Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says that she is confident that during the traditional holiday season this Summer, the hospitals and medical providers will be able to cope with any pressure which may occur from Covid-19.
Ardern said that the government had identified regions where “the most significant number of people coming into them” during the holiday period.
“We’ve (been) with the district health boards and the Ministry of Health already identified the areas where we have the most significant growth in population, they’ve been stress testing those DHBs’ Covid plans because they are the areas that have larger movements of people to ensure that they are prepared for extra population in those areas.”
On 29 November when the government meets to consider alert levels it will also consider different regions’ vaccination rates too.
Previously, people have contracted Covid-19 when they were in a range of various situations she said.
“We have actually had cases in camping grounds before, so our public health units have managed them before and I expect that they would continue to do the same.”
The prime minister said it was her aim to have people in a position where they could travel to reconnect with family and friends.
“But ideally we want people to be vaccinated when they do that and if they’re from Auckland and unvaccinated we want them tested.”
Ardern was aware of concerns in some regions where locals did not want people travelling to. Northland is one region where the government, police and iwi are working to allay any fears.
