July 06, 2022
Call for higher level Covid protection
A Māori GP says Government needs to think seriously about bringing back more Covid restrictions.
Rawiri Jansen, the co-chair of Māori pandemic response group Te Whakakaupapa Uruta, says vaccination efforts so far mean the experience many New Zealanders have had of Covid has been relatively mild.
But new variants that are starting to arrive including BA 4, BA 5 and BA 2.75 are giving cause for concern.
He says we might just be starting the second half of the pandemic.
“Politically there is quite a lot of emphasis on an apparent return to normal. The truth is when we hit the really hard bits when we’ve got emergency departments overwhelmed and ambulances ramping and things like that, I think we’re heading in that direction. There’s a case building for us to have more of the public health protections brought back in so we can get through this intact,” Dr Jansen says.
That may be disruptive for whanau and communities, but it’s necessary.