Labour MP Willie Jackson and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff at the launch of the mobile pop-up covid vaccination buses. Video / Dean Purcell
A new location of interest reveals a person with Covid-19 was in the community on Monday afternoon.
The location is the Mascot Dairy at 51 Mascot Ave, Māngere.
A person with the virus was at the dairy at 12.30pm on Monday, the Ministry of Health says.
It is now the most recent time that an infected person has reportedly been in the community, according to the list of locations of interest.
Anyone who was at the dairy is told to monitor for any Covid symptoms for 14 days after being at the shop. If symptoms start to show, get a test and stay home until a result comes back.
A person with the virus was there less than a week ago on Friday, September 10, from 6pm to 6.15pm.
Shot Bro: Covid vaccine buses unveiled
Meanwhile Covid buses will start operating from this morning to boost vaccinations in harder-to-reach parts of the Auckland community.
Experts warn the only way for New Zealand to avoid lockdowns is to have at least 90 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated.
The buses are being unveiled at Auckland Airport Park & Ride facility. The converted black and orange Park & Ride buses have vaccinate signs posted on their sides. One reads "Roll up your sleeves, Auckland". Another sign says "Vaccinate for Auckland".
Shot Bro: The new Covid vaccine buses hit the road from today. Photo / Dean Purcell
Labour MP Willie Jackson said the answer to boosting vaccination among Māori and Pasifika people was to enlist the help of people from within those communities.
"Our people know our people."
Jackson said he was pleased to see the support at community level for vaccines.
"I'm really excited because we need to get out into these communities in South Auckland," he said.
The buses would help those who may have been reluctant or not had easy access to vaccines.
The Covid vaccine bus interior. Photo / Dean Purcell
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said: "We are taking the vaccine to the people."
The aim was to get up to 80 per cent of Aucklanders having had one shot of the vaccine by the end of the week.
While the current lockdown was the right decision, the country could not rely on lockdowns forever.
The six buses - on loan to the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre - will act like pop-up vaccination clinics. Pukekohe is one of the first areas a bus will visit this afternoon.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this week asked for names for the "Mr Whippy"-style vaccine bus service and has now narrowed it down to four favourites - Jabba Waka, Shot Bro, Jabbin' Wagon, Vaxi Taxi.
High vaccination rate needed
Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank told Newstalk ZB this morning his modelling showed that reopening New Zealand with 70-80 per cent vaccination would still leave the country vulnerable.
As of yesterday, 38 per cent of New Zealand's eligible population were fully vaccinated and 70 per cent had received at least one dose.
"It will be difficult to avoid large scale health impacts - that could include tens of thousands of hospitalisations and potentially thousands of deaths.
"So we really need to try and get that vaccination coverage into the 90s," which would make the situation more manageable, he said.
Plank believed it was possible to vaccinate 90 per cent of the eligible population.
"That's the way to reduce the health impacts that will come when we open up our borders and we inevitably do start to get outbreaks of Covid-19."
The United Kingdom had reasonably high vaccine coverage, he said. "But they also still have a lot of people dying." Most deaths were in older people "but not exclusively so", he said. An "enormous" number of people in Britain were in hospital including a number of younger people.
But epidemiologist Rod Jackson thought the number needed to even be higher to avoid lockdowns.
Jackson said 95 per cent of over 12-year-olds needed to be vaccinated as that still left 700,000 children under 12 and 250,000 people unvaccinated.
Over the next few months there needed to be a focus on moving the vaccine hesitant people to being vaccinated, rather than on the small number of anti-vaxxers who he didn't think should be given any oxygen, he said.
In his view, it was only time until Delta came back and lockdowns or vaccines were the only way to deal with it. "My message to New Zealanders is if you hate lockdowns get a shot, if you really hate lockdowns get two."
He said he had asked colleagues in Ireland how they had achieved such a high vaccination rate - nearing 90 per cent - and the answer was because they were "scared sh**less".
People had got the jab because a large number of people had died there from Covid.
"If you've got a spread like you get with Delta, it's basically a super spreading virus, you don't even need a super spreading setting, it's a super spreading virus and no system can cope with an outbreak of Delta.
He said you only needed to look at Sydney, which had been locked down for 11 weeks and were "finally getting some sort of control". "It's scary, scary stuff."
Meanwhile the number of people newly infected with Covid in the community has dipped again in the past few days with 14 cases recorded yesterday and 15 the day before.
