Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare says he wants whānau to realise while they must always be vigilant, a lockdown is not on the cards just now.
Henare was speaking to online speculation about such a move on Māori Television's Tapatahi today.
Yesterday the government announced that, from October, it will conduct a trial of home isolation rather than hotel quarantine for selected passengers.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also revealed a plan to reopen borders in the first half of next year.
Despite that and given what's happened in Australia and around the world, Henare says New Zealand will remain cautious. If the Delta variation takes hold in any region of the country, the government will opt for a quick, sharp lockdown at Level four rather than the lengthy lockdown that occurred last year.
“The Delta variant means we've got to take sharp decisive action, and that means that ... we've got to go into a short sharp lockdown at level four, but I want to reassure the whānau at the moment, that that's not where we are at the moment and we are doing our best to keep Delta out of this country,” he says.
Misinformation over vaccinations
Henare says officials continue to monitor the types of misinformation that have been disseminated in communities. He notes he and other health experts travelled around the country in April to engage with communities and answer questions, and he believes more conversations are needed.
“I'm seeing far more positive advertising, positive messaging, whether it's through the normal Covid vaccine channels, or even simply whānau saying they've gone through the process, and they've enjoyed themselves.”
Home isolation trial
Henare explained the detail of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's announcement yesterday that some of the new MIQ settings will be trialled in small groups before being rolled out to the general public, and those examples could include home isolation or a combination of short isolation in a quarantine facility followed by quarantine isolation at home.
However, Henare says he will be scrutinising these settings to ensure that they are appropriate for Māori.
“One of the challenges, particularly for Māori though is we don't live on our own, we live with whānau, and of course that's a particularly challenging situation given you can't isolate at home on your own in a Māori whānau.”
“We're going to have to look at some of these settings to make sure that they work for our people first and foremost and, until those are done, we will not be opening the borders.”
Māori vaccination rates
Henare is worried about Māori vaccination rates and is encouraging them to come forward to acquire their immunisation by urging non-Māori health practitioners to drive equity and ensure that the vaccine can be delivered to and made available to our people.
“The Prime Minister and the experts yesterday made it clear that one of the biggest tools in the toolbox is actually the vaccine,” he says.
Despite claims the Māori vaccination programme is a failure, Minister Henare disagrees, citing Te Whānau-a-Apanui's success rate of its rohe being 88% vaccinated and the government's support of Māori health providers to distribute the vaccine at marae and in communities.
“Now that's something to celebrate and that means that the settings that we were able to put in place, has worked for Te Whānau-a-Apanui, but let me be very clear tuakana. We've got a mountain to climb. And my job now is to encourage as many as possible to take up the vaccine.”