September 14, 2020
Complacency creeps in as COVID levels pondered
All eyes will be on Wellington this afternoon as Cabinet considers whether to reduce COVID-19 alert levels on Wednesday.
The decision comes after a weekend in which a worker at the quarantine facility at Māngere’s Jet Park Inn tested positive, and people who visited sessions at a Takapuna gym last week were asked to self-isolate because one of their classmates unknowingly had the coronavirus.
Auckland Regional Public Health Service says as well as attending the Les Mills classes on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, the person also shopped at the Warehouse and Countdown in Milford on Thursday morning – although the risk to staff and other shoppers at those places is considered low.
Civil Defence Minister and Tāmaki Makaurau MP Peeni Henare says the best defence is keeping up the testing and tracing, but he told Radio Waatea Paakiwaha host Dale Husband the public is starting to get complacent.
"We need to continue to wear face covering and face masks where we can, (use the) COVID contact tracing app, all those things help us protect against COVID-19 and, where we have to, ring fence a cluster or outbreak and over the weekend, from what I saw in Tamaki, everyone seems a little too relaxed," he says.
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