Lockdown

The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing.

The important financial hub has battled a new wave of infections for nearly a month, although case numbers are not high by some international standards.

Authorities had so far resisted locking down the city of some 25 million people to avoid destabilising the economy.

But after Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the early days of the pandemic, authorities appear to have changed course.

A woman, only identified as Ms Wang, posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat last week that she had got locked down with her date after visiting his house for a meal.

In the post, she said that she had recently returned to the city of Zhengzhou from Guangzhou ahead of the Lunar New Year.

"I'm getting quite old, so my parents arranged more than 10 blind dates for me," she said in this post. She wrote that her fifth date had said "he was good at cooking, and invited me to his house so he could cook a meal".

He is concerned that his people of Vanimo Green River electorate, which borders Indonesia, are dead against lockdowns as it will cripple their livelihood, businesses and affect their children’s education.

According to the National Control Centre, two border provinces, Western and West Sepik including Easter Highlands Province are under lockdown as of yesterday.

“COVID-19 has been present in Papua New Guinea for two years now but it is not decimating the population as predicted by our doomsayers.

There are 10 cases in the community and almost 70 locations of interest in Auckland and Coromandel.

Shopping malls, bars and cinemas across Auckland have been added to the Ministry of Health list of locations of interest meaning potentially thousands of people are now considered contacts.

Last night, malls in Albany and New Lynn, and supermarkets in different parts of Auckland were added.

So far, the earliest potential exposure site dates back two weeks to 3 August.

The Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response David Manning issued this new directive on Saturday.

All persons in West New Britain Province who are currently out of the province are allowed to return to the province within the next five days beginning Saturday January 2, 2021.

The Controller of the PNG COVID-19 National Pandemic Response David Manning issued this new directive on Saturday.

Similarly, those from other provinces currently in the West New Britain have five days to arrange for their travel home.

Muthuvel said they were caught off-guard and argued that the provincial leaders including other stakeholders were not consulted on the lockdown.

He added that the people who will be affected are those on holidays and students returning for 2021 school year. 

The Nga Vaka o Kāiga Tapu campaign was launched this month by The Cause Collective, a Pacific social change agency.

The Cause Collective have spent the past three years working with family violence practitioners, Pacific providers and community leaders, including police, social workers and church ministers and training using specific cultural frameworks in eight different Pacific languages through the Nga Vaka o Kāiga Tapu programme.

In a joint media conference today, Secretary General, Clemence Kanau and other union presidents, claimed that public sector workers are well looked after by the Government.

The Workers Union representatives met today to air their concerns about the ill treatment received by workers in the private sector.

Trade Union Congress Secretary General, Clemence Kanau said the government is being unfair to workers in the private sector.

He stressed that a mix of social distancing, testing, contact tracing and isolation, will be crucial to further curb the spread of the new coronavirus already devastating much of the globe. 

“We’re all learning all the time and adjusting our strategy, based on the latest available evidence”, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, summarising the guidance which will be available in full on the agency’s website on Tuesday.