There has been 100 days of no detected community transmission of Covid-19 in New Zealand. All the new cases since the beginning of May have come into the country and been contained in isolation or quarantine.
As at 9 August:
- Number of confirmed cases in New Zealand: 1,219
- Number of probable cases: 350
- Number of confirmed and probable cases: 1,569
- Number of deaths: 22
- Number of active cases: 23
- Number of cases currently in hospital: 0
Over the last week there has been 3-5000 tests done a day with no positive results from the community.
This has been a very successful management of Covid here due to the actions of the Ministry of Health and the Government, due to a mostly compliant population, and due to some luck.
While some states and territories in Australia have also managed to restrict Covid very well Melbourne and Victoria have had a bad month after Covid got out into the community and spread rapidly, and the death toll has nearly trebled to 295.
Yesterday’s daily update in Victoria:
- As of 9 August 2020, the total number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Victoria is 14,659 with 394 new cases diagnosed since yesterday.
- Of the new cases, 49 are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and 345 are under investigation.
- There are 2,758 cases that may indicate community transmission, an increase of 174 since yesterday’s report.
- 634 people are in hospital, including 43 patients in intensive care.
- Sadly, there have been 17 new deaths reported since yesterday. To date, 210 people have died from coronavirus (COVID-19) in Victoria.
- There are 7,854 cases currently active in Victoria. 6,378 people have recovered.
- More than 1,801,300 tests have been processed – an increase of 41,416 since yesterday.
That looks grim for Victoria, and a concern here – like many Kiwis I have relations living there.
Opening trans-Tasman borders looks some time off at best. I doubt I will be able to get my planned Australian visit in this year.
Worldwide there are still major problems with Covid, with total cases nearing 20 million and 726 thousand recorded deaths.
As at the end of 8 August GMT here are the worst 20 countries (Worldometer):

A quarter of total cases (now over 5 million) and over a fifth of total deaths (165 thousand) have been in the United States.
Brazil has also been bad (now over 100 thousand deaths), and Mexico and India are having increasing problems
Europe had had major problems but Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and the UK seem to have mostly got things under control.
But as resurgences in Victoria and some US states have shown, it is easy for Covid to get put of control.
The impact of Covid is likely to continue at least for the rest of the year and probably well into next year.
I’m very grateful that Covid is under control here, but I’m aware that it is far from over, and the economic impact is likely to increase from September after wage subsidies run out this month.