need to keep doing so, so if you have been at a location of interest
or you have any symptoms of any respiratory symptoms or symptoms that could be COVID-
19, wherever you are in the country, please do get a test. Thank you, Prime Minister.
PM:
Thank you, Dr Bloomfield. Looking at our overall cases today, I know we all feel
encouraged that our number is lower than what we’ve seen in the last few days, and I know
that we’re all willing for that trend to remain. But while it would be too premature to say we
have a trend yet, what we can say is level 4 is making a dif erence. We are seeing a decrease
in cases outside of households, a decreasing number of locations of interest, and the
reproduction rate reducing. Now, all of that helps, but the job is not yet done and we do need
to keep going.
On Friday, Cabinet agreed to move all regions south of the Auckland boundary to alert level
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3 at 11.59 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, 31 August. That was on the condition that all the evidence
that might emerge in the following days continued to be positive. There is nothing to suggest
we need to change that plan, so Cabinet today has confirmed that alert level change wil take
place. Like last time, business owners and operators are now able to access their premises
in order to prepare for contactless opening, including to meet the public health requirements.
Just to confirm why we’re comfortable with that alert level shift from Tuesday midnight, wider
waste-water testing in Christchurch has not shown up any further positive results, meaning
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30 August 2021
the positive results last week, we believe, can be most likely attributed to cases in managed
isolation facilities in the city, and additional testing across the country has only thrown up one
additional positive case in Wellington, a household contact of an existing case who was
already in isolation and not in the community. Level 3 for the country south of Auckland wil
remain in place for a week, and we’l review these settings at Cabinet on 6 September. Our
hope wil , of course, be that we can keep lowering restrictions when it is safe to do so. So
just to repeat: for the rest of the country south of the Auckland border, it wil be level 3 for a
week, with a review at Cabinet next week.
This afternoon Cabinet also assessed how long Northland wil need to remain in level 4. Our
decision here has been a cautious one, and that’s because, unfortunately, the cases and
worksites in and around Warkworth emerged late in the lockdown. Now, that was not the
case for Wellington, for instance, where we’ve had well over a week to monitor contacts and
cases and ensure we didn’t have spread. We just haven’t had that level of time for the cases
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we’re concerned about in Warkworth, and with possible contacts beyond.
Once we have that same level of reassurance for Northland, we feel confident to move alert
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levels. Now, additional waste-water testing at over 20 sites in Northland are due on Thursday.
In addition, further testing from contacts across Northland—and we had a number of contacts
across Auckland who have been at locations of interest, and some that relate to some more
recent worksites. Some of those further tests wil be available in that time frame as well. If
these are all clear, the director-general and Cabinet has agreed to lower Northland to alert
level 3 at 11.59 p.m. this Thursday. So again, just an indication of our intention here if all of
those tests come back clear.
I know many in the north wil be interested in what this means for transport corridors at that
point. A reminder that at level 3 there is stil no inter-regional travel. The only movements into
a, for instance, level 4 environment such as Auckland would be for essential
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already occurring now and, for that to occur, you wil need a travel exemption. If it’s for a
wider issue, you wil need an exemption in order to pass through that border. So very little
movement is expected in a level 3 environment.
That then brings me to Auckland. We indicated on Friday what we believed was the most
likely scenario for Auckland. Based on the size of the current outbreak, based on the number
of daily cases we’re seeing, and based on the need t
OFFICIAL o see a sustained reduction in cases
before moving alert levels, Auckland wil remain at alert level 4 for another two weeks. Cabinet
wil meet again on Monday, 13 September to look at our next steps for Auckland.
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Now, to move Auckland down a level, which is our absolute goal, we need to be confident we
don’t have Delta circulating undetected in the community, and we need to be confident that
any cases we may have are contained and isolated. As we saw from this outbreak, it only
took a week for one case to spread across the city, and that’s why we’re working so hard to
get this right. And I know everyone in Auckland knows we are just not there yet. We are
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making progress, though, and that is one message I want to leave today. The sacrifice
everyone is making is incredibly important, and it is making a difference.
Yesterday I received this graph [
Holds up graph]. The red line shows what would have
happened if we hadn’t moved hard and fast into level 4. Now, it’s a little dif icult for you to
see, perhaps, the numbers on the side, but it tells us that daily case numbers are literally off
the charts, and that without level 4 some modellers estimate that the number of new cases
today could have been around 550. The lines underneath tell us the different paths we could
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stil follow. At the moment, we’re tracking roughly in about the middle of those options, and
where we finally wil land and when we’l land there is not yet clear. But that doesn’t mean we
are powerless. The more we do to limit our contact, the faster we exit these restrictions, and,
more importantly still, the more lives we save.
You wil have heard today Dr Bloomfield mention the number of people in hospital. It is a
number that each day is reported to me—reminds me of how serious this il ness is. In the
same way I’m reminded when I read the figures out of the United States, where the daily
average hospitalisations for COVID-19 are more than 100,000 people, similar to where they
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were in their last winter peak. We may not see it in our headlines as often but, the world over,
countries and their people continue to battle this vicious virus. And now we have hundreds of
people battling this virus in our country, as we speak. Our job is to limit how many people
have to face that as much as we can.
My final message is really for all those outside of Auckland. Please remember that level 3
does not mean freedom: it means caution, it means staying in your bubble, it means distance,
it means contactless transactions, and I wil spend a bit more time going over that tomorrow.
But while you’re here, and while you’re preparing to move into level 3, Auckland is doing a
huge service for all of us, and not just now but throughout this pandemic. It’s Auckland that
has maintained our gateway to the world, that has done a lot of the heavy lifting in welcoming
Kiwis home safely, that has worked hard to keep the rest of New Zealand safe when there
has been an outbreak. Auckland has done it tough, and they’ve done it tough for all of us. I
know we’re all grateful and that we are, as a team of 5 mil ion, wil ing for their hard work to
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pay off.
Before I conclude today, a quick word on vaccines, and then I wil conclude. Another big day
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yesterday, especially for a Sunday. That has, of course, raised questions on how our supply
is looking. We currently have roughly 840,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the country, and
wil continue receiving weekly deliveries from Pfizer. You’l recall that in recent times we’ve
been receiving more than 300,000 in each of these deliveries. Our planning has been for the
programme to administer 350,000 doses per week. We have the supply and infrastructure to
do this sustainably, over a long period of time. There has been a surge in demand. Our
vaccination programme has risen to the challenge, and we’re doing much bigger numbers.
Last week we administered well over 500,000 doses. We are working on a strategy to meet
that demand, with more vaccine in the country. If we are unable to do this, then the worst-
case scenario is that we pull back to our planned volumes, which, as I said, would stil mean
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350,000 doses being delivered a week. Contrary to the reporting, we are not running out of
vaccine, but we are seeking to meet the high demands that we have right now, because, of
course, we want as many people vaccinated as possible. I’l happily give you an update on
our work to meet that demand in the next couple of days. Happy to take questions.
Media: Prime Minister, have we peaked?
PM:
In terms of the—
OFFICIAL
Media: In terms of our case numbers. We’ve gone from 83 yesterday, 53 today. Do you
feel like that was our peak yesterday?
THE
PM:
I think it’s too soon to say. Of course we want to see those numbers come down,
and with that sustained effort at level 4 there is no question it is making a difference. Some
modelling suggests without that level 4—those restrictions—and without everyone’s efforts,
we could have been at 550 cases today alone. So it is making a difference. Whether or not
we’ve now plateaued and moving down—we do need a bit more time, I think, to feel
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reassured of that. I’l let you finish, Jessica, and then we’l flip over to Tova.
Media: Dr Bloomfield, what’s your message around the woman who died following the
Pfizer vaccine? What do you think is important to point out to people with that?
PM:
Two or three key things. The first is this is a known, very rare side effect with the
Pfizer vaccines, and we had—Medsafe had put out an alert around this over a month ago,
and, in fact, I pointed everyone to that here in one of the stand-ups. The risk of myocarditis
after the vaccine i
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that’s another point I’d make. And the other key point is, and the reason we have put this out
there is, to make people aware that this has happened but also to make sure that people
being vaccinated and our health professionals are aware that if someone does present with
chest pain or a bit of shortness of breath or palpitations, and they have recently been
vaccinated, then they should look into that. And that’s part of the reason we’ve been very
open about this case, and also it’s of great interest internationally, as well, because it’s one
of the few cases where we’ve got the full range of evidence around the side effects and then
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able to explain this death. I do want to, of course, give my condolences to the family. They
have been fabulous in supporting us to investigate this case and get this information out so
that it can be useful for the wider public.
PM:
And clinicians, especially, wasn’t it, they were focused on.
Media: Yesterday, Prime Minister, you indicated there could be further level 4 restrictions.
What further restrictions are you considering and when? And Dr Bloomfield, how concerned
are you by transmission among essential workers?
PM:
Yeah, so what we indicated is that we are looking at, in those cases where we
have, for instance, seen a small number of instances with transmission between workers at
worksites—we’re talking, though, you know, roughly four, so very small—but what we want
to do is see whether or not there’s anything that could be done in the guidance we give,
particularly to employers who are operating in level 4, on how they can do that safely and
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prevent that from occurring.
Now, already they use PPE, they use social distancing, they are cautious—because it is a
privilege to be open at level 4—but we’re seeing if there is more that we could add in
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guidance. And, of course, continuing to check whether or not those workplaces that are open
indeed should be. To date, I haven’t seen examples of places where we’ve had COVID
appear, or workers with COVID that are in workplaces that shouldn’t be operating—they’ve
predominantly been in food services or distribution where we, as a country, really are reliant
on them continuing. But let’s see if we can do more to keep people safe while they’re there.
Media: I’m sorry, just to that earlier point, Dr Bloomfield, healthcare—
PM:
Yeah, feel free to finish that one.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Am I concerned? Well I’m concerned in that we w
INFORMATION ant to see no
essential workers getting infected in the first place and potentially being infectious out there,
so one of the things we’re turning our ef orts to over this next two to three days is to have a
really deep dive on each of those cases to see exactly what happened there, and that wil
support any further advice. We’ve been asked for that, any further advice to employers who
have essential workers out there, just to see if there’s anything we can do to strengthen the
measures in place and reduce any residual risk there may be there.
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PM:
Because, I said yesterday, it’s not just the work practices when someone is, for
instance, on the factory floor or out in the workplace itself, but what kind of practices people
are engaging with—even on the way
THE into their workplace or in a cafeteria or while they’re
donning and taking off their PPE. So right down into that level of detail, because that’s what
Delta requires us to do.
Media: That worst-case scenario of dropping back to 350,000 vaccines a week, how—
PM:
You see my point was that our worst-case scenario is actually defaulting to our
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plan.
Media: How much time can we keep going at the current rate before we have to start
dampening that demand a little—
PM:
Well, we’l need to take those decisions this week, but we have not changed any
messaging at this stage to DHBs, but we wil look to make some decisions on what we need
to do going forward over the course of this week.
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Media: About a week’s breathing room.
PM:
Yeah, so at this stage we’re doing that so that of course we can make sure that we
have, you know, a decent amount of heads-up for those if we do. But of course our goal wil
be to actually minimise any disruption as well—so maintain bookings, keep that high flow
coming through, basically run to the plan that we’d previously had before we added in some
of those extra surge sites across the country. But we also want to keep those numbers rolling
in Auckland, in particular. So those are some of the things we have in mind.
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30 August 2021
Media: And how concerned are you about vaccine hesitancy in light of today’s news of a
potential vaccine-related death?
PM:
Is that to me or to Dr Bloomfield?
Media: Either or.
PM:
Dr Bloomfield, obviously, can give the clinician’s view.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Look, I’m not so worried about—well, I recognise it will be a
worry for some people. I do want to reassure people that there’s very clear evidence that the
vaccine is a lot safer than being infected with COVID-19. This is a very rare side-effect. It’s
one that we were alert to already and we’ve now put out good information to health
professionals to make sure they are alert for that. We collect very good information on any
adverse effects, and we’re not seeing anything out of the ordinary with this vaccine compared
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with what are the experiences in other countries. So I can reassure people that the safety
profile of this Pfizer vaccine is very, very good.
PM:
Yeah. The most common cause of myocarditis is a viral infection, and so I
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remember, even just—it would have been maybe a month or so ago, reading an article about
the number of children and young people in hospitals in India with myocarditis because they
had COVID-19. So we are stil safely offering this vaccine to protect people from that very
thing: COVID and, therefore, the effects of COVID.
Media: Prime Minister, what is your response to reports that Pacific families in the Bay of
Plenty are being forced to present passports before they get the COVID jab?
PM:
Actually, I understand that Dr Bloomfield has a bit of detail on what has happened
in that particular scenario that he might wish to share. INFORMATION
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Yeah, well the first point I would make is: no one is required to
show a passport or any other form of identification to be vaccinated. However, if someone
doesn’t have an NHI number, the process of allocating someone an NHI number can be
expedited by someone having identification, and my understanding in this case is this is what
was being sought. There was certainly no intention, in my understanding, to single out any
particular group. But I just do want to reiterate, no one is required to show a passport or other
form of identification, and every person in New Zealand i
OFFICIAL s eligible to be vaccinated, whatever
their immigration status. I think you’ve seen the DHB apologise very clearly that the incident
happened, and for any concern that may have been caused there.
THE
Media: So it was a logistical hiccup, was it?
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Well, it was. It’s not—I think everybody in the programme is
very aware, and we’l be reminding them, that no one is required to show identification or a
passport or anything else before they are vaccinated, and so this was just an attempt to try
and, I think, smooth or expedite an administrative process rather than anything to do with
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eligibility.
PM:
The only thing you need, to be eligible for a COVID vaccine in New Zealand, is to
just physically be in New Zealand. That is it. You don’t need to present any identification, you
don’t even need to present any documents to show whether or not you’re in New Zealand
legally or not. We are not interested. We just want you to be vaccinated. So being physically
here is enough. Nothing more.
Media: So no I
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PM:
No. As Dr Bloomfield has said, if you don’t have an NHI number, we want to know
that we’re giving you your second dose and that we’re logging everything, and so health
professionals wil go through a bit of a process to try and do that, but there are ways we can
do that without any ID.
Media: Are you aware of it happening before?
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30 August 2021
PM:
No, no. I do—as I understand, this has been because we’ve got a specific group
of individuals in that region that we are vaccinating at the moment, who are not in New
Zealand long-term.
Media: On Northland, why have they been included again? There’l be a lot of people in
Northland who say, “We’re not part of Auckland. It’s really annoying we have to be cut off.”
Why do they have to wait until Thursday?
PM:
Well, we have some sites in Warkworth that we have been concerned that, if we
have cases that emerge from some of those larger worksites—which we have a small group
of workers who do live outside of that area, in what we might define as Northland—if we have
any outbreak from that worksite, we’re concerned if we move too quickly, then we’l see the
effects of that potentially in the Northland region. So that’s the reason. It’s got nothing to do
with anyone from Auckland’s movements; it’s really about what we discovered in Warkworth.
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Had we not discovered that, we would be moving to alert level 3 already with everyone else.
The other important note is with waste-water testing, with some of the remaining testing
coming through, that’l give us extra confidence as well. But, given it’s a route where, actually,
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people are transiting through those areas and may have had contact with those cases
potentially, we just wanted to be really cautious.
Media: Are you satisfied with the level of testing in the community at the moment, and is
that a possible reason, fewer tests, why the case numbers have come down?
PM:
Well, look, I’m—there were times, of course, where 10,000 we would think was a
fairly solid number. Sunday has always been a bit lower, but I do want to see really solid on-
going testing numbers. There wil be days where we wil have a large number of close
contacts—and I think actually that has been over the last few days—where they’l be coming
up to day-12 testing, which wil lead to those numbers coming up again. But I don’t think it’s
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fair to say we’ve got those numbers because we didn’t have enough people necessarily
tested. But, again, I’m not making any judgment from today’s numbers. I’l look at tomorrow’s,
I’l look at the next day’s, and we’l see what trend emerges.
Media: Can we get an update too on quarantine capacity? There’s stil dozens of people
with COVID-19 stil at home, not in quarantine.
PM:
Actually the advice I had this morning was
OFFICIAL that that backlog’s generally been
cleared, but of course every day, when you have a new lot reported, then you’l use the course
of the day to move people in. We’re very careful in the way that we do move people. So my
understanding is that that is clear. We
THE had people today moving into one of the two additional
facilities that we’ve brought on since this outbreak. It is fair to say, though, that we do have
tight capacity for quarantine and we are looking at other options to be able to manage that.
Media: Is anyone quarantining at home? Is that the plan to leave them there?
PM:
No, not at this stage. My understanding is that everyone is moving into quarantine
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still.
Media: Just a couple for Dr Bloomfield, primarily. Can you describe to us in detail what
happens when COVID is discovered in an essential worker workplace? And then just also
after that, of those 840,000 vaccines in the country, are they dispersed all around among GP
clinics and wherever they’re going to go, or are they sort of in a more centralised storage at
the moment?
PM:
A bit o
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Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
I’ll respond to the first question there. The process is the same
as it is for any case, but there’s a very strong focus on anyone who is an essential worker.
Those cases are prioritised for follow up. So if it’s in a workplace, as it would be even if we
weren’t in alert level 4, and they were just essential workers, we work with the employer to
identify all the people associated with that workplace. Usually they have very good records
of who’s been in there, and, of course, because we’re in alert level 4, it’s generally just
employees. Usually the workplace is—I mean, the staff who are potential contacts are stood
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30 August 2021
down. There’s an assessment made of what risk there might be, depending on whether the
worker was—and they wil have all been using PPE, but who they may have been in contact
with, what the circumstances might be. So there’s a thorough assessment of the risk at the
workplace, and it may well be then that workplace stops producing or doing what it is doing,
for a period of time. Or, in the case of, say, a healthcare setting—and we’ve had a few of
those—staff are stood down, and so replacement staff are brought in until those staff are
cleared to return to work.
PM:
And on vaccines, it’s both. So, of course, as you can imagine, we do have
distribution across the network, particularly with GPs and pharmacies coming online. They
are distributed across our network, but stil we also have some that are centrally held as well.
Media: And that 350,000, is there any sense in which you might manage to bump that up
a bit over the next few weeks?
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PM:
Well, of course, our goal is to be able to move beyond what we had planned by—
Media: No, no, sorry, the amount that’s coming in each week.
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PM:
Ah. Well, that is—obviously, as I’ve said, over 300,000 has been the weekly
deliveries that we’ve been receiving from Pfizer, and what we’re working on at the moment
is whether or not we can move beyond that.
Media: You spoke before about the burden that Aucklanders were having to bear for us
all. Has there been any thought to prioritising Auckland for the vaccinations roll-out and taking
vaccinations from other regions and funnelling them to Auckland now, and, if not, why not?
PM:
So there hasn’t been a need to take from anyone at this stage. We’ve been
essentially just meeting the demand, and, as you can imagine, there’s been good demand in
Auckland but also elsewhere, and we’ve been able to meet that and we’ve been
INFORMATION wanting to
meet that. What we’re working on now is whether or not we can continue that approach. What
we’re asking, though, our health officials to do is, as we do a bit of planning for if we are
unable to secure additional supply for those surges, how can we do two things: maintain
people’s bookings but also maintain the surge in Auckland, because you can see why it
should continue to be a priority. So we haven’t—it’s all stil a bit hypothetical at this stage. No
decisions need to be made today. We’re working on those this week, but those are some of
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the things we want to keep achieving with our roll-out.
Media: Just following on from vaccinations, what work has been done around both rest
homes and situations where immobil
THE e people are at home, being cared for by in-home care,
can’t get to a vaccination appointment? Have you got mobile vaccinators out and about
[
Inaudible] around this?
PM:
Yeah, there has been some thought and innovation in this space. So for rest
homes, we’ve been going into facility in order to provide vaccinations, and that’s been
organised through the DHBs
UNDER . A variety of approaches for those with disabilities. In some
cases where there’s been residential care, we’ve been trying to provide it in the most
convenient way possible for residential care as well. In other cases, I’ve seen some
vaccination centres even working to try and provide a space that is low in stimulus and
appropriate for those, for instance, with autism. So, some real thought going into how we can
meet the needs of a range of communities. In terms of some of the more specifics, Dr
Bloomfield, you might have some more on the idea of at-home visits where it’s a smaller
number, but for residential care, yes, we have been visiting.
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Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Yes. So al the DHBs have got a range of options, including if
people are, essentially, not able to get out of their house or their place they live, then they
can get a mobile vaccinator there to get them.
Media: Because the carers who are looking after these people—who is their point of
contact? Should they be trying to do this through rest homes? Because I would’ve thought
that by now, surely, people in rest homes, for the most part, should have been vaccinated,
shouldn’t they, in [
Inaudible]?
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30 August 2021
PM:
Yes, or offered vaccine, of course, because residents make the decision as to
whether or not they take that up. And so you wil have heard us talk yesterday or the day
before about the uptake rate in different parts of the country—it’s been high—but then there’s
the question of what do we do if we’ve got new residents coming in who may not have been,
or residents who may have changed their mind, and just DHBs doing a bit of a mop-up there.
Media: So who’s that point of contact, then, for the in-home people? Should they be
contacting their local rest home and asking to jump on as part of their service, or should they
be contacting their DHB?
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
They should be—actual y, if they use bookmyvaccine or
contact the vaccine phone number through Healthline, they would be able to provide them
with advice on that. But, no, the people who are receiving in-home care, home and community
support services, or who may be in sort of supported living arrangements separate from aged
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residential care, no, they shouldn’t be trying to organise it through the aged residential care
facility, because most of that was done—in fact, we asked all DHBs to have all those residents
at least have their first dose before the end of June, and so that sweep wil be now completed,
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but if they use bookmyvaccine.
Media: But I don’t think that’s happening—
PM:
So I’l just finish on Jo’s question and then come back to you, Tova. I’ve seen some
recent updates on some of the strategy around reaching those across the country with
differing needs, where they’re in residential care or whether or not you’re in home support or
otherwise. So I wouldn’t mind if we just go back to our vaccine team and give you an update
on how that’s being rolled out across dif erent DHBs.
Media: Just lastly on that, before you go to Tova, in terms of the 350,000 if you have to
peel back to that, are you concerned that people who perhaps have only recent
INFORMATION ly got up the
courage to get vaccinated, because of what’s happened with Delta and they’ve seen the
ramp-up and they’ve seen people be confident in it, then get an appointment that’s way down
the track, because appointments wil become staggered if you drop back to 350,000—are
you worried about the message that might send to people who have only just got up the
courage to go and do it?
PM:
Well, that’s a hypothetical that I’m not yet conf
OFFICIAL ronting, because we’re working very
hard to see if we can find ways to continue to meet the fantastic demand that we have.
Media: Just following up on those earlier questions, I have heard of rest homes who have
THE
tried to get mobile vaccinators to come in and haven’t been able to do that and elderly
residents who were having to drive hours to go to—
PM:
I’d be very interested to know where, because we, of course, got continual
reporting across the DHBs as to what percentage of their residential facilities in their region
had been reached, had been vaccinated, because you can imagine why it was a very big
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focus for us right at the beginning of the campaign. And they provided details that, basically,
everyone would be offered the opportunity by—it was around the June/July mark, if I can
recall. So, happy to go back and check a specific facility if they have had issues. I wonder if
it’s the issue of returning a second or third time, perhaps. I’m not sure.
Media: When do you expect to be able to open up fresh MIQ spots—this is beyond the
emergency rooms—because [
Inaudible] and that was supposed to be a few days and it
doesn’t seem to be open yet?
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PM:
Yes. No, it hasn’t. Most people actually probably assume that what we do is roll
out all of the numbers through to the end of the year and once they’re full they’re full. That’s
not the case. As you’ve indicated, we do continue to release vouchers. We have put a bit of
a hold on that for now, on releasing some of those new vouchers in the near future, because,
of course, as you’ve seen, with an outbreak of over 500 people, we are using the facilities for
those individuals. And that is the right thing to do. New Zealanders wanting to come home
want to come home to a country that’s free of restrictions, and the best way we can do that
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30 August 2021
is by dealing with this outbreak as efficiently as possible. I don’t yet have a time line for when
we’l be opening those vouchers up again.
Media: And now that we know Delta is—
PM:
Keep in mind the Crowne Plaza is also offline at the moment, too, and that is one
of our bigger facilities.
Media: With now what we know about Delta, is it possible to go back to that 4,000 per
fortnight coming in through MIQ, or wil we have to reduce the numbers to reduce the risk of
a breach?
PM:
Well, what we have done to reduce the risk has been to change up the way we’re
operating in those facilities—cohorting, for instance, as much as possible; keeping people—
bringing people in on similar dates and releasing on similar dates; of course, vaccination of
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our workforce; the testing regime we use. In this point in time, we’re looking at whether or not
there are more things that we should do, more innovations to try, and again just add extra
layers of protection. And so we’re getting advice on some of those for MIQ. At the moment,
it has not including reducing down the numbers, because, actually, it only takes one.
ACT And
people may have thought, for instance, that Sydney—at the time that we were put ing people
into quarantine, they may have considered it low risk. So it’s actually about being vigilant
regardless of the number you have coming in. What is clear, though, is our ability to expand
that number is very limited. We just don’t have the workforce to do it.
Media: But the Australians did halve their number coming in after their breach?
PM:
They did, but, as I say, it takes one case. And so for us, it’s actually about the
protocols that you have across the system. Having said that, many people before this
outbreak were putting pressure on us to extend our facilities and our capacity. The focus we
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have at the moment is making sure that when we’re doing it we’re doing it well with the
numbers we do have.
Media: We’ve been hearing from several organisations about a massive increase for the
need of food relief during this lockdown. Auckland’s facing another two weeks of this, and for
some people that’s pretty scary—
PM:
Facing—sorry?
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Media: Two more weeks at least.
PM:
Yes, yes.
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Media: That’s quite a scary thought in terms of if you’re in food insecurity. Is the
Government considering doing anything to help people in those sort of situations or help food
banks?
PM:
So immediately we put $2.8 mil ion for food, essential items, support for existing
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providers, and then a further $7 mil ion has also now gone in as well for those who work
across those food security networks. And we estimate that can provide up to 60,000 parcels
for those who may need it, also 10,000 wellbeing packs as well. I’d also encourage people to
access MSD. They are there for these exact moments and have the flexibility to provide
additional grants to people to meet any food-related needs that they have at this time,
because we absolutely acknowledge that this is a very tough time for everyone, and that’s
why that support’s available.
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Media: Just on yesterday’s questions asked about how many people in hospital were
vaccinated, we now know it’s eight partially vaccinated from the 34 yesterday. Can I ask for
your reflection—
PM:
Just, the one thing I’d just caution, you know, that person could’ve been vaccinated
a week ago, you know, four days ago, and of course the ability for that to have an effect is
rather limited with those time frames, so yeah—
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30 August 2021
Media: So I was going to ask for your reflections on that, what you take from that. And also
that other key stat—we found out this later—30 of the 34 people in hospital are Pasifika. Is
that blind bad luck or is that a failure of public health?
PM:
That is COVID-19. That is Delta. I mean, the rates of hospitalisation that we’re
seeing are high, and it is undoubtedly hit ing our Pacific community very, very hard, which is
why we as a country have taken this approach on COVID-19 and our elimination strategy,
because we knew that if COVID did manage to get into our communities, it would have that
devastating effect. So the job we all have upon us now is to do everything that we can to get
rid of it. And that’s why we’re in this position right now with these level 4 restrictions to keep
one another safe while, of course, we’re thinking about, unfortunately, the people who are
already affected by it.
Media: Judith Collins says the reason that she’s come to Wellington for a physical
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Parliament is that she couldn’t get agreement on the Epidemic Response Commit ee coming
back. Why was that such a no-go zone in those discussions?
PM:
Well, actually, we actually worked really hard on a solution to allow a virtual version
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of the House, with the National Party. Then when that option was presented to the Business
Commit ee, it was then not agreed to. And so the Epidemic Response Commit ee, you’ll
remember, was created because the House was suspended and Parliament couldn’t meet
and there was no question time, for instance. What we’ve been working to is to reinstate that.
What was presented was an option that allowed the Opposition to access any Minister, it
allowed them to make statements, to ask questions—some might say a greater level of
accountability even than a general question time offers. But unfortunately, that was rejected
by the Opposition. So that’s where that fell over.
Media: Are they playing politics?
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PM:
Well, my preference would be to opt for a virtual option, because it does the same
if not more than an in-person version of the debating chamber. Select committees can still
meet, so that’s stil happening. Al of the other business of Parliament can continue. The only
thing we’re missing is question time, and my view is we could do that safely virtually. It’s a
shame that the Opposition did not agree.
Media: David Seymour says the fact that you’re all
OFFICIAL owing it to go ahead proves that there
is no health risk and that, if there was, you wouldn’t let it go ahead.
PM:
That is totally incorrect. My view was I was wil ing to suspend for a week whilst we
THE
tried to find solutions. Unfortunately, the Opposition and the ACT Party were unwil ing to
agree, and I was unwil ing to suspend Parliament for a second week. My much bigger
preference was that we get consensus. But it’s one of those situations where, unfortunately,
given there’s no consensus, I feel I have no choice. But I wil absolutely be limiting the number
of Ministers that we have in this building so that we don’t put other staff at risk. No one wil
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be travelling from Auckland to participate. There’l be a small handful of Ministers answering
all of the questions, so in many ways I think it’s an inferior option than what was on the table.
Media: On Monday, you’l be reviewing level 3—next week, you’l be reviewing level 3
settings for the rest of the country. Is there a scenario under which there could continue to
be level 4 in Auckland but level 2 everywhere else? From a public health perspective, is that
a workable option?
PM:
Well, we’ve had split boundaries many times before.
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Media: Have we had level 4 - level 2?
PM:
We haven’t. We’ve had 3 and level 2, so we have had a situation before where
you’ve got one area that’s got no interregional travel alongside an area where there is. So we
have had that principle before—so that is possible, but I’m not pre-empting any decisions
because Cabinet’s not made any.
Media: But there’s no hard and fast—it’s just that it hasn’t happened before?
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30 August 2021
PM:
It hasn’t happened before, but I think, probably, the bigger principle there is we
have had areas alongside each other where there’s been one isn’t meant to be travelling and
one is able to travel, and that’s probably the example we have to work through, so it just
demonstrates how important it is to get your borders right.
Media: Prime Minister, some Māori—
PM:
Anything you want to add on that, Dr Bloomfield?
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Just to say that there’s no public health reason why it couldn’t
happen, and, of course, one of the things we’re going to be doing this week—as we did last
week around alert level 3—is see: are the any enhancements to our current level 2 settings
that we might advise be brought in as and when parts of the country move down to alert level
2? So alert level 2 may well be alert level 2 as we’ve known it, with some additional things in
place.
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Media: Prime Minister, Māori leaders in the Far North—some that we’ve spoken to—are
kind of hoping for a seven-day extension of level 4 until a bigger picture could be seen. Is
waste-water testing the only thing that—like the results that you’re waiting for—or will
ACT the
decision be based on other information as well, like testing?
PM:
Two things. We’l have some more results from additional testing in the region; not
just surveil ance testing from those who might have cold and flu symptoms, but there are
some contacts in the region as well that we expect further results from, and that, alongside
the waste-water testing, gives us confidence that, for now, we can say if they are clear, we
believe it wil be safe to move on midnight Thursday.
The other really important point is: level 3 is stil restrictive. It is stil limited in terms of you
stay in your bubble. You stil don’t have large gatherings. Schools are stil not convened. So
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that does give us confidence that it’s stil a cautious approach and it allows us to continue to
monitor what’s happening across the country.
Media: And this week we’ve seen a notable push in terms of vaccinating Māori. We’ve got
drive-throughs, we’ve even got social media marketing; you can see that it’s ramped up. Why
is that only happening now and it hasn’t been in the—
PM:
Well actually, all of our vaccination campai
OFFICIAL gn was built around ramping up at a
time when supply started ramping up as well, and we have entered to a period where we
have more people eligible to be vaccinated, and we have more doses in the country, and so
that’s why the campaign, you’l see, i
THE s ramping up at the same time.
Media: Prime Minister, why has the Crowne Plaza not yet reopened? My understanding is
that it’s supposed to open last Thursday.
PM:
Yeah, so what we said was that we wanted to—you’l know that we wanted, once
it was, we had people exiting;
UNDER we weren’t bringing new people in. In part, that was because
we were undertaking source investigation to try and identify what exactly had happened. At
this stage it is still not clear to us. So all of theories that we’ve had, whether or not it was—as
has been offered up by some of you, whether or not it was anyone passing by. We reviewed
CCTV footage, found those individuals, tested them all—all negative. There was the question
over whether or not there was a link between someone from within the facility in one of our
early locations of interest; that proved to be incorrect. So one of the things that that enables
us to do while the facility is in that state is just really look into every other possibility. It already
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had a ventilation review, but what I’d like is just a bit of a look from a Delta perspective to see
if there are other things we need to do to make sure that we’ve covered al our bases, even
if we don’t know exactly what happened here.
Media: On a dif erent topic, when you’re looking at, over the past couple of days, the
number of cases that have been infectious while in the community—23 from yesterday’s
cases, 25 from the day before—how low would you like to see those numbers go before
you’re more comfortable with where we’re at?
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30 August 2021
PM:
Yeah, so the issue, of course, is that at level 4, there are people who are stil
keeping the country running, and keeping people fed, and moving key freight around the
country to keep people fed and with essential services—even at level 4. So that’s why we’re
doing two things. It’s just getting that lit le bit of extra deep dive into those places where
people have been, to check that actually there’s good compliance, but also, at the same time,
those places that are open really are necessary. At the moment, there’s nothing to suggest
they’re not, but it does show why infection controls and really careful operations at level 4 are
so important. The idea that you’d get it down to zero, even at level 4, that’s hard. You know,
when we look just at our supermarket chains, 55,000 people, so it’s not hard to see how you
could hit people from dif erent walks of life in an outbreak like this, and, by default, we have
a large number of people in this outbreak.
Media: Can I just clarify, sorry, because it wasn’t to open on Thursday and the perspex
and everything were getting altered and it was being done in preparation for last week. So
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have you specifically asked for it to be closed—
PM:
So, look, it is my understanding that they have not yet put anyone back into it; that’s
ACT
my understanding. But, yes, they have done all of those alterations, but that’s my
understanding. I’l go back and verify whether or not it’s remained the case, but all of those
things that have been raised that could be instituted in order to make it safer stil , keeping in
mind that, of course, you know, those barriers now are up to the ceiling, so essentially a
wall—to see whether or not there is anything else that needed to be done or whether or not
it’s been deemed to be complete now. But that’s my understanding—but I wil double check.
Media: A question for Dr Bloomfield. Elective surgeries in Auckland are mounting and wil
obviously continue to grow for the next at least two weeks. Can any be moved to other DHBs,
or can anything be done for people waiting in a lot of pain, like waiting for a hip replacement
or endometriosis surgery, things like that?
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Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Well, the first thing is that any acute or urgent surgery is being
done, of course, in Auckland and elsewhere in the country. Secondly, we’ve started to work
with our district health boards outside of Auckland on their plans for catching up on elective
services that may have had to have been postponed during the alert level 4. For Auckland,
one of the things we wil look at is if there are not necessarily acute but semi-acute operations
that need to happen that they can’t do, whether those c
OFFICIAL an be done elsewhere in the country.
That’s one of the things we’l look at.
Media: OK, where would that be—like, Waikato?
THE
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
It could be anywhere, depending on the nature of the surgery,
but obviously the DHBs that are adjacent, like Waikato, would be the main one, but, so saying,
all the DHBs are going to have a backlog and so, as happened last year, there wil be specific
plans in place and we wil work with district health boards to make sure they are both able to
provide that surgery, and of course they wil prioritise people whose need is most urgent.
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PM:
OK, I’m going to take the last couple of questions. Yeah, down here and then I’l
come back to you, Claire.
Media: Did Cabinet agree with the Ministry of Health’s advice around the enhanced
protocols for businesses operating under level 3—mask use, and that sort of thing?
PM:
Oh, so issues around mask use were agreed some time ago, as was mandatory
record keeping. And you’l recall we made those decisions before we had an outbreak. We’re
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working through all of the implementation and then announce them afterwards.
Media: OK. Dr Bloomfield mentioned yesterday he’d given advice around businesses
operating under level 3—physical distancing, mask use indoors.
PM:
Yes, I don’t believe there’s been a point where we’ve ever been divergent on those
matters.
Media: But Cabinet has agreed with that?
post-Cabinet press conference
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30 August 2021
PM:
So my point is that those decisions were taken some time ago, and my recollection
is that we’ve always followed the advice that we’ve received weeks ago.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
I think the additional advice we gave, and I’l just have to clarify
and we’l be able to outline this tomorrow—it was for anyone in alert level 3, for anyone who
may be having any—who isn’t currently an essential worker but is going into their workplace,
that they need to wear masks there, and even in the case of any transfer of goods or services
is contactless anyway, but we just added in that additional measure to reiterate the
importance of mask use in alert level 3.
PM:
A very important point for me as well: I don’t believe we received any advice that
we’ve rejected, so it might be that it’s stil in a process, but we’ve tended to stay pretty closely
to what we’re advised on these things.
Media: Can you just go through again where the vaccination clinics are asking people for
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ID, because I’ve had a few messages from people who went to a few from Auckland who
have said that they were asked for ID when they went?
PM:
So if you go to a vaccination clinic and you don’t have identification, you will b
ACT e
vaccinated. No one should be asking for ID as a way to access a vaccine. In some places,
people may be asking ID to establish an NHI number, to hasten the administrative process,
but it is not a prerequisite for you to be eligible for a vaccination. So—
Media: Sorry. At some point when vaccination status become relevant for things like
passports and travel, how wil people be able to prove that they have had a vaccine, if they—
PM:
So we do, of course, register the fact that you’ve had a vaccine. We’ve got a case
that was being raised with us where someone didn’t have an NHI number. And so that’s
where someone’s used ID to try and establish an NHI number for that very purpose—so later
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they can go back and find a record that they’ve been vaccinated.
Media: But if they haven’t shown ID to prove it’s them?
PM:
So they can search through your records and identify who you are, ask for things
like date of birth—that’s certainly the process I’ve witnessed.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Yes, so every person who is getting vaccinated, a link is made
OFFICIAL
to their existing NHI number if they have it, based on name and date of birth. If they don’t
have an NHI number, one is created, and then that allows the COVID immunisation register
to link with other health databases. And at the moment, if anyone needs proof that they have
THE
been vaccinated—for example, to travel overseas—the Ministry of Health provides a letter,
signed by the director of the vaccination programme, to confirm that they have been
vaccinated and it has their name, date of birth, and NHI number.
PM:
Yep. Was anyone here asked for their ID when they were vaccinated?
Media: Well, yeah, we had
UNDER two bookings today and the people—
PM:
No, no, I mean the people who have been vaccinated. [
Inaudible] I wasn’t, so—ha,
ha!—might just be me.
Media: The people who are making the bookings have told us that they were told to ask
for ID or tell the person to bring ID on the day. So is that conflicting messaging?
PM:
Sorry, I think there’s two separate issues here. There seems to be a question here
of whether or not
RELEASED you have to prove eligibility. Everyone is eligible. Everyone in this room and
in New Zealand is eligible. It’s a very different question around whether or not you bring ID
just to make the administrative process a bit quicker. But if you don’t, there are workarounds.
Media: And are we just able to please get an update on the staff isolating in the Devonport
Naval Base please?
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Yes, just to say a very, very precautionary approach was taken
there to a positive waste-water result, which the NZ Defence had commissioned
themselves—the testing of the waste water. Al the subsequent testing has come back
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30 August 2021
negative, and the staff who had isolated and been tested, at last I heard, all those who’d been
tested have returned negative results. There are a few results outstanding, so not quite sure
why they had that initial positive result, but all the right things were done, and so far there
doesn’t seem to be any evidence of any COVID there.
Media: Dr Bloomfield, before you mentioned a number of cases who are household
contacts. Are you able just to clarify how many there were? And I guess the remaining cases,
where abouts had they been infected?
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
So of the cases yesterday—I’ve got the proportion—52
percent, and someone wil have to get their calculator out and work that out for me, but it’s
over half of yesterday’s cases, probably 41 or maybe 42, were household contacts. And what
was the second—
Media: So that, I guess, remaining 48 percent—
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PM:
Some of the remaining were contacts already as well.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield:
Yeah, were known contacts. And I think the other key thing is
ACT
here over 70 percent didn’t generate any new exposure events. And the other thing we’re
going to do, and we’l try in the next day or two to provide an indication of this, is work out
how many household contacts there are, and therefore the likely range of additional cases
we would expect, especially with Delta, which has got high infectivity in the household setting.
So given the number of cases we’ve got and household contacts, that wil help us just give
an indication of the number of additional cases we might expect over coming days.
PM:
OK. Thank you.
conclusion of press conference
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