Easing Auckland restrictions now would be two weeks too early, Māori leaders say

Monday, 8 November 2021

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces the first easing of level 3 restrictions in Waikato (video first published on November 2, 2021).

Māori leaders say that it is two weeks too soon to ease restrictions in Tāmaki Makaurau.

The Government is meeting to review whether public health restrictions will ease across Auckland and Northland on Monday, set to be announced at a 4pm press conference.

Auckland has been in a state of lockdown for almost three months since August 17, moving from alert level 4, to level 3, and is now in alert level 3 step 1.

If Auckland moves into alert level 3, step 2, at 11.59pm on Tuesday, it would mean shopping, public services such as libraries, and gatherings of up to 25 people outside can commence, and funerals, tangihanga, and civil ceremonies can take place with up to 25 people.

Māori Pandemic Group co-leader Sue Crengle says education and social development risks should be weighed up alongside health risks.

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However, a shift to this alert level setting put the vulnerable and unvaccinated at greater risk, said Dr Sue Crengle, as Delta was spreading faster than vaccinations could cope with.

Crengle, a member of the National Māori pandemic group, said another two to three weeks were needed to boost vaccination coverage for Māori so, as the region opens up, they have a chance to protect themselves from Covid-19.

Auckland DHB was at 95 per cent first doses, Waitematā DHB was at 92 per cent for first doses, and Counties Manukau was at 90 per cent first and 80 per cent for second dose, Ministry of Health figures showed.

But the Māori vaccination percentages across these DHBs were 82 per cent, 84 per cent, and 76 per cent respectively.

Crengle said the virus was spreading quickly across the region, too fast for vaccines to stop it, so more time was needed to boost the Māori rates before the city could ease restrictions.

Dr Rawiri Jansen is impressed by the overall figures, but hopes more efforts are made to help the Māori population get jabbed. (File photo)

“Any relaxation of the public health control measures are going to increase that, and with the inequities in vaccination coverage, and Māori making up at least 50 per cent of new cases, that is potentially very bad.

“There is a real risk that it is going to accelerate the spread through populations and whānau who are not protected.”

Papakura Marae chief executive Tony Kake said his kaimahi were going door to door vaccinating whānau but they needed another two weeks to a month to get Māori vaccination rates up to 90 per cent.

“I am supportive of the prime minister’s conversations of opening before Christmas but we need to increase Māori vaccinations before that.”

However, if the region did move to step 2 he would ensure his community was as protected as possible.

“We need to think about how we keep our whānau safe, we need to saturate them in sanitisers and masks.

Co-chair of Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen said it would be a mistake to move down a step as Delta continued to spread across Auckland.

“The broader populace have been marinated on easing restrictions. [But] there are not enough of us vaccinated.

“What I want to see is people following the science. Relaxing our protection settings seems to be accelerating and increasing the outbreak, and it is trending in a community that is least able to be safe.

“It is no good to just throw that group under the bus and say: Well, we tried.”