March 27, 2020
Extra money for NGOs to keep bubble intact
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Whānau Ora and Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare says while the vast majority of New Zealanders are adhering to the restrictions of the lockdown, he is still getting calls from constituents asking if they can move around.
Unless they are performing an essential service the answer is inevitably no, as the country tries to break the train of transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
He acknowledges it’s particularly tough for people living in overcrowded households or with existing domestic tensions, which is why further money has been allocated in recent days to whānau ora commissioning agencies and the non-government organisations like City Mission and women’s refuges.
"It's almost unavoidable but we can do our best to try to mitigate some of those issues in a crowded house. It's okay if you are in the bubble – the Prime Minister talks constantly about the bubble and keeping as much distance as possible but more importantly keeping people outside of that bubble – so there are a lot of community organisations who are working with houses," he says.
Peeni Henare says usually Civil Defence is concerned with people displaced from their houses, so it is learning a lot about how to support people to stay at home.
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