Image: Tina Tiller
Image: Tina Tiller

SocietyDecember 3, 2021

Auckland’s almost-four-month lockdown, in numbers

The Bulletin editor
Image: Tina Tiller
Image: Tina Tiller

With Aucklanders waking up to their first day of relative freedom since August, Stewart Sowman-Lund crunches the numbers on the country’s longest lockdown.

Today marks the first day of the traffic light framework, with Auckland – and the rest of the country – moving into the “new normal”. It’s a lot like the old normal except vaccine passes and masks have become as important as keys and wallets when leaving the house. 

It’s taken a long time to get here, for Auckland especially. On the afternoon of August 17, a single case of the delta variant was detected in the community. It plunged the entire country back into a strict level four lockdown, with Auckland remaining under at least level three restrictions – meaning work from home if you can, no restaurants, no movies, no heaps of other stuff – ever since.

In celebration of a return to some form of normality, and as a way of putting the past few bleak months behind us, here’s the lockdown broken down into numbers: an easily digestible record of what will hopefully be New Zealand’s final Covid lockdown.

107

The number of days Auckland spent under delta restrictions 

The first community case of delta was announced on the afternoon of August 17. It was confirmed in a brief press release from the Ministry of Health: “A positive case of Covid-19 has been identified in the community early this afternoon and is now under investigation,” read the email. 

“Shit”, the entire country said in unison.

15

That’s how long lockdown has been, in weeks 

It almost feels… longer to see it written out this way. Remember how long a term at school used to feel? Those were shorter. Remember how long the summer holidays used to be as a kid? Those were shorter too. This lockdown has been soooo loonnggg.

2,568

That’s how long it’s been, in hours

Weirdly, this feels like less time to me. But to put it another way: you could have watched the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – a famously too-long movie – about 780 times during lockdown. So, yeah, it was pretty bloody long.

14

How many days the entire country spent at level four

After we all shifted into lockdown on August 17, all of the country south of Auckland shifted into alert level three on August 31.

35

How many days Auckland spent at level four

It took until September 21 for Auckland to move out of level four and down into level three. Auckland would then spend a fortnight at level three, just over a month at level three (step one) and then another month at level three (step two). It got confusing.

8,745

The number of Covid-19 cases in the delta outbreak

Overall, New Zealand has had almost 12,000 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 across both years of the pandemic, both in the community and in managed isolation. The majority of those have come in the past three months and have been in the community. Even more came after the move out of alert level four in Auckland and the bleak reality is that this number will keep climbing long after lockdown has ended.

2,645

How many people have since recovered

There are now 6,100 active community cases of Covid, meaning 2,645 have since recovered from the virus. A brief PSA, though: because the immune response of people who have had the virus varies, and evidence is emerging that vaccination provides better protection, you should still get vaccinated if you’ve had Covid.

17

The number of people who have died with delta

So far, it’s not been confirmed whether Covid-19 was the definitive cause of death for these people. But, the Ministry of Health is recording a total death toll from across the pandemic of 41, that’s 17 more than before delta hit our shores. 

64

The number of Covid-19 press conferences

From the very first emergency press conference on the evening of August 17 through until Wednesday’s press conference more than 100 days later. 

42

The number of times Ashley Bloomfield said kia ora koutou

Bloomfield didn’t appear at all 61 Covid pressers. But you can bet that he said kia ora koutou at every single one he did front.

1 (pm)

The time the Ministry of Health is meant to send out the Covid case numbers 

1pm has become a fabled time since the Covid-19 pandemic. Each day, the entire country gathers around the TV/Twitter/The Spinoff live updates to see what the latest Covid-19 case numbers are. Except, as a reporter who has been writing up these numbers basically every day for 18 months, I’ve come to realise that it’s often… a little later than 1pm. 

The Spinoff’s data whiz Harkanwal Singh charted every “1pm” press release from August 17 to December 1, and here’s what we found:

The ‘1pm’ updates (Graph: Harkanwal Singh)

Let’s call it the 1.20pm-ish update from now on.

To be totally fair, those early couple of outliers were in the first days of the delta outbreak when frankly time was entirely meaningless to everyone and the news was coming thick and fast. 

1,938

The total number of Covid-19 locations of interest

Not all of these were ultimately deemed Covid exposure sites, but at one stage or another they were all added to the Ministry of Health’s long list of potential locations. In recent weeks we’ve had a parade of petrol stations, a bevy of bakeries, and at least one brothel.

5,066,944

Vaccine doses administered since we went into lockdown

When we went into lockdown on August 17, about 2.55 million doses of the vaccine had been administered. Only 934,000 people were fully vaccinated. 

Now, over 7.6 million jabs have been administered with about 86% of the eligible population fully vaccinated and those aged 5-11 due to qualify early next year. 

12

The number of days I worked from bed over lockdown

Pretty good going if I’m being honest! My house, which I share with my girlfriend, has just one bedroom and no office. That means that if one of us has claimed the dining table/office, the other person is often relegated to the bed. It was actually quite a good place to work if I needed to sit in self-imposed writing jail and thrash out an article in an hour or two.

3

The number of leaders of the National Party there have been during lockdown

Sure, Shane Reti was interim leader for less than a week but he was still leader. 

3

The number of days Jacinda Ardern was in Auckland during lockdown

Jacinda Ardern didn’t visit Auckland until November 10, facing widespread criticism from the political opposition and a number of vocal business owners for not being able to understand the city’s plight. The prime minister’s reasoning was that, at the time, if she had visited Auckland she would have had to self-isolate for five days upon her return to Wellington in order to attend parliament. 

She has since visited twice more, her most recent being on Wednesday when she was snapped in front of this shocked spider monkey at Auckland Zoo.

5

Roughly the number of breakdowns I’ve had

Sometimes you’ve just gotta cry.

Unknown

How much I’ve spent on wine

We’ll talk no further on the matter.

Case and vaccine numbers are correct as of 2pm, December 2.

Keep going!
(Image: Archi Banal)
(Image: Archi Banal)

SocietyDecember 2, 2021

What to do when the name on your vaccine pass is wrong (and might be putting you in danger)

Guest writer
(Image: Archi Banal)
(Image: Archi Banal)

From Friday, the need to provide a vaccine pass with photo ID could mean transgender people are outed against their will, writes Cassie Withey-Rila.

The government is failing us with this vaccine pass setup. By “us”, I mean those of us whose experience, performance or embodiment of gender doesn’t match society’s Eurocentric gender binary.

There is so much nuance and diversity in our communities, and so many words and terms people feel affirmed by: umbrella terms, covering a range of genders, such as transgender, non-binary, gender diverse and gender non-conforming.

Then there are Pacific cultural identities, such as fa’afafine (Sāmoan), fakaleiti (Tongan), whakawahine/takatāpui/tangata ira tane, irawhiti, tāhine (Māori), ‘akava’ine (Cook Island), drodrolagi (Fijian) and mahu (Hawaiian).

And identities that are beyond what words can capture, beyond the knowledge of any one person.

One thing that is common across these experiences is that the systems in this country are working against us.

I generated my vaccine pass over the weekend and it bears a name that isn’t correct.

Some of what follows is recommendations on how we can all make this situation suck less for those of us who are potentially going to be excluded from safely engaging in public spaces. Some of it is just spelling out what is and what is not happening around names and the vaccine pass. And some is advice to transgender people who may not have documents that match their name, or a mix of documents, some with correct names and some without. This also applies to the many people who go by shortened or Anglicised names to avoid Pākehā people butchering their given names, or those who have been married, estranged or divorced.

What’s the current deal?

From December 3 you’ll be required to scan into some venues using your vaccine pass, a code that verifies you have received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. This is required for live events, restaurants, bars and cafes, beauty and wellness treatments, hairdressers and gyms, and public and faith-based gatherings.

What the person scanning your pass will see is your vaccination status, name and date of birth only.

No matter what names you used when you set up your Ministry of Health My Health Account, the name that appears on My Covid Record and your vaccine pass is the name attached to your NHI number (whatever was entered as your “preferred name” at the time). If you were born after 1992 or you’ve ever received health or disability care from a GP, clinic or hospital, you’ll have an NHI number.

It will also be the name used on the International Travel Vaccination Certificate, if you intend to travel overseas, and it must match the name on your passport (the name on the vaccine pass, used domestically to get into events etc, doesn’t have to match the name on a passport per se, but if it doesn’t match any of your photo ID… well, that’s what we’re here to figure out).

How do I change my NHI details?

If you are someone whose NHI number doesn’t match the name you go by, you need to “correct” the name associated with your NHI number via your healthcare provider or DHB. They don’t need paperwork to justify this change, they can just update it in their system. Considering how long some of us have to wait for a GP appointment, consider contacting them soon. Some providers are unaware that they can do this, so it might be worth checking or bringing something to convince them if needed (this article perhaps).

Some people have reported success with calling the Ministry of Health directly, but due to the high volume of calls this may take some time or a few attempts. A range of contact details can be found here.

If you have already generated your my vaccine pass and then correct your name associated with your NHI number, you can regenerate the pass so that it reflects that name, but you may need to wait 24 hours.

What should I do if I’m responsible for checking vaccine passes and ID, and the names don’t match?

The vaccine pass that gets emailed to you says “you may be asked to show photo ID”, which sucks for a lot of people. It means some trans people will not be able to participate in society freely. Being outed as trasngender is harmful; it takes away autonomy and control over how we are perceived by society. If every time you enter a shared public space you are forced to provide a document that does not reflect who you are, possibly in conflict with other required documents that might also not reflect who you are, you have to prepare yourself for harm in order to enter those spaces.

The 2019 Counting Ourselves survey found that 32% of transgender and non-binary adults had no form of ID that showed their correct name. That means about a third of our communities will potentially have to navigate these barriers to participation in society.

The Ministry of Health doesn’t require businesses to check anyone’s my vaccine pass information against an ID. It’s up to individual businesses to decide whether or not to do this – it could be because it’s an R18 licensed venue, because the business has decided to make it standard procedure, or simply because the person checking isn’t sure they’re seeing a genuine vaccine pass.

If you work at a business and you can get away with not asking for ID with the vaccine pass, consider doing so. Not just when someone “looks trans”, but as a blanket policy. I love not dying from novel viruses as much as the next person, and I realise this defeats the purpose somewhat, but without a time machine or until it’s easier to make the changes needed, this is where we are at. I am pro-vaccine but also pro-harm reduction.

If you must check ID with people’s vaccine passes, don’t react to mismatched names. Don’t read them aloud. As long as part of the name or the date of birth match, you can assume it’s the same person.

When will this get easier?

There is a rainbow community engagement lead for the Covid-19 vaccine and immunisation programme in the Ministry of Health who is aware of the issues discussed here. They say that the ministry is currently working on solutions for people whose name on their ID is not the same as the name on their vaccine pass, and for people who may not be able to change their NHI preferred name for any reason.

The ministry says it is currently finalising information about how people can change their preferred NHI name themselves without going through their GP, as well as working on some guidance/messaging for GPs and DHBs.

None of these changes will be made before the traffic light system kicks in and there is no way to know what will come of it, but be assured that individuals and organisations are advocating to improve these issues, and someone has a job to listen.

Society