October 06, 2021
Lockdown end allowing delta spread says Taonui
A Māori social commentator believes a health emergency is on its way if the Covid-19 outbreak gets out into high Māori areas of the Bay of Plenty and Te Taitokerau.
Rawiri Taonui says further easing restrictions for Aucklanders after two weeks of level 3 was the wrong decision, and the city should have been put back into level 4.
He says there were 239 Māori and Pasifika cases in two weeks of level 3 as people moving round, and that’s set to increase.
They will be difficult to track because so many people are moving around and too many cases are being found at random when people turn up at hospital.
There’s also a high risk of more leaks over the Auckland border.
“They’re going to make their way into high demographic Māori areas with relatively low vaccination. If that happens, Tainui Waikato, Tauranga and definitely Taitokerau, they will face a health emergency unlike anything we have seen since 1918,” Dr Taonui says.