Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says Auckland’s multitude of MIQ facilities, sizeable chunk of the population and contribution to GDP mean Aucklanders should be prioritised in the vaccine rollout
While everywhere south of the Bombays can breathe a cautious sigh of relief, Auckland remains at a state of high alert.
Monday’s announcement of two more weeks at Level 4 for the city reflects the fact that it’s where 97 percent of the cases in this outbreak were found.
And as the gateway to the rest of the country, the City of Sails will continue to be at greater risk from the spread of Covid.
That’s according to Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, who is calling for Aucklanders to be pushed up the list when it comes to getting vaccinated.
He has been pushing for vaccine priority in meetings with Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall and the Ministry of Health.
“I have continued to stress the importance of ramping up the pace of vaccinations in Auckland,” he said.
Goff’s push for vaccine priority echoes similar calls he made last year, but there is a new zeal now that the country’s biggest city can expect weeks of lockdown while the rest of the country can potentially have a more timely re-entry to business as usual.
He said vaccinating Auckland’s population of 1.6 million should be a priority not just for the protection of Aucklanders, but for people throughout the country.
“While Auckland remains vulnerable to an outbreak, New Zealand is at risk,” said Goff.
He is advocating the Government take this increased level of risk into account by focusing on Auckland in the vaccine rollout.
As New Zealand’s “gateway city”, Auckland has more than twice as many MIQ facilities than the rest of the country combined - and the current outbreak is suspected to have come out of the MIQ system.
Auckland has been the centre of every first instance of community transmission leading to an outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, largely due to the large segment of New Zealand's population living in the city and the lion’s share of international traffic going through Auckland Airport.
Goff believes protecting Auckland and its place in the national economy will in turn protect New Zealand’s economic future.
“The city is also home to more than a third of the population and makes a substantial contribution to the national GDP,” he said.
“So lockdowns here have significant impacts on New Zealand’s broader economy.”
He wants the team of 3.3 million to take a step back and let the team of 1.6 million go first, letting supply be directed into the hottest zone.
Speaking in a post-Cabinet conference yesterday afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern didn’t shoot down the idea, but put off the decision.
“It’s all still hypothetical at this stage,” she said. “No decisions need to be made today.”
She said the Government is asking health officials to plan to maintain peoples’ bookings and maintain the surge of vaccination in Auckland. “You can see why this should continue to be a priority,” she said.
She said Cabinet would be looking at options for vaccine supply in Auckland later this week.
Auckland Councillor Richard Hills said he definitely supports vaccine priority for Auckland, but suggested it may already be happening. He pointed to last week’s figures showing Auckland had had 36 percent of the vaccinations in the country.
“That was before those massive vaccination numbers we’ve seen this week,” he said. “So I would expect we are seeing far greater numbers in Auckland already compared to the rest of the country.”
He said the greater level of Covid risk inherent to the country’s biggest city made pushing them up the list a good idea.
“I definitely support vaccine priority for our communities across Tāmaki Makaurau due to the increased risk here,” he said. “I am so thankful for our vaccination workers who are working under huge pressure and thankful our community is getting vaccinated at a such rapid rates.”
With 547 out of 562 cases from the community reported in Auckland, the city has seen almost all of the cases in this outbreak.
As a result, the city will be under level four lockdown for two more weeks as most of the rest of the country is given the additional freedoms of level three - including Wellington, where the other 15 cases were found.
