A public health expert is disappointed at the lack of “strategic direction” when it comes to Covid19 and the “rest of the country.”
There was no mention of the South Island during the hour-long press conference fronted by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Covid19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Professor Nick Wilson from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago said “the Government has wisely kept the current Alert Level settings for Auckland, Waikato and Northland.”
“But hopefully the latter two regions can soon move down to Alert Level 2 if there is no evidence of uncontrolled community spread in the coming days (based on community testing and wastewater testing).
“It was disappointing, however, that the Government did not clarify its strategic direction concerning Auckland and the rest of the country.”
“It was also of concern that there was no announcement about strengthening internal borders around Auckland to prevent spread to other regions.”
“For places like the South Island, we probably should be aiming to have some border controls so as to replicate the success of Tasmania, which has had no community cases for over 500 days.”
“.While maintaining its current Covid-19-free status, the South Island could potentially be moved to a lower Alert Level once a tighter border has been established around regions in the North Island with current or potential community transmission. If there is spread to other parts of the North Island in coming weeks and months, then the South Island should have its own tight border around it.”
“The vaccine mandates were a very welcome move by the Government and these are well-targeted towards health and education workers who work with vulnerable populations.”
“This is entirely justifiable from a duty-of-care perspective and is an increasingly common approach in other high-income countries, including Australia. For those health and education workers who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, there will often be alternative work roles available where they do not interact with the public.”
