Frontline vaccine gap
Sydney bubble paused, and Air NZ reveals quarter frontline staff not jabbed
More than a quarter of Air New Zealand’s frontline staff have not had a single Covid-19 dose and the Government does not know how many other border workers are unvaccinated, months after the top priority group was first offered the vaccine.
The vaccine gap has been uncovered as the Government reacted to two Covid-19 community cases in Sydney by pausing quarantine-free travel from New South Wales for 48 hours from 11.59pm last night.
About 1120 out of 4000 – or 28 per cent – frontline Air New Zealand staff across the country have not been vaccinated.
A new Health Order that mandates border workers must have had at least their first Covid-19 vaccine covers only border workers employed by the Government and not the ‘‘wider border workforce’’. So it misses roles such as airline staff and port workers. All managed isolation and quarantine staff are covered by the order.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker said it was a ‘‘weak link’’ in the Government’s vaccine rollout. He called for a consistent approach across high-risk occupations and for the staff to be vaccinated or moved from the front line. ‘‘I don’t think there is any excuse. We should have finished [vaccinating] the first group now,’’ he said.
‘‘We know that Air New Zealand staff have been infected before overseas and sometimes the sources have never been identified. That is the nature of this virus. We don’t want to see mystery cases cropping up in Air New Zealand staff.’’
University of Auckland vaccinologist associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris said the airline staff were at higher risk and needed to be immunised. ‘‘If these people are genuinely on the front line . . . then I think they really do need to be vaccinated because they can pose a greater risk to the rest of the community as well as themselves,’’ she said.
National director of the Covid-19 vaccine and immunisation programme Jo Gibbs could not confirm how many border workers were yet to be vaccinated, or where in New Zealand they are, but said the Ministry of Health was looking to improve the data.
Air New Zealand’s chief operational integrity and safety officer, David Morgan, said about 72 per cent of eligible frontline Air New Zealand staff had at least one dose and almost 60 per cent of frontline workers were fully vaccinated,
‘‘It is important to note that the vaccine is not currently mandatory for our employees but is required for some duties, specifically crewing of MIQ flights from April 30.’’
Meanwhile, around 6000 people who arrived from Sydney over the past six days will be contacted by the National Contact Tracing team via email, and then over the phone, if required. Passengers will be asked if they visited any of the locations of interest linked to the community cases in Sydney.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government would lift the travel restrictions or extend them, depending on how the situation unfolded. Both the Sydney cases have been serologically linked to an overseas traveller who was in managed isolation, but how they were infected remains unknown.