Concerns grow as winter illness empties schools and kindergartens and the Government extends the pause on quarantine-free travel from NSW and Queensland.
With health authorities still working to stop Covid-19 at the border, another virus is of increasing concern around the country.
Hospitals are still being flooded with a spike in cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children, with some DHBs changing their hospital visitor policies in a bid to stop its spread.
According to the NZ Herald, some Auckland kindergartens have a fifth of their children unwell at home, while primary schools around the country are also reporting up to half of their students away sick with respiratory illnesses and other bugs.
Worried parents say they want more health advice over RSV , which Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has described as “a nasty virus” that’s “very debilitating” for young babies. He says parents can contact Healthline or Plunket if they need more information.
Radio host K’Lee McNabb is one of the parents urging people to take the virus seriously after spending more than two weeks in hospital with her very sick baby girl, Honour.
She told Stuff the general public are clearly not taking precautions in preventing the spread of RSV.
“I hope we are a little bit more aware and not so naive to think that Covid-19 is the only deadly virus,” she says.
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Indefinite pause in bubble
New Zealand’s pause on quarantine-free travel from New South Wales and Queensland will continue – with no end currently in sight .
The Ministry of Health says it needs a better understanding of the developing Covid-19 situation in both states before reopening the travel corridor.
However, stranded Kiwis will still be able to return to New Zealand on “green flights” from this weekend.
The move comes as residents in Greater Sydney and its surrounds face an extra week of lockdown .
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the decision was made to extend lockdown due to the “game-changing” nature of the “extremely transmissible” Delta strain.
The state recorded another 27 cases of Covid-19 yesterday, with more than half of those in the community while infectious.
Meanwhile, the Government is looking at future changes at the border for vaccinated travellers .
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told RNZ’s Checkpoint in the “medium term” some people may not need to go into managed isolation at all if they’ve been fully vaccinated.
But he says it’s still too early for such decisions, with any changes hinging on what’s happening around the world and New Zealand’s vaccine coverage.
Second vaccine gets approval
With half a million Kiwis now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, a second vaccine has been provisionally approved by Medsafe for use here.
The Government will now decide next month whether to use the single dose Janssen vaccine, with two million doses ordered for New Zealand.
Pfizer is still the country’s main vaccine candidate, with Janssen potentially used as a security blanket for a range of scenarios, including an outbreak of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, there appears to be some frustrations over New Zealand’s methods for testing for Covid-19.
Documents seen by 1 NEWS show experts have recommended that saliva tests should become the main method for detecting the virus, however those same documents show the Ministry of Health has pushed back against that idea.
1 NEWS reporter Benedict Collins says the Government is “tearing out its hair” at not being able to implement saliva testing and that they feel “the Ministry of Health is resistant to new technology and change”.
Ramming of police cars 'common'
Police Association president Chris Cahill says it's only a matter of "luck" an officer hasn't been killed in the wake of rising numbers of offenders ramming police vehicles.
His comments follow an incident in Auckland’s CBD yesterday where a woman allegedly tried to run someone over before deliberately ramming her vehicle into a stationary police car .
Figures show that 573 police vehicles have been rammed by an offender between 2017 and 2020.
Cahill told 1 NEWS the ramming of police cars is now commonplace and that the volume and seriousness of such incidents is of increasing concern to the Police Association.
Haiti's president assassinated
Haiti's President Jovenel Moïse has been killed in an attack on his home in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Unidentified gunmen stormed the property around 1am local time, killing Moïse and injuring his wife.
The attack follows a rising wave of politically motivated violence in the poverty-stricken nation.
Other news of note this morning:
- A fishing boat carrying two mariners who tested positive for Covid-19 will not be returning to Port Taranaki .
- Fiji has officially recorded another 791 new Covid cases - but the actual number is believed to be higher .
- Donald Trump has announced he’s filing lawsuits against three of America's biggest tech companies - Facebook, Twitter and Google.
- Climate Change Minister James Shaw has released the principles he wants to influence New Zealand's emission reduction plan.
- More than 50,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Government to improve healthcare for women after childbirth.
- Tensions are rising at the Kennedy Point marina development site on Waiheke Island as footage appears of altercations between security and protesters .
- Therapists say they’ve been blindsided by ACC's decision to shut down its sensitive claims unit.
- Seven Sharp has investigated what New Zealand’s 2000 pay phones are still being used for .
- And is football coming home? England takes on Denmark in their European Championship semi-final this morning.
And finally...
The Madagascar musical has arrived on New Zealand’s shores – so obviously Seven Sharp sent presenters Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells along to audition for the stage show.
What followed was a performance for the ages, prompting Barry to ask: “Why do we humiliate ourselves every night?”
You can check it out for yourself here .
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