I am going to paint a disturbing picture with my next comment. I have said that where I live what was done was pretty much what New Zealand did and because of that we here are in a good position. No social distancing, everything open, no masks etc etc
Disturbingly, we have had two people test positive after they had isolated for 14 days.
“What made these positive results unusual was they came after the two individuals had completed a fourteen day period of isolation…….”
I don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to us but these two tested positive on day 21. They had diligently followed the rules here having returned from elsewhere. They were officially told to go about their normal business after 14 days of isolation. So, they not unreasonably did so. The authorities did, in my humble opinion, all what they could be expected to do. They traced, contacted any who might have been contacts etc etc
I cannot fault how they went about dealing with this situation here. What is worrying is that perhaps the 14 day isolation period isn’t now enough.
“The two individuals who tested positive, arrived here, accompanied by another person, on Thursday the 10 December. All three began the required fourteen day period of self-isolation in shared accommodation. Having displayed no symptoms of the virus, the self-isolation period ended at noon on Wednesday the 23 December and all three individuals were free to go about their business. On Wednesday the 30 December, one of the individuals called the COVID-111 service to report that they had COVID-like symptoms. They were told to self-isolate and were booked in for a test.
That test result came back the next day – New Year’s Eve – and was found to be positive. The individual was required to self-isolate and the contact tracing process began. Eight close contacts were initially identified.”
That was 7 days after the end of the self isolation period which is not broken here, unless you have a jet ski.
This is a worrying development. If this virus remains transmissible beyond the currently advised isolation period, perhaps because of the new variant then we are in for hurt. We don’t know this yet but I’ll keep you posted.