Listen Now: 
Download AudioA far north community housing provider is building units for people with COVID-19 to self-isolate while they recover – but only if they are vaccinated.
Muriwhenua is in level 3 lockdown as health officials try to assess whether two cases near Kaitaia are signs of a larger outbreak.
Ricky Houghton from He Korowai Trust says it was inevitable COVID-19 was coming north, and the risk will only grow as households swell over summer with whānau returning from the cities.
That’s why he’s building 16 single person cabins and two kaumātua units.
“We can’t afford to provide the medical day to day care for them so there are cabins, there are change areas where the caregivers can come in and look after them and love their whānau while they are recovering, take their meals and they are there for 14 days. I don’t want to create an environment where they are dependent on us,” he says.
Ricky Houghton says he’s encouraging people to get vaccinated, if not for themselves then for the people around them who may have compromised immunes systems or for the mokopuna who can’t be vaccinated.
RELATED NEWS
