Japan combats Delta Covid without a lockdown

Lockdowns or vaccines? 3 Pacific nations try diverging paths | CTV News - Nick Perry, Mari Yamaguchi & Rod Mcguirk:

August 22, 2021 - "The discovery of a single local COVID-19 case in New Zealand was enough for the government to put the entire country into strict lockdown this past week.... Elsewhere around the Pacific, though, Japan is resisting such measures in the face of a record-breaking surge, instead emphasizing its accelerating vaccine program. And Australia has fallen somewhere in the middle. 

"All three countries got through the first year of the pandemic in relatively good shape but are now taking diverging paths in dealing with outbreaks of the Delta variant, the highly contagious form that has contributed to a growing sense that the coronavirus cannot be stamped out, just managed.... The differing emphasis on lockdowns versus vaccines -- and how effective such strategies prove to be in beating back the Delta variant -- could have far-reaching consequences for the three countries' economies and the health of their citizens.

"Japan has never imposed lockdowns against the coronavirus. The public is wary of government overreach after the country's fascist period before and during the Second World War, and Japan's postwar constitution lays out strict protections for civil liberties.

"Before the Delta variant, the country managed to keep a lid on coronavirus outbreaks in part because many people in Japan were already used to wearing surgical masks for protection from spring allergies or when they caught colds. Now, almost everyone on public transportation wears a mask during commuting hours. But late at night, people tend to uncover in restaurants and bars, which has allowed the variant to spread. 

"Hosting the Tokyo Olympic Games didn't help either. While strict protocols kept infections inside the games to a minimum, experts such as Dr. Shigeru Omi, a key medical adviser to the government, say the Olympics created a festive air that led people in Japan to lower their guard. New cases in Japan have this month leaped to 25,000 each day, more than triple the highest previous peak. Omi considers that a disaster.

"Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday expanded and extended a state of emergency covering Tokyo and other areas until at least mid-September, though most of the restrictions aren't legally enforceable. Many governors are urging the prime minister to consider much tougher restrictions. But Suga said lockdowns have been flouted around the world, and vaccines are 'the way to go.'

"Daily vaccinations in Japan increased tenfold from May to June as thousands of worksites and colleges began offering shots, but a slow start has left the nation playing catch-up. Only about 40% of people are fully vaccinated."

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/lockdowns-or-vaccines-3-pacific-nations-try-diverging-paths-1.5556996

Violence at Melbourne, Australia lockdown protest

Police say Melbourne anti-lockdown protest ‘most violent in nearly 20 years’ | The Guardian - Australia Associated Press:

August 22, 2021 - "An anti-lockdown protest held in Melbourne on Saturday was one of the most violent the city has seen in 20 years, Victoria’s top police officer says. Chief commissioner Shane Patton said his officers had no choice but to use non-lethal weapons to defend themselves from an angry mob.... It is the first time during a lockdown protest, police have used such tactics that included rounds of pepper spray projectiles and canisters.

"At least nine officers ended up in hospital after being pelted with projectiles, punched and kicked by some members of a 4,000 strong crowd who turned out to protest the city’s Covid-19 lockdown.... More than 700 extra Victorian police officers were deployed to contain the lockdown protest. More than 200 people were arrested including some on remand for previous crimes [sic]. At least 19 will be taken to court rather than issued with fines in excess of $5,000. Two people will face assault charges....

"Eight of the nine wounded officers have since left hospital but one remains for further examination. Injuries included blows to the body, cuts, bruises, suspected broken noses, one possible incident of loss of consciousness, and one leg injury. [It was not reported whether any protesters were injured or hospitalized - gd].... 

"Patton said.... ''I just hope it doesn’t result in the mass spread of Covid-19. The risk that those people have now posed to the rest of the community, by their conduct yesterday, was disgraceful and selfish.' Patton also revealed 48 people have been fined almost $5,500 each over an illegal engagement party in Caulfield North, including the future bride and groom. That number is expected to rise....

"On Sunday, hundreds of protesters gathered at the NSW-Queensland border for an anti-lockdown protest, waving signs reading 'open the border now' and 'I was born free'. Video showed a man riding a horse encouraging people to cross the border, which Queensland has closed to all but essential workers who have received at least one vaccine dose. NSW police arrested eight people and issued 50 infringement notices to protesters, while Queensland police arrested one person for disorderly conduct....

"New South Wales police also arrested 47 people and fined more than 260 in relation to protests on Saturday. They issued 137 tickets after stopping around 38,000 cars approaching Sydney city, while a 32-year-old man who allegedly assaulted an officer was arrested.... The constable was taken to hospital for head and neck injuries.

"More than 2,000 people also gathered in Brisbane City Botanic Gardens on Saturday to rally against the lockdown and vaccine measures. Queensland police said no arrests had been made."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/22/police-say-melbourne-anti-lockdown-protest-most-violent-in-nearly-20-years

Dogs shot in Australia to limit Covid spread

Rescue dogs shot dead by NSW council due to COVID-19 restrictions | Sydney Morning Herald - Angus Thompson:

August 22, 2021 - "Several impounded dogs due to be rescued by a shelter have instead been shot dead by a rural council in NSW under its interpretation of COVID-19 restrictions, alarming animal activists and prompting a government probe. Bourke Shire Council, in the state’s north-west, killed the dogs to prevent volunteers at a Cobar-based animal shelter from travelling to pick up the animals last week, according to council’s watchdog, the Office of Local Government [OLG]....

“'OLG has been informed that the council decided to take this course of action to protect its employees and community, including vulnerable Aboriginal populations, from the risk of COVID-19 transmission,' a spokesman from the government agency said. The spokesman said the agency was examining the circumstances of the incident to find out whether companion animal and cruelty prevention laws had been broken.

"The Herald attempted to contact the council administration multiple times, but received no response, and a member of Rural Outback Respite/Rescue – the shelter that was supposed to receive the dogs – declined to comment. A source who is familiar with the arrangement said the shelter volunteers are distressed and had COVID-safe measures in place to handle the dogs, one of which was a new mother. According to NSW Health, there have been no recent locally acquired COVID-19 cases in Cobar....

"[OLG] Minister Shelley Hancock, who has previously faced questions in Parliament over the shooting of animals in council pounds, did not comment. However, animal liberation campaigner Lisa Ryan called for an urgent investigation.... Asked ... in March whether she knew about councils shooting animals to euthanise them, Ms Hancock said she didn’t. 'If it was a practice, I would be concerned about it — if it was a cat or a dog,' she said, before agreeing to answer questions on notice regarding the practice. A later answer said councils weren’t required to tell the government how they killed animals under their care....

"The OLG spokesman said the agency issued advice to all councils about operating pounds during the COVID-19 outbreak, including changing procedures to ensure those services continued while keeping staff and volunteers safe.... On July 30, the agency said pounds and shelters could remain open to the public, and as people involved in animal welfare, their staff were authorised workers in locked-down areas."

Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/rescue-dogs-shot-dead-by-nsw-council-due-to-covid-19-restrictions-20210821-p58ksh.html

Agencia Brasilia, Dogs in animal control center, Brasilia, 2015. CC BY, Wikimedia Commons.

New Zealand trapped in a ZeroCovid fantasy

New Zealand’s Zero Covid trap | Spiked Online - James Bolt:  

August 19, 2021 - "If you are one of the 4,060 people who live in Balclutha on New Zealand’s South Island, you are forbidden from visiting friends or family, sitting down at a café, taking your child to a playground or school, or going to work (unless you are a key worker). You can’t even get vaccinated, as New Zealand has briefly suspended its vaccine rollout so it can ‘take place in a safe environment’, free of Covid. 

"All this because, over 900 miles and a 22-hour drive away in Auckland, one case of Covid was discovered. Yes: one case was all it took to send the whole of New Zealand into a snap three-day lockdown, and the entire city of Auckland into a seven-day lockdown.

"Granted, the Delta variant is extremely infectious. The new case – which is likely a Delta case – has already been linked to a number of other new cases. There will likely be more in the next few days. But to rob healthy people of their livelihoods, even when they are nearly a thousand miles away from the ‘hotspot’, is an extraordinary overreach.

"To defend this lockdown, people point to New Zealand’s pitifully low vaccination rate. Less than 35 per cent of New Zealand’s population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and less than 20 per cent has been fully vaccinated. In comparison, the UK has fully vaccinated around 60 per cent of the population.

"Much like in Australia, New Zealanders have been fed the false promise of ‘Zero Covid’ for so long that they are complacent about getting vaccinated. The new case that sparked the lockdown was New Zealand’s first case of transmission within the community in six months. Why get vaccinated if there is next to no risk of catching Covid? If a case emerges, the government will just lock the country down anyway.

"A popular view is that once New Zealand is vaccinated to the same level as the UK, no national lockdown will be needed. In the meantime, the vulnerable population must be protected. But in this scenario, ... When you decide that any number of Covid cases should lead to a nationwide lockdown, the level of vaccination becomes almost irrelevant to the enforcement of the Zero Covid policy.

"Widely vaccinated Britain recorded 26,852 new cases on Tuesday. For New Zealand to experience a similar infection rate, it would need to record around 1,900 cases per day. After 18 months of being told that a single case of Covid is an existential threat to New Zealand, will even a vaccinated public accept 1,900 cases per day without locking down? As evidence emerges that even fully vaccinated people can be infected with Covid and pass it on to others, it seems unlikely.

"Here is the reality of Zero Covid laid bare. There is no escape. If eliminating Covid is the goal, there is no end to lockdowns, no end to restrictions and no end to the constant fear that, at any time, your freedoms will be taken away and your life will be put on hold. Your country can be largely free of the virus for six months, but when one person in a city you have never been to tests positive, lockdown returns. New Zealand will leave this lockdown, but the fear of the next one will remain until the government and the people shake themselves out of this Zero Covid fantasy."

Read more: https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/08/19/new-zealands-zero-covid-trap/

Spain's Supreme Court rejects vaccine passes

Why has the Covid health pass for daily affairs been rejected in Spain and not elsewhere in Europe? | The Local.com - Alex Dunham:

19 August 19, 2021 - "Twenty-two European countries require hospitality green passes or similar health passports for citizens and tourists to enter restaurants, bars, museums and more public places.... Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece and Italy are among the countries in Europe which have – to a greater or lesser extent – introduced covid health pass schemes to control access to the interior of hospitality, sporting and cultural venues. 

"But in Spain, the launch of a Digital Covid Certificate to verify that customers and visitors have been vaccinated, tested or recovered from Covid-19 hasn’t managed to take off. Regional authorities in four Spanish regions – the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Cantabria and Galicia – have all seen ... introduction of such measures ... pushed aside by local judges.

"On Wednesday August 18th, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled against the matter of using Spain’s Digital Covid Certificate to access nightlife venues. This suggests that there will be little point for any of Spain’s 17 regional governments to attempt to use Covid health passes in their territories for any purpose other than travel abroad, and if such measures were introduced, they would only be in force for a matter of days or weeks until a court shelved it.

"The reasoning of judges, both regional and national, is that having to prove Covid vaccination, testing or recovery status to enter a bar or visit a museum breaches fundamental rights without having enough of a positive impact on public health. In the case of the Supreme Court’s latest decision, there wasn’t enough 'substantial justification' for the requirement of a health pass in bars and nightclubs across the entire region of Andalusia, seeing it more as a 'preventative measure' rather than a necessary action.  

"Instead their verdict is that such a measure 'restrictively affects basic elements of freedom of movement and the right of assembly,' and that even 'a technical report from the General Directorate of Public Health' of Andalusia is just an 'opinion that does not allow us to understand the proportionality of said measure'.

"This clashes with the stance of judges in neighbouring France, where the top national court approved the government’s Covid health passports for locals and tourists to enter a variety of establishments, only tweaking the initial conditions. In Italy, the national government has been able to require Covid health passes to access certain venues without the matter having to go to the constitutional court. In Germany, restrictions vary between states but proof of Covid testing or vaccination is widely accepted for hospitality customers to be allowed inside establishments. However, the EU’s three biggest economies have seen thousands of protesters take to the streets to slam the mandatory imposition of these QR Code documents. 

"In Austria and Norway, Covid health passes are also considered legal and haven’t been met with much resistance by the public. Sweden on the other hand is among the EU countries where Covid health passes for venues haven’t been introduced, with the Scandinavian nation continuing with a more unregulated way of handling the pandemic and the matter of health passports is not even due to appear in court.

Read more: https://www.thelocal.com/20210819/why-has-the-covid-health-pass-for-daily-affairs-been-rejected-in-spain-and-not-elsewhere-in-europe/

Another lockdown for one case in New Zealand

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern locks down Auckland for one case of Covid again, and this time includes the rest of the country.

Covid-19 community case: Nationwide level 4 lockdown | RNZ:

August 17, 2021 - "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced an alert-level 4 lockdown starting at 11.59pm tonight for seven days in Auckland and Coromandel, and three days elsewhere. Ardern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield briefed media after a Cabinet meeting on the Covid-19 community case identified in Auckland today. The Ministry of Health announced about 2.30pm today a new case had been found in the community in Auckland, saying a link between the case and the border or managed isolation had not been established.... 

"Bloomfield said they were assuming it is the Delta variant.... 'I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for that eventuality and that we will now be putting in place that plan to contain and stamp out Covid-19 once again,' Ardern said.... Ardern said New Zealand was one of the last countries to experience a case of Delta. It was a 'game changer' and the country only had one chance to get on top of it, she said....

"People must stay at home in level 4, only leaving for essential services, she said. 'And if you undertake these activities, please wear a mask when you leave your house.' Stay 2m away from anyone you pass, don't congregate and don't stop to talk to your neighbours, she said. 'We know from evidence overseas, that the delta variant can spread just by walking past someone'....

"The public can drive locally to essential services, such as the supermarket, but need to stay 2m away from others and wear a mask. The public are asked to wear a mask when they go out anywhere. 'Remember to always act like you have Covid-19. Stay clear of others and don't put them in harm's way,' Ardern said. The government will provide the necessary financial support over the coming period.

"Ardern said vaccinations would be suspended for 48 hours, but vaccinated people must follow the rules like everybody else.... Health officials will be looking at what extra protocols might need to be put in place before the vaccination campaign resumes. Bloomfield says the most important thing is to stop the outbreak, which requires stopping people's movement."

Read more: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/449376/covid-19-community-case-nationwide-level-4-lockdown

PM Trudeau calls a pandemic election in Canada

Canada is headed for a federal election on Sept. 20 | CBC News: 

August 15, 2021 - "Canadians will head to the polls on Sept. 20. Following a meeting with Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau this morning, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon approved his request to dissolve Parliament, triggering the issuing of the election writs and formally beginning Canada's 44th federal election. The campaign will last 36 days — the minimum campaign length permitted by law.

"Opposition parties have argued against an early election call. Canada's next fixed-date election was set for October 2023. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh went so far as to urge Simon to refuse Trudeau's request. Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said Monday he was concerned about holding a campaign during a fourth wave of the pandemic and accused Trudeau of pursuing an election in his own political 'self-interest.'

"From the podium outside of Rideau Hall this morning, Trudeau pushed back against his critics, saying Canadians deserve a chance to decide who should guide the country out of the pandemic. 'In this pivotal, consequential moment, who wouldn't want a say? Who wouldn't want their chance to help decide where our country goes from here?' he said. Trudeau's summer push for a majority makes sense in a time of 'urgent change,' Liberals argue....

"At dissolution, the Liberals hold 155 seats in the House of Commons, while the Conservatives have 119, the Bloc Québécois 32, the New Democrats 24 and the Green Party two. Five seats are held by independents. The federal Liberals continue to hold a lead in public polling, capturing 35.6 per cent of public support.... That level of support puts them just in range of the 170 seats needed to form a majority government."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal-election-call-1.6141189

Canadians appear to be heading into a pandemic election — and many are wondering why | CBC News - Nick Boisvert:

August 14, 2021 - "A variant-fuelled fourth wave of the pandemic is pushing COVID-19 case counts to their highest levels in months. Extreme heat and wildfires are threatening the lives and homes of people in British Columbia.All of which has Canadians wondering — why exactly are we having an election right now?... The decision means the minority Liberal government will have spent less than two years in power.... Elections in Canada are supposed to be held on fixed dates every four years, but that legislation doesn't prevent a prime minister from asking for an earlier vote....

"Despite Canada's standing as one of the world leaders in vaccination, some experts warn that an election during a global pandemic is something to be avoided..... 'I don't think having an election right now is a good idea,' said Dr. Jeff Kwong, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of Toronto, in an email. He said Canada appears to be on the cusp of a 'brutal' wave driven by the delta variant. 'The campaign and election will likely amplify this wave and voter turnout will probably be dampened due to fear of infection,' Kwong added.

"Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said earlier this month that voting in a pandemic climate can be done safely, although she didn't comment on the risks involved in parties conducting cross-country campaigns.... 

"According to Elections Canada, as many as five million Canadians are expected to vote by mail in the election, compared to fewer than 50,000 in the 2019 vote. Dr. Fahad Razak, a member of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, said precautionary measures like mail-in voting and a more spread-out voting period could keep the election safe. He also pointed to recent provincial and territorial elections, which took place without any firm evidence that they were driving transmission rates."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/election-timing-concerns-1.6140811