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Lighter side of lockdown page 9
Sadly, it is a nail in the coffin for many enterprises that utilise the Gulf page 3
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E EDITION 1 August 27, 2021
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Second Delta case in Warkworth
A staff member at CHT Amberlea in Algies Bay was confirmed as a positive Covid-19 case last night (August 26). In a release on the CHT website, chief executive Carriann Hall says the staff member is a household contact of a confirmed Covid-19 case and went into precautionary self-isolation earlier this week. She says the rest home will be conducting surveillance testing for all staff and residents via a mobile testing unit. “Staff members who have been working closely with the positive staff member have gone into self-isolation and will only return to work once cleared by Public Health,” her message said. “We are working to ensure we have adequate staffing levels to continue to take care of all our residents.” Residents who were close contacts of the staff member are currently being identified by Public Health and will go into precautionary isolation. This is the second case confirmed in Warkworth this week. The other case is linked to one of the large Auckland clusters, but the Ministry of Health has not released any further details. As at 10am this morning, there were no locations of interest in Warkworth. Organisers fear the Kowhai Festival may be in doubt if the Government takes a hard line on its scanning rules.
Scanning rule risk for Kowhai Festival A decision to introduce mandatory scanning for businesses and large gatherings will sound the death knell for events such as the annual Kowhai Festival in Warkworth unless the Government can be flexible, a festival organiser says. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says those responsible for certain businesses and events will need to ensure people keep a record when they visit, either by scanning QR codes with the Covid-19 Tracer app or making a manual record.
The new rule is designed to ensure that the Government can contact trace quickly in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19. It would apply to places where people gather consistently and in large numbers including cafes, restaurants, bars, casinos, concerts, gyms, nightclubs and libraries. Kowhai Festival organiser Murray Chapman says while he agrees with the rationale behind the new rule, he thinks the Government needs to allow some
leeway for event organisers and businesses. He says for unticketed events such as the Kowhai Festival Huge Day Out, which takes place on Warkworth streets, it is just not physically possible for organisers to ensure everyone scans in. He thinks that as long as the organiser does everything possible with QR codes and manual registers scattered throughout the venue, that should be sufficient. “If the Government insists you have to
off the drawing board . . . Graham SaweII
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER
ensure there needs to be 100 per cent sign in then that will be the end of outdoor events that are not ticketed,” he says. Mr Chapman says that would be a great shame, because when New Zealand emerged from the last Level 4 lockdown people were desperate to attend events and celebrate their new found freedom. He says planning for this year’s Kowhai continued page 2
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