National‘s business pandemic plan

Photo: RNZ.

National Party leader Judith Collins is releasing the party's Covid-19 'Back in Business' plan.

Collins told Morning Report the party would end lockdowns at a vaccination rate of 85-90 per cent of the eligible population or on December 1, whichever came earlier.

National would set a six-week deadline for ending lockdowns, with leader Judith Collins saying a target of 85-90 per cent vaccinated is 'do-able' within that time,

At present 67 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.

Collins says there is no reason why the target can't be reached.

"We need to get on. We've got now now around 80, close to 85, per cent of people have had at least one vaccination. After a big effort to get people vaccinated. There's another six weeks to go. There's no reason why everyone can't get the rest.

All DHB areas will have to reach the vaccination rates under the plan, she said. Regions such such as Taranaki where it's being estimated it will take until the end of the year to reach 90 percent would "just have to do it" by December 1, she says.

"Everyone will have to just get in there and put some huge effort in".

Asked what would happen if the country reopened and Māori vaccination rates remained low, Collins says:

"I think the Māori population will want to get itself vaccinated, and we've already seen an uptake with some of the efforts we've seen recently."

Collins says not only is business suffering, but tens of thousands of people, including vulnerable communities, were missing out on other important medical treatment.

"Māori are also missing out on the assessments for things like cancer, heart disease, and everything else, and we do not believe that we should have Māori being targeted in terms of being blamed for the lockdown continuing."

Covid-19 modeller professor Michael Plank from Te Pūnaha Matatini says a fixed date for ending restrictions is not a good idea.

"I think we need to be responsive to what's happening in terms of the outbreak," he told Morning Report.

"We need to be guided by the number of people that we've got vaccinated, and the epidemiology of the outbreak and the number of cases, the load on the healthcare system.

"They will change over time, so we need to be able to respond to that."

-RNZ.
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1 comment

Yes, the parameters will change...

Posted on 20-10-2021 18:13 | By morepork

...but if it turns out there is not enough capacity to handle the load, will that parameter be allowed to stop the effort? Or will some "too little, too late" effort to increase the capacity be attempted. Simon Bridges pointed out recently that Tauranga needs more ICU facility. I wonder if anything has been done about that...? Let's hope we don't find out too late.


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