Te Whānau a Waipareira has scored a victory, following the news that Whānau Ora workers will be vaccinated for Covid-19.
That comes as Auckland was ordered back into lockdown on the weekend, following the new case of community transmission. Waipareira chief executive John Tamihere says despite initial Ministry of Health reluctance, he pushed and won.
"So 43 of our frontline staff were vaccinated last week. It was a bit of a shambles, there were teething problems just like anything new, and we have to get far better at it. Not we but the powers that be with all the resources will be looking to run our own vaccination programmes, as well as the government with the size and scale of this but it was a bit of a test case, bit of a mess. But they always are when you start something new."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the new community cases in Auckland had contact with another family during the Alert Level 3 lockdown earlier in February. According to Tamihere, it was obvious that Auckland left level 3 far too early last week.
"We all know that the government failed by coming out early after 72 hours. If you go to a 72-hour Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday lockdown, and you recalibrate people for Thursday and Friday it's a waste of time. So it was just silly to come out of that, until we knew where we were lying."
Tamihere is also worried about the large gatherings that were allowed to continue over the weekend, in particular, the SIX60 concert in Hamilton, and the Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa fight in Auckland.
"Then you had large events and, if the urgency of a seven-day lockdown were required, a large number of those people at large events would be, could be carriers, and that's the problem with going out of a lockdown too early."
He also isn't happy about the rollout of the vaccinations, saying the government needs to connect with local communities.
"The choice of hotels, where they were domiciling the vaccination programmes, really was wrong, so they need to think that through again, and the should really talk to our communities. We know exactly where how to roll out these things, given how good we are at testing."
Te Whānau o Waipareira is envisioning more of its staff will be vaccinated against the coronavirus over the coming days and weeks.