January 24, 2021
Hongi and handshakes at risk
Te Taitokerau MP Kelvin Davis says a community case of COVID-19 in Northland is a reminder people need to keep following safe practices to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
Health authorities are encouraging people to get tested if they show symptoms or if they were at places the 56-year-old woman visited after she was released from managed isolation and quarantine on January 13.
They are also tracing the genome sequence of the virus to determine where it came from and whether it is one of the new more infectious strains.
The woman tested negative twice while in managed isolation, but sought a test on January 22 after feeling unwell.
Mr Davis urged people to remain calm but to take all necessary precautions.
"For Māori we may have to go back to looking at things like how do we conduct our hui. Over the past 12 months I've been to hui where there was a limit to the number of people going into the whare, where we haven't hongied and harirued, we've just done the elbow bumps, we've had physical distancing within the marae, so maybe we need to look at those things," he says.
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