We’re doing the best we can
Already bearing brunt of Covid, South Auckland braces for Omicron
With experts warning Auckland could see 1800 cases a day at Omicron’s peak, South Auckland communities are gearing up once again to bear the brunt of Covid.
Existing inequalities mean South Auckland’s large Pasifika and Māori population is always worst hit, Pacific GP Dr Api Talemaitoga says.
There have been three major Covid outbreaks since March 2020. Each time, Covid found its way into South Auckland. First, there was the August 2020 cluster that surpassed the Bluff wedding one in size and impact, followed by last year’s February cluster, and then the Delta outbreak.
Papakura Marae chief executive Tony Kake plans to play the Omicron outbreak ‘‘like a game of football’’. That means having reserves ready to take over when the first players go down with Covid. The marae will continue to run its food bank, clinic and home isolation support, but Kake is preparing to see team numbers drop by 30 per cent as Omicron spreads. When that happens, marae staff focus on the most pressing roles – food, testing and vaccination.
Last week, they had a taste of how Omicron will stretch their systems when supporting one Omicron case quickly became supporting 28, as they offered help to all the case’s close contacts.
‘‘It’s about doing the best we can with what we have,’’ Kake says. However, he is urging people not to be whakamā (shy) about reaching out for help. ‘‘We don’t judge anyone, we just do the mahi. I’d treat Jacinda Ardern the same as I would a whānau down the road.’’
When Debbie Munroe drops food parcels off to people selfisolating with Covid, she has an idea of what they’re going through. Before Christmas, her whānau spent 43 days locked at home as one person after the other came down with Covid.
At the time, Munroe was in the middle of a 112-night stint sleeping at Waka of Caring, the Manurewa drop-in centre where she hands out kai and clothes and supports the most vulnerable.
This year, Waka of Caring has been handing out 130 to 140 food parcels a day, up from 80 to 90. She expects a huge increase in demand from people self-isolating.
Now she and her partner have moved back home, they’re in the sleepout and wear masks when they go into the main house. They’re being careful about Covid measures, but Munroe said she’s ‘‘betting we’ll get it some time’’.
They have self-isolation plans in place and volunteers ready to step in to run the drop-in: ‘‘This place cannot stop because we help far too many.’’
Dave ‘‘Buttabean’’ Letele shares Mika’s concerns. He runs a food-sharing service from Manukau, and has stocked up in anticipation of increased demand from people in self-isolation.
‘‘Lots of people don’t live week to week, or paycheck to paycheck – it’s day to day,’’ Letele says.
‘‘So there’s a real sense of fear out there of people asking themselves what they are going to do if they don’t have enough food.’’
‘‘It’s been non-stop, no holidays, no time to rest for us. We just do the best we can to those that need help,’’ Letele says. ‘‘These people, it’s not your 2.5 people in a household with a white picket fence, sometimes there’s 10 to 20 people in a household, and you can’t just isolate one person, everyone is there ... sometimes we have people sleeping in tents in the backyard.’’
It feels like a ‘‘tsunami’’ is coming, Turuki Healthcare chief executive Te Puea Winiata says.
The Māori healthcare provider has been at the front line of the pandemic: testing, vaccinating, running a self-isolation support service.
It’s the unvaccinated Winiata worries most about. ‘‘I don’t want to be a prophet of doom, but I do
feel concerned about the harm that’s going to befall us if those unvaccinated whānau actually get Covid of any variant. They might recover, but how well will they recover?’’
Taleimaitoga says they are playing a waiting game, fuelled with a lot of uncertainty.
‘‘Work has been about getting ready, because it will come,’’ he says. ’
The DHBs have been ‘‘excellent’’ at organising home isolation, setting up a hub to triage Pacific people who test positive and refer them to health and welfare support and GP care, Taleimaitoga says.
‘‘In two years we’ve learnt that one size fits all doesn’t fit for us,’’ he says.
Jerome Mika knows what he’s talking about when he says the community is anxious – through his work with The Cause Collective and South Seas Health, he closely supported the biggest Delta cluster, the AOG church in Māngere. He saw first-hand the challenges people faced trying to get help.
‘‘We see what’s been happening overseas with Omicron, and it is worrying – what would that look like here, in our South Auckland community? People are feeling anxious,’’ Mika says.
‘‘We know this variant is more transmissible, we know our vulnerable communities are still vulnerable.’’