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Two of New Zealand’s most outstanding Covid-19 specialists have warned that the nation is unprepared to stop the well being system from being overloaded by an Omicron outbreak, with possible deadly penalties.
Otago College’s Dr Nick Wilson and Dr Michael Baker additionally mentioned it was solely a “matter of weeks” earlier than the extremely transmissible variant seeped into the neighborhood resulting from border failures.
Wilson mentioned that regardless of New Zealand’s excessive vaccination charges, the variety of adults who had acquired a booster dose of the vaccine – important for minimising the results of Omicron – stays dangerously low, and famous that the vaccine rollout for kids between 5 and 11 nonetheless had not begun.
New Zealand acquired its first cargo of Pfizer’s paediatric vaccine solely on the weekend, and intends to start youngster vaccinations from 17 January, regardless of some comparable international locations starting their youngster vaccine rollout late final yr.
Omicron’s quick incubation interval additionally means New Zealand’s system for figuring out and containing new neighborhood instances could be a lot much less efficient.
Wilson panned the nation’s site visitors gentle system – which replaced the more stringent alert-level system final yr – as “not match for goal” with Omicron resulting from its tolerance for comparatively vital social interplay for vaccinated individuals when Covid is locally.
Baker agreed, calling for the federal government to quickly reinstate an amended model of the alert degree system. “The site visitors gentle system gained’t assist us very a lot as a result of it was by no means designed to dampen down transmission, it was solely designed to nudge individuals in direction of vaccination,” Baker mentioned.
Till these weaknesses have been mounted, he mentioned, “we have to vastly flip down the faucet of individuals arriving in New Zealand”. Wilson agreed: “The precedence is to have a tighter border in order that we don’t need to vaccinate children and conduct a booster program throughout an outbreak.”
The pair referred to as for a “vital tightening” of the variety of New Zealanders getting into the nation.
Over the weekend, 64 optimistic Covid instances have been recorded inside New Zealand’s oversubscribed managed isolation amenities (MIQ) for incoming travellers, a lot of which have been anticipated to be Omicron.
Wilson mentioned he was “perplexed” that poor air flow and shared areas inside MIQ had not been mounted and that the ensuing “excessive danger” of an Omicron outbreak was “unacceptable”.
To alleviate the stress on MIQ, Wilson mentioned, the federal government must require speedy antigen testing for travellers instantly previous to permitting them on flights, and cap the variety of travellers coming from high-risk international locations such because the UK, where Omicron rates have skyrocketed.
Such measures could be controversial. The federal government is going through vital stress from advocacy teams like Grounded Kiwis to make it simpler for abroad New Zealanders to return house. The nation’s borders have been shut since March 2020.
Spokesperson Martin Newell mentioned Grounded Kiwis strongly agreed with common speedy antigen testing for travellers and strictly limiting travellers’ publicity to one another. Nevertheless, he emphasised that “you’ll be able to’t deny the appropriate of New Zealanders to have the ability to return to their nation”.
Wilson, nevertheless, mentioned: “The precedence for the federal government needs to be on defending the 5 million New Zealanders in New Zealand.”
The Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, has been approached for remark.
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