By 7 September 2021 the rest of New Zealand had move to level 2, but Auckland stayed in alert level 3 restrictions until 2 December. "I think there are a lot of people who think 'oh look, it's getting less severe over time so we're fine' but it's pretty random whether the next variant is going to be less severe or not," he said.Įither way, it would need to be at least as spreadable as Omicron to take over, he said.Īn Auckland motorway near the city centre, mid morning on 19 August 2021. Much had been learnt about the virus - and how to respond to it - since then, with the highly contagious but less harmful Omicron variant changing everything at the start of this year, he said. Reflecting back, he said New Zealanders responded well, with most areas hitting that mark or higher by the measurements at the time. The city was asked to hold the line so the country could get vaccinated, something critics said should have happened much earlier.Īuckland University epidemiologist Rod Jackson was vocal in urging the country to aim high and vaccinate more than 95 percent of eligible people. On 17 August 2021, New Zealand went to alert level 4 because the deadly Delta variant had arrived.Īucklanders had no idea that day that they would still be in lockdown till December, and that after 18 months of trying to keep Covid-19 out, it would be here to stay. The Guardian has approached the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.Auckland in lockdown in August 2021. “Essentially we might expect a reverse through the lockdown lifting steps with each ‘reverse step’ being introduced to match the scale of the surge in cases.” Prof Dominic Harrison, the director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen council, told i: “Any return to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control spread would have to focus on those that give the biggest suppression effect. But the prime minister said he wanted to avoid it. Last week, when Johnson confirmed the removal of legal restrictions in England, the prime minister’s spokesperson declined to rule out bringing back some lockdown restrictions. Insiders told i there was great uncertainty about the modelling and that the situation would continue to change based on vaccinations and individual behaviour. He also said restrictions may need to be reimposed.Īccording to this projection, hospital admissions could reach nearly 1,500 daily admissions in the first week of August, peaking at 3,000 by the end of the month, close to that of the first wave in April last year. It comes after England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, last week said hospitalisations were doubling approximately every three weeks and could reach “quite scary” levels within weeks. On Tuesday, 46,558 new people tested positive and 96 people died – the highest daily death toll in nearly four months. On Monday, there were 4,567 patients in hospital with coronavirus – 611 of whom were on beds with ventilators – and from 8-14 July the figure rose by 38.4%. Recent government figures show that in the middle of July – six weeks ahead of the forecasted peak and before removal of England’s coronavirus restrictions on 19 July – the UK had already reached 745 daily hospital admissions and this has continued to rise. The i reports that if admissions exceed central estimates – that daily hospitalisations in the UK will peak at the end of next month at between 1,000 and 2,000 and daily deaths will reach 100 to 200 – Sage scientists have advised that some measures such as mandatory masks and working from home advice should be reinstated at the beginning of August.
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