“Go West, Young Virus”
The Auckland Coronavirus Outbreak potters along, not helped by the perception that the Government is disturbingly enthusiastic about “managing the virus” or loosening the border. Health Minister Andrew Little said today he envisages 90% vaccination rates (which we don’t have) eventually leading to 5,000 cases in Auckland a week… which nationwide would be 2,000 cases daily. Enough to easily destroy the Health System. Which means any liberalisation is utter madness.
But there has been an interesting shift in the nature of the outbreak. The plague has long since been flushed out of the Pacific Island community, who suffered in the early days, has found a home among (younger) Maori… and now appears to be moving West in Auckland:
To generalise: the Counties-Manukau DHB region is South Auckland, Waitemata is West, and Auckland is Central City. Counties-Manukau’s numbers have been broadly consistent for a good forty days… but the surge is on in Waitemata. Something very ugly is happening in West Auckland.
(But at least it seems to be getting flushed out of Waikato. Good on Hamilton!).
I would like to state for the record that I enjoy reading dispatches from an alternate universe where a dozen people getting sick is still considered “something very ugly”.
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