Monday's Chronicle had a story from Jamie Morton reporting on five changes that epidemiologists think New Zealand should make to deal with the current Delta Covid-19 outbreak.
The first one mentioned was to pause international flights – obvious I would have thought. Four highly qualified epidemiologists all share this view, with Professor Michael Baker outspoken about this issue through the 2020 outbreaks. But no, the borders remain open.
The reasoning put forward by these experts was that a move to cease all people entering the country would free up MIQ space to assist with isolation of those affected by the current outbreak, and to reduce the risk of another outbreak from a border failure event associated with infected people coming into the country. According to the article, there have already been 10 reported quarantine system failures linked with international travellers into NZ. If no people were coming into the country, there would have been zero border failures.
If we don't have international travellers coming into the country, that is by far the best strategy to protect the population. This should be the case while the Delta strain is out there, and particularly until the population is vaccinated to a high enough level. Point 5 in the article recommends getting more essential workers (those that continue to work while the rest of us are locked down, and those at the border) vaccinated. The fact that there are border workers still not vaccinated is not acceptable.
While the border remains open we can only expect these outbreaks to continue, with a price tag of $1.5 billion a day according to Grant Robertson last week.
RUSSELL EADES
Whanganui
Homeless dilemma
Is it truly the mandate of the Whanganui District Council (Chronicle, August 23) or is it central government's job to effectively look after the well-being of people who have nowhere to reside in this country?