Call for zero new case regions to level down
The Government has not completely ruled out allowing some regions without any coronavirus cases to move down the alert levels ahead of others.
West Coast mayors are calling for their region to be put down to alert level two sooner rather than later. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that different regions could be put at different alert levels in the future, but it was unlikely at this stage.
Four district health board (DHB) areas have no current active cases. There have been no new cases in Tairawhiti for 16 days, Whanganui for 11 days, the West Coast for 25 days and Wairarapa for 28 days. Some districts such as Buller have never had an active case.
Grey district mayor Tania Gibson wanted the Government to allow the West Coast to move down to level two sooner than areas that still had active cases. Gibson said a cautious one-size-fits-all approach was the right way to combat the virus in the beginning, but she believed areas without cases should open up to allow regional economies to begin to recover.
Westland mayor Bruce Smith said he wanted the West Coast to be under no alert level. He said 90 per cent of the West Coast had never had Covid-19, but now it had record levels of unemployment.
‘‘This fostering fear in our community of something you can’t see, that has never been there, is nonsense and damaging for our economy,’’ he said. He wanted the numbers of unemployed read out along with the numbers of new cases at the Government’s daily press conference.
Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said he could see the argument for moving geographically isolated regions out of level three, such as Tairawhiti and the West Coast.
However Whanganui was ‘‘at a
cross roads’’, with many roads leading in and out, so it would be too difficult to police. ‘‘If we had any undetected cases in the community that is the problem. The first fatality was a tragedy on the West Coast where no-one knew the woman had it until she was extremely sick.’’
McDouall said he would welcome the opportunity for his district to come out of level three, but it should only happen when it is safe to do so. ‘‘There’s something in being able to say we did this together. I nominate every New Zealander for New Zealander of the year,’’ he said.
Ardern said the Government had given ‘‘serious consideration to regional approaches’’ .
‘‘There may be a time when we use them in the future, but . . . We still have to be mindful that New Zealanders move and there are instances, the Wairarapa is an example, where we do have people who commute for work and so some of those distinctions are a bit arbitrary,’’ she said.
She wanted to make sure the virus was controlled nationally so cases were not being transported into areas where there were none.
Spending some time at level three would allow the country to make sure there was no asymptomatic community spread ‘‘bubbling away’’.
‘‘The last thing anyone wants is to move too quickly, have a resurgence and go back – that would be very bad for our health response but equally horrific for our economy,’’ she said.
‘‘This fostering fear in our community of something you can’t see . . . is nonsense and damaging for our economy.’’ Westland mayor Bruce Smith