June 23, 2021
Alert levels critical to keep COVID breach to capital
Wellington is under level 2 conditions until the end of the weekend as authorities try to determine whether a Sydney man passed on COVID-19 during his weekend in the city.
The man, who was on a break from his work in a health centre that had been busy testing people because of the Bondi outbreak, tested positive after flying back across the Tasman on Monday.
Māori pandemic response group co-chair Rawiri Jansen says given the number of places in Wellington the man scanned in, including cafes, bars and Te Papa Tongarewa, a lot of people will need to be tested.
He says the likelihood the man has the highly infectious Delta variant put authorities on high alert.
"Honestly whānau, if you're even not in Wellington, let's all be on a one and a half, one and, three-quarters alert level. If you're in Wellington, definitely level 2, let's follow all those instructions. Things are limited in Wellington right now. Let's do our very best to keep it tightly locked down," Dr Jansen says.
He’s concerned vaccinations for Māori are still not tracking close to the target and have been dropping in recent weeks.
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