Crisis plans in place
Civil Defence group confident community will rally together to master ‘a huge task’
The man chairing Hawke’s Bay’s Civil Defence response to coronavirus says there’s a “huge task in front of us” to get through the pandemic, which now has the region under a state of emergency.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council deputy chairman Rick Barker, who chairs the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Joint Committee said the region’s leaders supported the Government’s declaration yesterday, which would ensure local communities got the help they needed.
“Covid-19 is a rapidly evolving situation, and the Government is making tough decisions to make sure we can contain the virus by going hard and going early,” Barker said.
“This declaration sends a very strong message to our communities that we need to protect our most vulnerable and at-risk people. We all need to work together to protect each other collectively.
“As a region we have strong communities and high levels of trust in each community. This strong sense of community and trust will give us a very strong foundation to carry us through these troubled times.”
Barker said declaring a state of emergency gave controllers and others the powers to deliver a swift and effective response.
“This declaration means that regionally, Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence
Emergency Management Group will take a lead in coordinating the response across the many agencies involved.”
Hawke’s Bay District Health Board would also continue to update the public in relation to any health issues.
Barker emphasised the pandemic and dealing with it was uncharted territory.
“This is new to all of us, but rest assured there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to get us all through this. None of us have done this before so we will be learning as we go,” he said.
“We have a huge task in front of us, the welfare of our communities and businesses. We should not underestimate the size of this, or be daunted by it.
“Supporting our people, delivering services, helping businesses survive and recovering together are all things we are working on.”
The Joint Committee comprises the mayor of each council and the Regional Council chair, and sets the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group’s strategic direction.
As of Wednesday, no new cases were announced in Hawke’s Bay. Two people in their 70s from Hawke’s
Bay, one a female, the other male, were confirmed Covid-19 positive on Tuesday.
Both were on a flight from Barcelona via Dubai to Auckland, which arrived on March 18, flight EK448, then Auckland to Napier on March 19, flight NZ5021.
Hawke’s Bay’s first case, a male in his 30s, was confirmed last Friday.
The state of emergency was declared after 50 more coronavirus cases were confirmed in New Zealand. This takes the country’s total to 205.
Emergency powers were handed to authorities to enforce the nationwide lockdown.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told reporters that six people were in hospital in a stable condition, among them, one in Rotorua, one in Waikato and three in Wellington. Three patients were discharged on Tuesday.
There were 1400 tests processed on Tuesday, bringing the total so far to 9780.
He said cases were actively being followed up. The majority still had a direct link to overseas travel, or were linked to close contacts of confirmed cases.
“We do have some community transmission in New Zealand.”
Four were confirmed and number of other cases were being treated a potential community transmission. There were two clusters of cases with Marist College and a beef conference in Queenstown.
Bloomfield expected the number of cases to continue rising for the next 10 days, but the numbers would drop if people stayed at home.