There's disappointment from Māori health providers that Auckland is not being plunged into an alert level 4 circuit breaker lockdown.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on Monday that level 4 was unlikely to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases significantly because of the nature of the outbreak and a lack of compliance.
National Hauora Coalition clinical director Dr Rawiri Jansen says New Zealand is now at a tipping point.
"We're at a critical moment in terms of COVID-19 in Aotearoa. I'm deeply concerned we may have a catastrophe coming soon," he tells The Hui.
Going off the current cases, we are about six weeks behind Victoria, Australia, he says.
"They had ambulances stacked that they couldn't unload in their hospitals and we are in grave danger of being in the situation. I'm really keen for people to hold the line, to do the work so we can avoid those kinds of catastrophic outcomes."
Dr Jansen believes it will be Māori who bear the brunt of COVID-19 getting out of control.
"It will be us. We are in harm's way. Our whanau, our communities, the least vaccinated communities in Aotearoa, we are at high risk from the impact of COVID and we don't have many weeks left," he says.
Dr Jansen says New Zealand can still avoid the worst parts of the COVID outbreak by becoming highly vaccinated but it will take extra work to convince vaccine hesitant Māori. He says it was about gaining the trust of communities who have not traditionally had a good relationship with health providers.
In the meantime, he is urging everyone to get vaccinated quickly. He says a bigger outbreak will bring our health system to a standstill and we will all suffer the consequences.
Made with support from Te Māngai Pāho and NZ On Air.
