Pressure warning for staff
Canterbury health staff have been warned by their boss to expect another four to five weeks of unrelenting pressure on services as booster and child vaccine rates appear to have stalled.
‘‘Thank you so much, and I suspect we’ve got another four or five weeks to go,’’ Te Whatu Ora South Island interim regional director Peter Bramley said in a video update to staff on Monday.
‘‘It does look promising that some of the curves and the modelling have started to turn, but I know the reality is, as I know many of you are experiencing, the pressure is still on.’’
On the same day as Bramley’s update, Christchurch Hospital was at 108% capacity for staffed beds, had 138 people admitted with Covid-19 including five in intensive care and the service had 224 staff away as a result of Covid-19.
Epidemiologist professor Philip Hill said a higher uptake of boosters would make a significant difference to Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths.
‘‘The rates of hospitalisations and deaths could be much lower if people who are eligible go and get a booster – but the evidence suggests that they are not going to if they haven’t done so already.’’
Across the country 73.5% of the eligible population have had a booster, while childhood vaccine uptake has stagnated at 29.5%.
In 2021, with mandates for several parts of the workforce and vaccine certificates required in many public places, the country achieved over 90% uptake for the first two doses.
In March this year vaccine certificates were removed and mandates were rolled back but the vaccine programme has continued with boosters made available from December last year.
The childhood vaccine was rolled out in May, and second boosters became available last month.
But without a return to the previous levels of mandates and to vaccination certificates vaccine uptake is unlikely to increase further, Hill says.
‘‘Only about 5% of people that are hardline anti-vaxers and only about 70% of people are willing to go and get vaccinated off the bat. The benefits from going from 70% to over 90% are huge, which is why vaccine mandates and vaccine certificates were used.’’
Despite the impact of higher vaccination rates, Hill isn’t advocating for a return to the previous levels of mandates, nor of vaccine certificates.
‘‘It is a judgment between pros and cons, it is not a straightforward decision.’’
From a ‘‘purely public health point of view’’ there is a case for mandates and certificates in relation to booster doses, but there are many other things to consider in making a decision, Hill said.
Te Whatu Ora Waitaha Canterbury, along with other districts around the country, is continuing efforts to increase coverage.
Senior responsible officer Covid-19 vaccination Tanya McCall said there was a team working hard to ‘‘spread the word that getting your Covid-19 vaccination is the best protection you can have against the virus’’.
In July, vaccination events were held in Wainoni Pak ‘n Save, Taiora QE2, the Woolston community market, Woolston library and Phillipstown community centre, while this weekend ‘‘Super Saturday’’ Pasifika vaccination events would take place at Te Aratai (Linwood) College, Rowley Resource Centre and Ashburton College.
McCall’s team were delivering over 30,000 brochures to ‘‘lowervaccinated communities’’ including eastern Christchurch, western (focused around Hornby and Halswell) and southern Christchurch (south of the CBD).
Ongoing promotions targeting those communities included online and radio advertising, she said.
Starship Hospital community and developmental paediatrician Dr Jin Russell said many children would have gained some immunity through infection.
Despite this she encouraged parents to continue with their child’s Covid-19 immunisation.
Russell said lower uptake among the 5-11 year age group had been driven by parental hesitancy over a new vaccine, and a view that as the virus was less likely to cause serious illness in children, it was unnecessary.
‘‘To those parents I would say ... after administering a large number of vaccines in New Zealand we can report this is a very safe vaccine.’’
‘‘The rates of hospitalisations and deaths could be much lower if people who are eligible go and get a booster.’’
Epidemiologist Philip Hill