July 12, 2021
Sydney surge test to Transtasman relationship
Sydney’s struggles to contain its latest Covid outbreak has the Māori pandemic response group concerned it could mark the end of the travel bubble.
New South Wales recorded 77 new community cases yesterday and one death, and today’s cases are expected to hit three digits.
Te Whakakaupapa Urutā co-chair Rawiri Jansen says it shows how hard it is to manage the more-infectious Delta variant of Covid-19.
New South Wales may need stronger lockdowns – and he’s concerned there is now talk there of dropping the elimination strategy.
"If they look they are going to not go for zero Covid, that would make for some very big changes with our relationship with Australia. I think that would close our borders very tightly – we would be back to mercy flights only – and it would trigger for us that we've got to go hard on the vaccination," Dr Jansen says.
He’s pleased at the increasing vaccine acceptance among Māori, as they see their wider whānau safely getting the jabs.
Copyright © 2021, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com