Christchurch’s Covid cases live in a highly vaccinated suburb of the city, a councillor says. David Williams reports
By city councillor Aaron Keown’s telling, Bishopdale is pretty much average for Christchurch. But in ways that have become much more relevant today, the suburb in the city’s north-west, not far from the airport, is a bit of star performer.
“Bishopdale’s not the oldest suburb in Christchurch but it’s one of the older suburbs. A lot of people will remember it as they’ve driven down Harewood Rd before and seen the big park that has the elephant with the slide on it – it’s quite a memorable sight, so a lot of people think of ‘Elephant Park’.
“Bishopdale is about the most average suburb you can get in the entire city – as in the house value, the type of people. These are genuine Christchurch people that mostly work, send their kids to local schools, are good people. This is as normal and average as Christchurch gets.”
Today it’s the centre of the delta outbreak’s latest spread from Auckland.
As revealed this morning, two Christchurch people tested positive last night – Stuff reports they’re a woman in her 50s and a man in his 40s, who are both unvaccinated and weren’t regularly scanning.
Keown says the news was a bit of a shock.
“The only silver lining at the moment is I’m proud to be a representative for a neighbourhood that’s highly vaccinated.”
As of yesterday, according to the Covid19map website, more than 90 percent of people living in Bishopdale North and Bishopdale South have had at least one jab, compared to a national average of 87 percent.
“That’s going to certainly slow any spread, if there’s spread,” Keown says. (One of the city’s largest testing and vaccination centres is nearby, in Orchard Rd. Vaccinations are also available at the pharmacy in Bishopdale Mall. “That’s where I got my double jabs,” Keown says.)
The two Christchurch cases are among 89 announced today, including 83 more cases in Auckland, where the delta outbreak is centred. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said there would be no change to alert levels.
Dr Rod Jackson, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Auckland, says Bishopdale’s vaccination rates aren’t high enough to make a real difference to a delta outbreak, so he was interested there was no alert level change. “What I think it means is that their sense is that they can keep a lid on this, based on what they know that they haven’t released yet.”
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the two cases were now in a quarantine facility, and nine close contacts, from three households were isolating and being tested.
The second positive case works as a truck driver, Bloomfield said, and their employer was helping to trace his movements of the three-and-a-half days he worked while potentially infectious.
Testing centres were busy this morning, and had been scaled up to meet expected demand.
Wastewater samples taken on Tuesday, covering about 300,000, were negative for Covid-19.
Bloomfield: “It rules out that there’s a reasonable number of cases there but of course it may not detect one or two additional cases. There is going to be increased testing over coming days there as well testing by ESR from the Waimakariri, including Rangiora, Kaiapoi, and Woodend, and also adding in Ashburton.”
Hipkins added: “The person concerned, in regard to their travel in and out of Auckland, had a legitimate reason for the travel and they did get a test before they returned back to Christchurch.”
‘Lucky break’
Keown, the city councillor, says the infected pair visited other people last week.
“But we don’t know if they were infectious at that time. I’m hoping they weren’t, and then at the point they got sick it appears they haven’t been in touch with other people very much. Let’s hope that Christchurch dodges a bullet.”
The public health team is tracking the infected pair’s movements, to identify locations of interest.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel said it was a lucky break the city could stay at Level 2.
“The two cases that have been confirmed in Christchurch should be enough to shatter any residual hesitancy about getting a vaccine.”
Dr Helen Skinner, Canterbury District Health Board’s senior responsible officer for the Covid-19 response, said in a statement there were 36 physical beds within the intensive care unit and children’s high care areas of Christchurch Hospital which can be used in a pandemic response.
“The DHB has 54 negative pressure rooms across its facilities. 38 of these are in Christchurch Hospital.”
An area of Christchurch Hospital is being upgraded to provide more capacity in the event of a significant outbreak of COVID-19 cases. “The upgraded ward, named Parkside Ground Medical, will provide a dedicated space for the DHB to treat COVID-19 positive patients. We expect the works on the new space to be completed by the end of this month.”
Keown hopes by the end of today, when locations of interest are announced, people’s minds can be put at ease.
“Until then people need to obviously do the right thing – mask up, sign in, and get vaccinated if you aren’t already.
“If people have friends or family that aren’t yet vaccinated, reach out to them and have a rational conversation. Don’t go for name calling or ridiculing or anything like that. Just ask them why. Just have a conversation. For a lot of people it’s about authority telling them they have to do something that seems to be an issue.”
It might be statistically average, but Keown’s confident Bishopdale residents will have each other’s backs.
“An event like this certainly won’t tear our neighbourhood apart, it’ll just bring everyone a little closer together.”
