Epidemiologist Michael Baker says although Auckland is now back to Alert Level 1, the border needs to be a key focus for the Government until the Covid-19 vaccine starts to take effect.
Jacinda Ardern made the announcement at 11.30am today, saying New Zealand’s largest city would be returning to the lowest Alert Level minutes later at 12pm.
However, Baker told 1 NEWS the risk of further lockdowns has not “gone away”.
“I mean we’ve still got the same problems of infectious people arriving in New Zealand, infectious air crew. These are all ongoing threats to our elimination position,” he said.
“And I think there are a lot of things we can do to manage that risk — so that risk has not gone away at all. We still have to be prepared for outbreaks and doing all the right things.”
Baker says he believes the country needs systems in place, “not just relying on everyone in New Zealand doing the right thing".
“I would like to see a much stronger focus on reducing the number of infected people arriving into New Zealand every day,” he said.
Baker said the vaccines are a “new tool” that could be used more strategically to protect the country better.
“For example, we could vaccinate all New Zealanders who are going overseas on short-term trips and are going to come back – to prevent them bringing the virus back with them.”
He says he believes the alert level system also needs refining in “a number of ways”.
“I mean we’ve had it for a year, it does need some fine tuning. But the borders are really the big challenge.”
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