Snap lockdown in Auckland
By Sunrise Fan
@sunrisefan (28524)
Philippines
February 14, 2021 4:05pm CST
At dinner time last night, our phones were ringing with warning text blasts from the health department. Auckland has been placed in lockdown at Alert Level 3 beginning 11:59 PM till Wednesday because of 3 new covid cases which might have been transmitted in the community. The 3 were a husband and wife and their Grade 9 daughter. The wife worked in the laundry department of Sky Chef (which supplies flight food to airlines) but wood sometimes help with food packing. The 3 have now been isolated in quarantine.
Meanwhile, my sisters were ringing me up to inform me that our sister-in-law back home had a stroke and was on the way to the capital city 45 kilometers away where I lived. Good thing we have a cousin who is one of the only two hematologists in the city. She immediately went to the hospital to make arrangements for the admission of my sister-in-law. Without her, it would have been difficult to have the admission just like the brother of my wife who also a stroke last month and who was initially denied admission if not for the insistence of the wife that she would make the hospital responsible if anything happened to her husband.
It’s a very rainy day today and it will be so for the duration of the lockdown.
10 people like this
10 responses
@DaddyEvil (137634)
• United States
14 Feb 21
I don't understand... Why wouldn't they admit your SIL if she needed medical attention? Hospitals here can't refuse service if someone shows up in need of help, even if they have no money/way to pay for services.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137634)
• United States
15 Feb 21
@sunrisefan That's not right!
Good for her! Someone should carry through on the threat, though!
Once, several years ago, I couldn't breathe. We went to the Emergency Room. When we got there the admitting nurse refused to let Pretty answer the questions for me. I couldn't talk... all I could do was gasp for air. I passed out in the chair while that nurse kept telling Pretty I had to answer the questions myself. When I came to, Pretty told me that she started screaming that if someone didn't get me taken care of right then she was suing the hospital, that admitting room nurse and every doctor currently in the hospital for every penny she could get! She said people started boiling out of every door in that building to get me in and taken care of. We never did get a bill for that visit!
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
Under the law, hospitals are not to refuse admission to emergecy cases but oftentimes they get away with it, especially if the patient is an ordinary person. Last month, the brother of my wife also had a mild stroke and was initially denied admission but his wife was in a fighting mood and threatened to hold them accountable if anything bad happened to her husband; they were then forced to admit him.
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
@DaddyEvil Good you came out well from your emergency situation and it’s good that your wife was insistent and bold. Sometimes it takes people to stand their ground or even get rude at times to get things done. Taking the complaint to the higher ups or even the courts back home is a very tedious and time-consuming process that is why aggrieved parties usually do not pursue their case. Unfair world indeed.
1 person likes this
@DianneN (247186)
• United States
18 Feb 21
@sunrisefan That's excellent news. My husband has had both vaccines and I am due for my first one on Feb. 28th.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
18 Feb 21
Thankfully, my niece said that her mom (my SIL) has already gone out of the hospital yesterday. Lockdown here in Auckland has also been lowered a step from Level 3 to Level 2 which means gathering of 100 is now allowed with the observance of health protocols. Vaccination of border frontliners will start tomorrow and their immediate families will be next in line.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
18 Feb 21
@DianneN Glad that you’re soon having the vaccine. Why didn’t you and your husband have it together?
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@kaylachan (71762)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
15 Feb 21
If they isolated the three who became ill (wait did they develop actual symptoms), then another lockdown seems extreme. Good luck over there.
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
I think one of them had symptoms and she was the one who worked with Sky Chef , a flight food provider of airlines.
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
@kaylachan I hope the three of them have not infected anyone else and that they recover soon.
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@rakski (126053)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
sorry to hear about your sister-in-law. I hope the two of them recover soon.
It is really difficult to deal with hospitals nowadays. The protocol is that any procedures need to be done, minor or major requires a covid test. They do not also consult those with throat problems but isolate them and should test them first. Even a slight fever or cough or cold, you need to go to the ER and be isolated
@rakski (126053)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
@sunrisefan
good thing you had some connections. otherwise it will be much more difficult
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
I learned today that, good thing, my SIL had only a mild stroke. It’s ironic that here comes my SIL needing medical attention and her daughter is far away in the US taking care of other people as a nurse. My older brother has passed away more than two decades ago.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
@rakski Yes it's good there is my cousin and also the nursing classmate of my daughter.
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@brokenbee (11090)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
I really admire New Zealand in handling COVID 19 cases..
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
That is why Prime Minister has gained so much respect and admiration from the rest of the world. So with Dr. Ashley Bloomfield who has always been very calm and reassuring.
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
14 Feb 21
Hospital are obliged by law to accept seriously-ill people but sometimes private hospitals get away with circumventing the law. They would often say they’re at full capacity. The lockdown has been placed out of the abundance of caution. NZ has always practiced at going hard and going early since the start of the pandemic last year and this has been effective so far.
1 person likes this
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
14 Feb 21
@sunrisefan Yes, NZ seems to be one of the safest places in the world at the moment.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
14 Feb 21
@jaboUK I hope it continues to be so and I wish the same for you there in UK.
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@JudyEv (342088)
• Rockingham, Australia
15 Feb 21
@sunrisefan Both NZ and Australia are managing the crisis very well at the moment.
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
16 Feb 21
@JudyEv Yes and hopefully your country and NZ continue to do so.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
It's a bit worrying but I believe the government was quick to act.
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@Deepizzaguy (104150)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
14 Feb 21
It is a shame that your area is in lockdown again.
@Deepizzaguy (104150)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
15 Feb 21
@sunrisefan Thank you for sharing your side of the story.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
@Deepizzaguy Thanks for your thoughts too.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
15 Feb 21
I would not think so because it is for the good of the community though it may have caused inconvenience to some. The government is just being cautious and would not want it to go out of hand. As always since the start of the pandemic, their principle is go hard and go early. The population is generally supportive and cooperative.
1 person likes this
@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
14 Feb 21
I could not also understand why admission was difficult for a stroke. Sometimes they have no valid reason at all but oftentimes they say they’re full.
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@sunrisefan (28524)
• Philippines
14 Feb 21
@CarolDM Unfair indeed but that is how it is at times back home and ordinary people just had to bear with it.
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