As NZ moves to the Red alert level setting for covid, healthy people are being confined to tiny rooms in quarantine facilities around the country without displaying any symptoms of illness at all, some having had a positive PCR test for covid at some stage during their stay. The Daily Examiner spoke to one of those NZers today, who is in a facility with 330 others who have tested positive, mostly for the Omicron variety.
Jane* and her husband are both below 50 years and perfectly healthy. Neither is experiencing any symptom of illness, nor are any of the other 60 or so people that Jane has been able to ask, housed in the same MIQ facility. In fact, Jane’s husband has consistently tested negative throughout their confinement, now in its 25th day. Jane tested positive on their 8th day in MIQ at another facility, following consecutive negative tests on their 3rd and 5th days. The couple were then transferred to their present facility on their 10th day.
Jane confirmed that PCR tests are being used, not Rapid Antigen Tests. Whether NZ testing laboratories have moved to using the CDC Influenza SARS-CoV-2 (Flu SC2) Multiplex Assay or are still using the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel is not known. The difference is that “a multiplexed method…can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses“. The CDC announced last July that it would cease the use of the Diagnostic Panel from the end of 2021.
Jane could have completed her MIQ stay on 20th January but her husband would have remained confined for another 10 days on his own, so she opted to remain with him, having just flown around the globe together. They both previously had the Delta variant in July last year. Jane recalled that they were “flat out” for 2 weeks from being ill and took 2 weeks to recovery completely. Despite having had the virus, Jane’s husband was still required to be vaccinated in order to travel to NZ. He was “vehemently sick from it” for over 2 weeks and comments that he would rather have caught covid again instead, having already recovered from it before.
Jane does not wish to minimise the impact of the Delta variant, saying “I wouldn’t wish it on my mum for instance“. Omicron however, “is a joke“.
A conversation with one of the doctors at the facility revealed that none of the 330 people who are being confined at Jane’s facility for testing positive, actually have any symptoms. Some of the detainees have been held for over 50 days, far beyond the supposed maximum of 27 days, because they are part of a family group and are considered to have been close contacts of someone who had tested positive. By the time Jane and her husband are allowed to leave MIQ, they would both have been held for 34 days, provided he does not return a positive test in the next few days. If he does, then he would have to be held for another 14 days.
One of the detainees in the facility arrived a few days ago following a positive result from a test taken as part of pre-flight requirements to return to Australia from NZ. This person has been asymptomatic throughout and is assumed to have tested positive for the Omicron variant. Infection would thus have occured in the community in NZ.
Jane says the constant uncertainty is very upsetting and unnerving. Having expressed her concerns to the medical team, she has been granted 2 walks a day rather than 1, for 20 minutes each time. However the slots available for going for a walk in a fenced-off carpark compound are booked up by other detainees very quickly so if she does not call at 6am each day to make a booking, she is unable to take a walk. “Yard times” are her only opportunity to leave her room each day. Only walking is permitted, no jogging is allowed, allegedly to minimise exhalations. Jane also describes MIQ as dehumanising, with the security and medical staff calling up each detainee only by their allocated number. No names are used except for their daily phone call to check on their mental health. None of the rooms are being vacuumed, even for those that have been continuously occupied for more than 50 days, although some items for cleaning have been provided. Jane describes the hygiene situation as “disgusting“.
For the 330 healthy and normally active people being confined in that facility, this has been a very trying experience.
This is in stark contrast with the UK, where Jane says there is “no vax hype” as there is in NZ. She does not recall being asked about her covid vaccination status when visiting her GP while living there in the last year. Interactions with friends there did not involve questions about covid vaccination status either, whereas it has been among the first questions from friends in NZ that Jane has not seen in many years. The UK has also just announced that use of the NHS Covid Pass will no longer be mandatory and is reversing its vaccination mandates for sectors which had previously been mandated. One of Jane’s friends just received the news yesterday that their work in addiction services would now not be vaccine mandated, following earlier announcements that it would be.
The NZ Ministry of Health announced today that it does not know the source of the Omicron cases in the community and that it expects there will be thousands of cases that are presently undetected. People who are close contacts of existing cases and refuse to be tested will face fines of up to $4,000 or 6 months’ imprisonment. With the recent moves by the UK and other countries to manage covid as endemic, NZ has now arrived at the decision point: to follow suit and rejoin the world or remain an isolated hermit kingdom.
* Not her real name
