September 14, 2021
Surveillance tested doing right for community
Dr Anthony Jordan says increasing the number of Māori and Pasifika vaccinated this week can help address the gap in equity now, rather than waiting for the end of the year.
He says level 4 means the vaccination programme can reach people when they are more available, including through mobile clinics.
It’s also important people take up any invitation for surveillance testing, which is aimed at assessing the edges of the outbreak.
People in Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Papatoetoe, Ōtara and Manurewa are being asked to do extra surveillance testing even if they aren’t showing symptoms.
“People may feel stigmatised by becoming a positive case and so we need to be really supportive because these people are going out to do the right thing and they should be commended and celebrated for standing up and doing their part in the community rather than seeing it as a negative stigma upon them,” Dr Jordan says.
Workers who have been invited to have a voluntary one-off asymptomatic COVID-19 test are able to return to work while they wait for their test results as they are not symptomatic.
There were 15 new cases today from five households with existing cases.