Pasifika urged to practice kindness and tolerance amid COVID-19 re-emergence
Auckland: Pasifika communities in New Zealand are urged to practise kindness and tolerance as authorities battle with the re-emergence of COVID-19 in Auckland.
A local Pacific charitable group says it’s unfortunate the family at the centre of the recent outbreak has been subjected to intense scrutiny on social media.
Director of Pasifika Futures, Soana Pamaka, is urging communities to remain calm, kind and tolerant towards each other and to comply with the Health Ministry’s requirements.
“Can we be more kind, less judgemental and realise that the Coronavirus is going to go where it goes for scientific reasons and not because of any particular ethnic group,” Soana Pamaka said. Ms Pamaka said people must not panic, adding the group was working closely with the Pasifika Medical Association to help support the most vulnerable in the community.
Outbreak could get messy
Meanwhile, a Pacific health specialist in New Zealand is worried the latest community transmission of COVID-19 in the country “could get very messy”.
As of yesterday morning there were 30 active cases of COVID-19 outside of managed isolation, in the Auckland and Waikato region.
Collin Tukuitonga is the associate dean for the Pacific at the University of Auckland, and he said the latest cluster was a worry because the source is unknown. Mr Tukuitonga said community transmission may “decimate” the Pacific, Maori and other lowincome communities so it’s important New Zealand got on top of it smartly.
He also believes complacency has crept in with the country having gone 102 days COVID-19 free.
Students in need of food and warm, safe study spaces
The biggest challenge students at an Auckland school faced during this week’s lockdown were access to food and a nice warm environment for online learning. Ms Pamaka, who is also the principal of Tamaki College says this need is expected to continue with the government’s announcement on Friday to extend the city’s lockdown due to an outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
Ms Pamaka said while a forced lockdown could be disruptive to the students’ study and social interactions, the decile one school provides online learning and care packages to the children.
She says the school is also working with the education ministry to help equip students better for their home learning.
“The biggest effect for out school was the learning and certainly for our senior students it will have a big impact on their NCEA outcome. But the ministry is keeping in close contact with us,” Ms Pamaka said.
“The biggest impact of the lockdown is the access to food and having a nice, warm environment for online learning, access to online learning and all those things.” Ms Pamaka said parents have been encouraged to keep their children at home and to seek the help and support they need.
She said people were taking this new wave of cases seriously, “that they need to self-distance, sanitise and be at home”.
She said there was an increasing number of people masking up which was good to see.
“In the last lockdown, there were not a lot of masks sitting around, but I can see a lot more people in our community wearing the masks when they’re out.”