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National Māori pandemic group Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā, says it's time to shift some of the resources dedicated to COVID-19 testing back to immediate primary health needs.
Co-chair Dr Rawiri Jansen says rheumatic fever testing, cervical smears and management of respiratory illnesses have taken a back seat to the coronavirus.
"We've had this kind of border lapse – a couple of Karens going down to Wellington – and we've got a bunch of activity trying to sort that out and get it tightened, that's really important and really good and I think we should be confident about that work, I'm glad it's being done. The rest of the community, we don't have COVID travelling in our community so we want to make sure all those other things are being addressed," he says.
Dr Rawiri Jansen says there is a huge backlog of testing that needs to be done before winter illnesses peak.
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