COVID-19 update, 21 December 2021 2pm

>> Kia ora everybody, good afternoon.

Today I am joined by Ian Town and who is here to talk about planning on boosters and also the ongoing global developments around Omicron. I have also got Doctor Danny Delore who will be here to talk about the Pfizer doses for five to 11-year-olds.

De Delore might be a new face to some as we enter this new phase in immunisation. He is a paediatrician at the Rotorua hospital which is the Indigenous child health working he has been involved in giving advice on the rollout of the program for young New Zealanders.

Yesterday, Cabinet met to discuss our plan to reduce the threat of Omicron do New Zealand. As we celebrate our booster program. We have received further advice from that overnight. Omicron is now in more than 70 countries around the world and lastly, we detected that variant at our border in New Zealand. All evidence so far points to Omicron being the most transmissible berries yet and public health advice suggests that every case coming into our managed isolation facilities will be the Omicron variant.

Our immediate  job right now must be to slow it down, delete from entering the New Zealand community for as long as we possibly can.

Cabinet has agreed to a suite of precautionary measures which I am going to outline our. First, boosters. You already know that boosters the booster vaccination reduce the spread and severity of COVID 19.

The advice from our COVID 19 technical advisory group is that shortening the period between the second dose and the booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine is a pragmatic step we can take. Provides but it protection then two doses can when it comes to the variant. While two doses can provide good protection against disease from Omicron, 1/3 dose is likely to offer greater protection against transmission of COVID 19 and also reducing the chance for severe infection.

Yesterday, cabinet endorsed the decision by the Director  general to reduce the time frame for people to get their booster from six months to four months after their second dose. Means that around 3 million vaccinated New Zealanders will be eligible to get there boosters before the end of February. That is 82% of everybody who is currently fully vaccinated. The shorter time frame will start in early January.

Initially, people will be able to walk into vaccination clinics and then subsequently, once the book my vaccine facility is updated, late in January they will be able to book and we will set out specific timeframes for that as soon as they have been confirmed. Importantly, the schedule ensures that those who are harder to reach within our community, particularly parts of the Maori population who have only recently been fully vaccinated, will be able to get there boosters before winter when the threat of virus is at its greatest.

We remain open to the science whether we reduce that gap further will be very much informed by that.

Cabinet also agreed in principle that where workers are required to be vaccinated, this mandate will also extend to booster doses. Initially, it will be for the workers who are most likely to come into contact with Omicron. Our border and our health workers. They will be required to have their boosters by the end of January or not later than six months after their second dose for those who have only recently been fully vaccinated. It will then apply to all others covered by a vaccination mandate from 1 March.

Already, our and MiQ and border and health agencies are contacting staff who are eligible for a booster and we are seeing encouraging uptake. More people will be eligible as a result of the changing timetable.

Secondly, we turn to the border. Since the start of the pandemic, we have worked really hard to provide as much certainty as we can for people who are travelling and are needing to travel. But as everyone will appreciate, certainty is sometimes hard to offer in a very uncertain situation.

Cabinet has decided to push back the date for self isolation for those travelling from Australia from 17 January to the end of February so we can celebrate the rollout of the -- accelerate the rollout of the booster program and had as many people boosted in vaccination before we have people isolating at home across the international border.

 Around 3 million New Zealanders will be due to get their booster by the end of February. Assuming most of this group get their booster on time, at that point we will be far better protected from Omicron.

We know that this delay will be disappointing news for those who have booked travel or were expecting arrivals from Australia. But with the march of Omicron and with New South Wales expecting to be having 25,000 cases a day by the end of January, opening the border in mid-January as planned simply presents too high a risk at this point.

 In addition, measures at the border in addition to the measures at the border, the requirement for travellers from New Zealand to retain a negative predeparture test will reduce from 72 hours before departure to 48 hours before departure. When we introduced that requirement, testing was not as widely available as it is now and people should be able to get their tests within 48 hours. In terms of our and MiQ says, they are currently seven days followed by three days of self isolation at home with a negative day nine test.

That will be extended to 10 days in managed isolation with a negative day nine test. That precautionary measure has a ready been in place for passengers on flights were in Omicron case has been identified. Thirdly, to the vaccination of our five to 11-year-olds.

Following Medsafe's approval of the dose for children aged five to 11 lastly, cabinet has confirmed that our vaccination rollout for this age group will begin on 17 January. We will take the lessons from our initial rollout and will apply them here, including reaching more rapidly into remote or hesitant communities and providing vital information to parents and caregivers as an absolute priority upfront.

While vaccination of children will always be a choice made by parents, I can't speak strongly enough in the interests of our collective safety for children as the last unvaccinated group in New Zealand and for the older people and more vulnerable people in their lives, particularly their grandparents, I can't speak strongly enough about the importance of vaccination. Countries around the world are now rolling out vaccinations to this age group and I want to underline that it is safe and it is necessary.

 Finally, to the traffic light system is Andy decisions we made earlier this month and they will remain as they are at that time.

Cabinet decided that in the event of community cases of Omicron, the first response will be to use the traffic light framework rather than the previous system. Moving to the COVID 19 protection framework or the traffic light system as it is currently known, we did signal that we would be adjusting to more of a reactive stance when it comes to protective measures and that we would apply those additional restrictions or additional protective measures as case numbers grew and the health system came under pressure.

Omicron has changed the dynamic again. When it does arrive, we expect that it will spread fast and that is what we are seeing in other places. To slow that spread, we might use the red traffic light system early on to try to slow the spread. That will give us the best chance of minimising the chances that we will need to return to something more restrictive.

 It is not our intention to move to lockdowns unless that is absolutely necessary in the event of a widespread outbreak where our health system comes under considerable strain and the overall health risk becomes too much to bear. Even then, our strong preference would be for any lockdowns to be highly targeted. Face with alternative causes of action and looking at overseas jurisdictions, cabinet is strongly of the view that this is the best approach.

By keeping Omicron out for as long as we can, we increase the likelihood that businesses can stay open and we can keep our plans for summer in place. For people who want to travel overseas or come home, we are aware that today will not be welcome news. But it is important to set these changes out as clearly as we can, as early as we can, so that people have time to consider their plans. As COVID 19 keeps growing new curveballs in our direction, we have to respond in a way that continues to protect the lives and livelihoods of New Zealanders and avoids putting in place restrictions and lockdowns unless they are absolutely necessary. While I know that everybody wants certainty, certainty has been a rare commodity for the whole globe through the entirety of this pandemic. What I can say with certainty this afternoon is that we have got a system that has been built to adapt to new challenges and one that will go the distance. Today, we further strengthen the settings that will continue to carry us through the next wave of challenges around COVID that we expect Omicron to throw up.

I will now go to Doctor Ian Town.

>> As chair of the COVID 19 vaccine technical advisory group, I want to first shout out to the members of that group, an extraordinary group of scientists and clinicians from around New Zealand. They have had over 39 full meetings and produced 28 pieces of advice to the director- general.

A big shout out to them and also members of our other technical advisory groups that have played such an important part in helping the government chart the course through this challenging period.

As the minister has said, in light of experiences overseas and emerging evidence of Omicron, the Secretary-General has recommended that the interval between the second dose and the booster dose be advanced to four months. this is to ensure that everyone has a chance to get a dose before winter next year.

We have recommended to the committee that that booster should be offered to adults 18 years or over after the completion of the primary to dose course. Priority of course as it was in the initial rollout should be for those of at risk to exposure to COVID 19 or at risk of severe disease once contracting COVID 19.

This includes particularly Maori and Pacific peoples. Those aged 65 years and older and those with pre-existing medical conditions that puts them at higher risk from severe outcomes.

Just thinking about elderly, since the start of the pandemic, there have been over 900 people aged 60 or over diagnosed with COVID 19 and in this more recent outbreak that started in August, just over 500 cases have been documented in those aged over 60 years.

As you know, our Maori population has accounted for a high proportion of cases in the current outbreak, so improving vaccination rates in addition to a booster is the best way we can protect this population.

Our frontline border and healthcare workers are also a top priority as they were in the earlier part of the Pfizer rollout and so the addition of the booster is the best way we can protect them, particularly with the cases appearing in an MiQ over the last week or so. Because we started our rollout in that group, our border workers, healthcare workers, and of course older people and those as I mentioned with pre- existing conditions are in fact already eligible for a booster.

We are in a good position now across the country with 95% of people over 65 fully vaccinated, including high rates for Maori and Pacific people. District Health Board have active outreach for visitors an aged residential care who are also at greater risk and are planning for vaccinations to be offered for new residents who moved in over the coming weeks and months. over 200,016 versus have already been at -- given. Doses. At least four months ago will be available in the New Year.

Thank you and I'll hand over to Dr Delor.

>> Kia ora koutou katoa. Th

e Audi period traditions I've been working with welcome the government's decision. -- (Speaks Te Reo Maori) Paediatricians. -- Maori paediatricians. We believe tamariki Murray have a right to be protected against COVID-19 and have a right to participate in the wider protection of our communities. -- They have provided technical advice in the lead up to this decision along with other Maori health officials and organisations. We have specified a successful vaccination program for 5 to 11-year-olds will be a program for whanau, one allowing parents and carers to receive reliable information and discuss that information with people they trust. One that encourages effectively... Engages effectively with whanau with disabilities, one allows whanau to allow other vaccines on the routine vaccination schedule and COVID boosters for young people and adults. A successful program will be delivered in partnership with iwi and Maori health providers including sharing of data, Maori and Pacific organisations have already demonstrated that they know how to deliver vaccination programs effectively in their own communities. As Mahdi -- Maori paediatricians we are encouraged to see the government making a commitment including Bauer Mari -- -- by Maori and for Maori. Back to you, Minister.

>> We will open up the questions.

>> Why are tamariki Murray is being prioritise in this roller? Siobhan Greene how fortunate we will have enough supply of the vaccine when it arrives to be able to start everybody all at the same time. What are indicated before, though, think learning from our experience with the adult rollout, I think we need to make sure we are devoting specific dedicated resource to reaching into those hard to reach communities particularly some of our more remote communities and many Maori live in those more remote communities. Earlier in the piece rather than later on. So we know that we can make these vaccines available widely right from the beginning. We won't have to ration if you like as we did with the adult rollout and that means we will focus our additional resource, so at surgeries we can make sure we are reaching into those communities that we know we need to do better and that does mean that we will be able to do that earlier on, like right from the beginning and I think that will allow us to reach Maori earlier.

>> Tamariki Maori are at schools (inaudible) and why aren't (inaudible) the vaccine program could be rolled out to those schools?

>> We will be working alongside schools. But we are not saying is we will do it in every school because in some schools that would make any sense. If you are in a highly urban area where there are vaccination clinics everywhere and it is not hard to get vaccine, setting up additional vaccine clinics is not necessarily the best use of that additional resource. On the other hand, in some of our smaller communities, so if you think about Northland, for example, great example, sometimes the schools would be the centre of the community and that is a good opportunity to vaccinate not just the tamariki but also provide the opportunity for their whanau to be vaccinated and we can make sure they are providing through that people who are informed and who can talk people through what the vaccine is and what it does and how it works. -- we. We know that is where some of the hesitancy in parts of the country have come from so I think this really is a good opportunity now for us to not just reach the tamariki but also reach into some of the adults who may not have been vaccinated yet either.

>> (Inaudible) report that the government and vaccination of Maori has actually (inaudible) hotspots?

>> I want to take the opportunity to study that report closely and obviously had not had the opportunity to do that yet. I have been meeting Minister (inaudible) with the Maori Council to remedy the issues raised even before the tribunal report came out. We know we do not have the vaccination rate amongst Maori that we want to have. We have an opportunity with the rollout of our 5 to 11-year- olds vaccines to do things a little differently, to target those resources into those communities quickly at the beginning without having to take away from anybody else. We can do that right at the beginning and I think we will definitely want to take the opportunity to do that.

>> (Inaudible) highly emotive issue, though. What would you say to parents who are quite nervous?

>> I think every parent is nervous when it comes to the health of their children. I am a parent and fully understand that myself. But you have to look at the science. This vaccine has been rolled out widely across the globe now to young people. It is safe. I perhaps might hand to my expert actually to talk about that as to what sort of messages they would want to convey to those parents who are reluctant.

>> Just in response to some of those things, what we find is when whanau have the opportunity to receive information and discuss information with people they trust, and the uptake of the vaccine is very high. So our target as Maori paediatricians and other healthcare workers interested in children's out is to make that available to whanau to fill that void that might have been there with the correct information, reliable information for people they trust. With respect to resource allocation, we don't see the need for time because there is enough vaccine, doesn't have to be timed for specific groups but we do see the need for deployment of allocation of resources which might be funding for specific communication campaigns, for example, be resources going to Maori health providers and Iwi to make sure when they make a site (inaudible) that the unity that making (inaudible) is the best way the vaccine. That is up to them to decide that once they have that plan, resources are available to support them to make that happen and be successful.

>> Is their money that has been ring fenced for those resources just mentioned, specific advert campaigns and things like that?

>> They will be specific advertising campaigns around the paediatric rollout and their will be targeted at those communities, different messages targeted to different communities so they will certainly advertising targeted at Maori there. And with what we are done with Maori health providers in recent months and we have continued to increase the funding available there, we will provide dedicated resource.

>> Maori MiQ changes, (inaudible) is that just the Australian (inaudible) who are you bringing them together?

>> At this point it is altogether. But I wouldn't rule out further changes there to that second group if we needed to. Having said that, we don't want to disrupt people's travel plans unless there is a very -- there is a very good reason and the reason we have chose the end of February date is because it means we can have a booster campaign fell through, can be well advanced with the rollout of the 5 to 11-year-olds vaccines in terms of first doses. So all of these things cumulatively add two layers of protection.

>> Is it really that unforeseen that omicron will get out of MiQ somehow anyway?

>> We will do everything we can to keep it within MiQ but with a more highly transmissible variant the risk increases. The infection control measures we have in our facilities are very robust. Having said that, nothing is 100% effective. We do have to be prepared for the fact that it could make it out sooner than that.

>> (Inaudible)

>> I don't want to hold out something to people that may or may not happen and so I wouldn't want to speculate on that.

>> On the boost update, a lot of people are eligible for the boost and now (inaudible). Is there a certain level of uptake you would not be happy with by the end of February? 80% or so will be eligible or may be but probably we will see (inaudible) take it up.

>> Every percentage in our efforts has mattered in Auckland there. I'm not setting a hard and fast target in terms of where we want to be by the end of February. I think we are up to about 95% of eligible New Zealanders now having had a first dose and about 91% having now had the second dose. So really I think what you can expect to see is we will still be focused on the equity challenge around first and second doses but most if it will now move to the booster campaign and to the rollout of the vaccination for children.

>> Within MiQ, when you do family (inaudible) it probably has to be (inaudible) omicron (inaudible) everyone in New Zealand (inaudible) be boosted or had omicron?

>> I don't know. Maybe Doctor town might want to provide a comment. -- Town.

>> Certainly those data from Australia pretty worrying, with that explicit nature of these outbreaks particularly at a super spread event but I think the Minister is right. We want to hold this back for as long as we possibly can. We know that that Delta outbreak that started in August was triggered just by one incursion and that is all it takes but the reality is the longer we can hold it back all of these measures that the Minister has described are starting to take effect on the more people that have had vaccination (inaudible) scheduled and productive adults these boosters, the safe (inaudible) and nothing is guaranteed and emerging data suggest that third dose really helps against severe disease from omicron so that is reassuring.

>> (Inaudible) families and people stuck in Australia trying to get back to New Zealand and had all their hopes on that January 16, booked flights and ready to go and now that has been crushed.

>> We have worked hard to provide as much certainty to people who needed to travel and wanted to travel as we possibly can and am sorry have have not been able to meet that particular deadline of that particular target that we were aiming for. One of the realities, though, is COVID-19 continues to thrive (inaudible) throw out new challenges for us and while that means we can work to provide certainty we cannot always absolutely give people certainty. That is not something just happening in New Zealand, it is happening around the world. Many of these countries that had really enjoyed opening up again are now finding they are having to re-impose restrictions. I think the whole globe continues to be challenged by COVID-19. But I want to acknowledge that a personal (inaudible) at a personal and individual level whether it is people whose businesses have been affected, plans affected, people who are separated from their families, the cost, the personal cost of the global pandemic has been very high. People.

>> What is the plan for when the first case of omicron gets into the community?

>> As we have indicated here, our primary focus, this focus is to try and delay that for as long as we possibly can so that we can get our protection rates up further through the booster vaccination campaign. We have also indicated, though, through the traffic light framework we would be looking to use the ratesetting as our first response. Then, as always we continue to adapt and respond as we learn more. And we will know more. The international knowledge base around omicron is still relatively new and it continues to grow by the day so every day that we do not have it in New Zealand is a day that we can be better prepared and we can have better knowledge.

>> Special consideration being given to sports teams returning home from late January to early February?

>> We will have to go through MiQ forward bookings and so on and that the pressure points. One thing - you can imagine doing this, things are moving at speed. One thing I will do in the next 24 hours also is working MiQ around when we release the next wave of vouchers because I think it is important we do that at the time that maximises people's opportunity to take this up if they are in Australia, for example, and will take a while for the airlines to reconfigure what they are doing around flights, so I will work with MiQ to make sure we are not releasing unnecessarily hollered about as an meantime that those people in Australia don't even get the opportunity to take up so we will work our way through that.

>> (Inaudible)

>> I wouldn't rule it out but I'm not ruling it in at this point either. One more.

>> In light of the news about the death, do you have a message for the family?

>> I will hand the technical experts talk about the risks of myocarditis. The vaccine is very safe and any small risk associated with the vaccine is by far outweighed by the risk of getting COVID-19.

>> We were saddened by that report. We have the benefit of course of the independent safety monitoring board which has Matt and I sit in on those meetings which is helpful to understand their evaluation. What they determined was exactly as the minister has said. Although this particular case was probably associated with the vaccination, it is extremely rare internationally. Risks of getting COVID which itself can cause myocarditis as the minister has said certainly outweigh that. It is early days, but we are obviously alert and monitoring safety signals. We think it is unlikely that the booster dose would trigger myocarditis which as we know is more common after the first dose.

>> How confident are you that the red light setting will be enough (inaudible)? It is kind of like putting all of our eggs in the vaccination basket and we know that even two doses of Pfizer (inaudible) effective against prevention.

>> One of the things we will know more about as the coming weeks go by is what the big spike of case numbers we are seeing around the world does in terms of hospitalisation and severity of illness. Information is still quite early. We indicated when we went to the traffic light system that we will sort of move away from the daily case numbers being the main measure to looking at things like severity of illness, the number of people in hospital, the number of people in ICU, and someone. Omicron has changed the dynamic a little bit in the sense that we know that people who have been fully vaccinated, i.e. Have had two doses, and get it. We have seen examples of people around the world who have had two doses getting it and still getting sick from it. That is why the booster has become more important. We will know more in the coming weeks, but the main message in the meantime is that booster is matter.

>> Will there be more public health measures on top of it (inaudible) Swiss cheese approach (inaudible)?

>> I think if you look at the Swiss cheese model as we have now, we have a variety of protections. We have masks, within the traffic light setting there is places you can only go if you have been fully vaccinated. There are a variety of different layers of protection. Of course, you can continue to add layers of protection. What we don't necessarily want to do unless we absolutely have to do and I'm not saying at this point that we envisage having to do this it is there. We said as we set out the traffic light frame, it is still there and available to use, but we will only do that if we absolutely have to.

>> Minister, do you think now that MiQ needs to be expanded or you need to look at it as more of a permanent thing given you have a number of extensions in the use of it?

>> We are still intending of course to have home isolation as the default setting for people coming into the country. That has been delayed by about six weeks from the middle of January to the end of February, but that is still what we are planning towards. Managed isolation, MiQ, for travel across the border of the scale that we ultimately need to get back to will be incredibly huge full stop it will be big, really big. What we have been working towards and we have been working towards this for some time now is the overall contingency planning for the future. What sort of capability around managed isolation and quarantine do we need to have, not necessarily just for this pandemic, but the future pandemics? We are working our way through that. Yes, there will be future changes there I think will be the ultimate answer.

>> What advice did (inaudible) get about the wider effects on the delay and the border, in particular well-being affects of mental health and also the economic effects of the economy?

>> It is difficult to model the well-being affects, but we do acknowledge that there are well-being affects. For families who were separated, for people who find themselves in places that they didn't expect to be for a long period of time. The well-being affects can be significant and we do very much consider that, but we also weigh it up against the potential effect of a large- scale outbreak and the potential well-being effect that that could have on an even number -- on an even greater number of people. They could also be an economic effect, but the effect is less then a level III or four lockdown.

>> Just on (inaudible) vaccination before the school year starts, what sort of modelling are you seeing about primary schools being used as a vector for the disease and also, you have a minimum number of kids that you want vaccinated? If you don't reach that, would you potentially look at delaying the start of the school year?

>> I want to be absolutely clear about one thing that I put on the statement. We will not be making it mandatory for young people to be vaccinated. This will ultimately be a choice for their parents, it is a choice that I strongly encourage parents to take. It protect their children, it protects the family, it protects them more vulnerable in their family including parents for example all those who may have underlying health conditions. So strongly encourage families to do that. We are not setting a target for childhood vaccination, we want to vaccinate as many as we can and there is a lot of water to flow under the bridge in the next month before we start thinking about any changes to school opening dates. I am not contemplating those at the moment.

>> Why not make it mandatory?

>> We will not make it mandatory for children to be vaccinated. We haven't made it mandatory for the majority of New Zealand is to be vaccinated either to be clear. It is only those where there is a risk profile and a public health justification for doing it.

>> What options are on the table for people who have booked flights to come home from Australia from the 16th who are now in limbo? What options do you have for them in terms of repatriation?

>> Like I said, we will be working closely with the airlines to ensure we can align the release of MiQ vouchers with flight availability. The problem is that we have released a lot of MiQ space at the moment. There will be a lot of pressure given the return to 10 days isolation. But we will have availability when we release it, we want to ensure people in Australia can get access to it. And of course the emergency allocation criteria continues to be in place, so for those who have a critical need to get back, they can still apply for emergency on occasions.

>> You have any idea about the number of rooms that (inaudible) could allocate to people (inaudible)?

>> Can tell you that in the most recent lobby release, there were 500 rooms that didn't get taken at all. The demand has absolutely disappeared since we made the announcement and I expect that some of that some people will be in a position where they will delay their plans. But there will be others who there will be more pressure on, so they will be looking to secure a voucher or emergency allocation, they will lose their will -- so we will be looking to work with the MiQ team.

>> (Inaudible) risk assessment of it and how flexible are you to change to more stricter measures (inaudible) becomes available?

>> I have never ruled things in or out because we have to be adaptable and flexible. Things change all of the time when we are dealing with COVID 19.

>> So, how concerned are you about the risk of Omicron or Delta spreading through a school? How much of a risk does a school system pose?

>> I might ask our experts to comment on that.

>> We are concerned about outbreaks in schools. We know that transmission does occur between children and from children. Moberly less than adults, but certainly it is one of the factors considered in the decision to make the vaccine available to children is the possibility of outbreaks in schools and the virus basically circulating around schools and being a hub in communities. To definitely a consideration in the decision.

>> Can I ask you something about the border? Should people be expecting that every time there is a new variant that there will be a delay in the border (inaudible)?

>> Not necessarily.

>> What changes will be made to the (inaudible) Omicron is everywhere now?

>> Most of the countries that were all the countries that were designated as very high risk of the back of the Omicron variant have now been with reclassified as high risk.

>> (Inaudible) within MiQ? How how widespread is it around the country?

>> It is pretty much across the MiQ network.

>> In terms of the booster, at the moment double dad get into a lot of places. Will they be a point where you will need to be tripled out to get into places?

>> Quite possibly. (Inaudible) possibility to make those decisions.

>> Will you be looking to bring five to 11-year-olds into the vaccine past framework?

>> No.

>> Secondly, once you get over 90% tripled ghost, -- triple dosed as they give us enough protection to remove the border controls?

>> There is still so much that is unknown. We are still aiming towards now that end of February target to have some isolation in the first instance. We want to get to the point where we can have free movement across the border again, I don't know when that will be. It is likely that it will have to be a staged approach and home isolation is likely to be the first significant step in that.

>> The tribunal report also spoke about the refusal to take on official advice. Why is it that the government continues to refuse to take on advice from Maori health providers all the likes of (inaudible)?

>> As I indicated before, we get quite a significant range of advice. We made the decision around the initial vaccination rollout given the limited supply to roll out the vaccination initially to those who are most at risk of getting it in the first place, so those who were working at the border, those who were working in our frontline health roles. And to all the population on the basis that we know from international experience that that is where it does the most damage. And also then to those with Comorbidity, so those who have underlying health conditions. We made that sequencing decision in the context of limited supply. I think we are fortunate in the next phase of our rollout with boosters and with the five to 11-year-old vaccines that we won't have to ration in that way and so I think we can take a different approach now and it does mean we can put equity front and centre right at the very beginning.

>> Doctor Delore, you are in walking on the rollout for tamariki Maori. How confident are you that the advice and guidance will be taken on board?

>> I think the early indicators are good. I think the findings of the tribunal are a template for us to identify the problems all the areas that were deficient in previous rollout of vaccination. A lot of Maori organisations and healthcare professionals who presented at the hearing before the tribunal, we are going to be using those findings to hold the government to account. To form a vision for how this vaccination rollout for five to 11-year-olds can be much more successful.

>> We have been speaking to some hospitality workers who are really up against the pressure, they are getting tired of the aggression and abuse when asking people to provide vaccine passes. What advice do you give to these people?

>> It is not so much advice to businesses as a request of all New Zealanders. We are heading into Christmas, relax, be kind. The understanding of the people who are doing their jobs. Are not doing this because they want to, they are doing it because they are required to. Just to everybody else, cut our hospo work in some slack. Celebrate the festive season and show some kindness.

>> (Inaudible) gone against the advice. Do you regret that decision?

>> As with all things COVID 19, there are always things that you look back on and think, "I wish we had better choices when we made those decisions. " We made those decisions in the context of a limited supply of vaccinations early on. We don't have that now, so we can make different choices. We are absolutely confident in the choices we are making around the next vaccine rollout. Some of those equity issues being counted in the first rollout, we can avoid them this time around.

>> (Inaudible)

>> I don't think so.

>> In South Africa, the epicentre of the Omicron variant, seems to have turned a corner. They are sort of flattening. What you make of that? It spread like wildfire and then fades quickly.

>> It is an interesting question, probably one more for the New Year. I think the situation in South Australia is different to Europe and the UK and Australia. The number of people who have experienced COVID is very high, so they have natural immunity as well and the vaccination will have topped that up. I think the dynamic is in a previously infected population and yes, the initial wave seems to be flattening. But I think more worrying for us is what is happening in Europe and Australia and places where people come to New Zealand from because that will be the risk that present at our borders.

>> We might wrap up shortly.

>> The board opening. Can you be any more specific when you think they might be able to come and not have to go into MiQ?

>> We are hoping for the end of February for that to be the default for New Zealanders where they can isolate.

>> Coming from Australia and other parts?

>> Yes.

>> MiQ, 7 to 10 days when will that (inaudible)?

>> Those who are arriving after the date on which that the requirement comes into effect. We have to go through the process of changing the order. That will come into effect in the next couple of days and for those arriving after the changes come into effect.

>> (Inaudible)

>> That's right.

>> (Inaudible)

>> Then subject to different rules and they stay for 14 days.

>> (Inaudible) your willingness to use more strict measures? It seemed to over a message is we don't want to be locked down at all the summer (Inaudible) some drastic news about how bad omicron is that on the current data would be locked down? -- do you have a message for tomorrow?

>> No, I think the red traffic light framework is go to, at least initially, and we will see how things unfold.

>> A question for Dr Delor. Has there been any advice given to the government to prioritise vaccinations for tamariki that was rejected? In other words did you give any advice to the government to essentially work even harder to get you tamariki before the rest of the population to prioritise them?

>> From my perspective as a Maori paediatrician, there is only a small group of us, we have given advice to the COVID Technical Advisory Group and it wasn't that specific but certainly in our wedding is to prioritise vaccination for tamariki Mari 5 to 11 and how that happens is not so much the timing of it. -- Maori. It is where it goes to.

>> (Inaudible)

>> They are listening and taking bold lessons from previous vaccination rollouts and I am positive and encouraged by what I have heard from the government so far. I will point out there are other Maori organisations were working with the government now about what role they will play in the paediatric rollout of vaccination and I cannot speak for those groups but I'm sure we will be hearing from those people in time and as the weeks go by towards the start of this vaccination program, we will find out more about what the government (inaudible).

>> In your opinion do you think the government's response now is still complying with the treaty principles or is it breaching them?

>> That is a hard question. I would like time to go through the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal. They will not be a point where we say we are completely happy with the vaccination rollout for Maori. We will keep pushing, looking for new ways to do things, new ways to achieve is -- achieve those equitable outcomes particularly for tamariki Mari.

>> Thanks very much, everybody. -- Maori.