November 24, 2021
Zero rating for some home isolation
The co-leader of Māori pandemic response group Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā co-leader says we need to do better to look after the needs of people when they are self-isolating.
Rawiri Jansen, the clinical director of the National Hauora Commission, says there are more than 600 Māori now isolating in the community, and that’s likely to increase as the shift to the traffic light system leads to more spread of the disease.
While it has gone smoothly for some, others report not getting kai, not getting the promised daily checks and getting inadequate or confusing information about the isolation process.
He says there are pros and cons about community isolation versus managed isolation in places like the Jet Park Hotel.
“The advantage of course going in there, one or two people in a room can serve out their infectious period and then be released as opposed to when a big whānau is in a house, if another person turns positive, then everyone else goes back to zero,” Dr Jansen says.
He has heard of one large whānau that was 37 days in isolation as Delta moved through everyone in the house, and he predicts there will be even longer periods coming.