Northland will move to Alert Level 3 from midnight, after a single Covid case was detected.
Covid-19 response Minister Chris Hipkins says the infected woman had quite a bit of movement through the region, but is not co-operating with contact tracing
officials. He also says the region has low vaccination rates, which formed part of the decision to lock it down.
Lesley Gray, Senior Lecturer, Department of Primary Health Care & General Practice, University of Otago, comments:
"With the Delta variant of COVID-19 and numbers of cases, including ‘not yet linked’ cases in the last week or so, and
the levels of vaccinations, I was surprised the Government moved to relax some level restrictions on Monday.
"It is not at all surprising that we now are starting to see cases pop up in adjacent regions, and I am concerned that
we still have low vaccinations numbers in some areas and especially in populations likely to be most severely impacted
by the Delta variant. While we can argue ‘why’ that is, we are at a pivot point in this pandemic for Aotearoa New
Zealand.
"I would like to see the vaccination rates in North Island at higher levels before any further significant relaxation of
alert level restrictions. Now is not the time for the Auckland region to be relaxing alert levels and while I appreciate
this is a huge ask of Auckland region residents, I urge people to behave as if they are still in alert level 4 to
minimise rapid escalation of this virus. For those in the rest of NZ, please behave as if everyone around you has the
potential to be Covid-19 positive and raise your family/whānau levels of preventive actions, especially this coming
weekend.
"While the government may have shifted their approach, the population of NZ can still make a difference by the decisions
and actions we take."
No conflict of interest declared.