Politics Central

National says the Government needs to move urgently to make vaccination mandatory in more frontline roles.
Cabinet ministers are due to discuss the issue tomorrow.
National Covid-19 Response Spokesman Chris Bishop says he expects them to agree to make vaccination mandatory for all healthcare workers dealing with Covid cases.
He told The Weekend Collective it's something he's been calling for and fully supports.
“Frankly, probably taken too long. At the moment, you could be a nurse, working on someone with Covid in ICU, and not have to be vaccinated. It’s pretty nuts."
More than 3.4 million first doses and more than 2.3 million second doses have now been administered, with more than 81-thousand doses being administered yesterday alone.
In Auckland, about 86 per cent of people have received at least one dose, and 61 percent of people are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Bishop says he can't stress how important it is, that everyone goes out and gets their jab.
"You protect yourself, but you also protect your loved ones, and your neighbours and the whole community because every extra person that's vaccinated limits the chance of the virus spreading around in the community."
Jacinda Ardern has spent the past few days visiting remote North Island East Coast communities, to push the vaccination message.
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Concerns from an epidemiologist following the confirmation of 60 new community cases of Covid-19 today.
There are 56 new cases in Auckland, including 17 that are yet to be linked to existing cases.
There are another three cases in Waikato linked to the initial Hamilton East case and a case in Katikati in Bay of Plenty that was already announced last night.
Auckland University epidemiologist Rod Jackson told Tim Roxborogh and Tim Beveridge he's concerned about the situation in Northland where a Covid case hasn't been cooperating with authorities.
“Doesn't look too bad in the Waikato, I think we might stamp out that one. Auckland, we just have to suppress it until we all get vaccinated. Northland, I’m freaking out in a major way because I think we could have big problems there.”
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Concerns from an epidemiologist following the confirmation of 60 new community cases of Covid-19 today.
There are 56 new cases in Auckland, including 17 that are yet to be linked to existing cases.
There are another three cases in Waikato linked to the initial Hamilton East case and a case in Katikati in Bay of Plenty that was already announced last night.
Auckland University epidemiologist Rod Jackson told The Weekend Collective he's concerned about the situation in Northland where a Covid case hasn't been cooperating with authorities.
“Doesn't look too bad in the Waikato, I think we might stamp out that one. Auckland, we just have to suppress it until we all get vaccinated. Northland, I’m freaking out in a major way because I think we could have big problems there.”
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Auckland's Mayor says police were put in a tough position yesterday with a Destiny Church organised anti-lockdown protest.
Around 2000 protesters gathered for a rally outside Auckland's War Memorial Museum yesterday.
No arrests have been made so far and police had a scant presence there.
Phil Goff told the Weekend Collective police could have inflamed tensions if they had been harder.
"Their preferred approach was to try to keep the temperature down and hold open the option that they will still charge people for breach of the health order."
Goff said the event was unacceptable.
"I was really unhappy with Brian Tamaki and his group of people who thought that somehow they were above the law and they could have this superspreader event while the rest of us were trying to do the right thing for the city."
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Auckland's Mayor says police were put in a tough position yesterday with a Destiny Church organised anti-lockdown protest.
Around 2000 protesters gathered for a rally outside Auckland's War Memorial Museum yesterday.
No arrests have been made so far and police had a scant presence there.
Phil Goff told the Weekend Collective police could have inflamed tensions if they had been harder.
"Their preferred approach was to try to keep the temperature down and hold open the option that they will still charge people for breach of the health order."
Goff said the event was unacceptable.
"I was really unhappy with Brian Tamaki and his group of people who thought that somehow they were above the law and they could have this superspreader event while the rest of us were trying to do the right thing for the city."
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A Covid-19 expert says Waikato's latest outbreak may not be as bad as Auckland's.
Parts of the Waikato region will move to Alert Level 3 at 11:59 tonight.
Auckland went to Alert Level Four with one case. 
Auckland University Covid-19 modeller Shaun Hendy says the government might have suspicions the two cases are linked to the Auckland outbreak.
He told the Weekend Collective there may be another cause for optimism.
“Our vaccination programme is a long way along now, it’s still got a ways to go, but actually, the vaccination programme will actually be cutting spread.”
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A Covid-19 expert says Waikato's latest outbreak may not be as bad as Auckland's.
Parts of the Waikato region will move to Alert Level 3 at 11:59 tonight.
Auckland went to Alert Level Four with one case. 
Auckland University Covid-19 modeller Shaun Hendy says the government might have suspicions the two cases are linked to the Auckland outbreak.
He told the Weekend Collective there may be another cause for optimism.
“Our vaccination programme is a long way along now, it’s still got a ways to go, but actually, the vaccination programme will actually be cutting spread.”
However, with 33 cases today and 19 unlinked cases from the weekend, he thinks it's a negative trend.
"We're gonna see number continue to increase, and really, what's going to get us out of this situation is our vaccine programme."
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Efforts to boost ICU capacity are struggling because internationally sought-after nurses can't get into the country, even after accepting job offers and despite the threat to New Zealand from Covid-19.
Some critical care nurses who are already in New Zealand on visas are leaving for much higher paid jobs in Australia and elsewhere, after immigration delays meant they couldn't plan ahead.
Concerned ICU leaders are set to jointly write to the Government to ask for urgent changes.
"Hospitals have got people from overseas who would like to come to work with them, but they are struggling to get them in through MIQ. Then there is a backlog of processing things with the Nursing Council. And there are problems with visas," said ICU doctor Craig Carr, who is the NZ regional chair of the Australia NZ Intensive Care Society.
"The frustration is that even if you interview and get someone, it's a real struggle to be able to facilitate them to get into the country.
A shortage of the highly-trained nurses is one of the main reasons why actual, day-to-day ICU capacity hasn't improved since the Covid pandemic began, despite the Government putting up more funding and buying equipment like ventilators.
National's health spokesman Dr Shane Reti has recently called on the Government to explain why more ICU bed spaces haven't been secured. The party also wants visa categories to be reopened and residence applications prioritised for critical healthcare workers, as well as offering residence class visas on arrival to experienced nurses.
Dr Reti says the short term solution is relaxing our immigration settings to let in the nurses offshore. A longer term solution is to train more nurses here. But he says that’s a seven year plan. 
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Efforts to boost ICU capacity are struggling because internationally sought-after nurses can't get into the country, even after accepting job offers and despite the threat to New Zealand from Covid-19.
Some critical care nurses who are already in New Zealand on visas are leaving for much higher paid jobs in Australia and elsewhere, after immigration delays meant they couldn't plan ahead.
Concerned ICU leaders are set to jointly write to the Government to ask for urgent changes.
"Hospitals have got people from overseas who would like to come to work with them, but they are struggling to get them in through MIQ. Then there is a backlog of processing things with the Nursing Council. And there are problems with visas," said ICU doctor Craig Carr, who is the NZ regional chair of the Australia NZ Intensive Care Society.
"The frustration is that even if you interview and get someone, it's a real struggle to be able to facilitate them to get into the country.
A shortage of the highly-trained nurses is one of the main reasons why actual, day-to-day ICU capacity hasn't improved since the Covid pandemic began, despite the Government putting up more funding and buying equipment like ventilators.
National's health spokesman Dr Shane Reti has recently called on the Government to explain why more ICU bed spaces haven't been secured. The party also wants visa categories to be reopened and residence applications prioritised for critical healthcare workers, as well as offering residence class visas on arrival to experienced nurses.
Dr Reti says the short term solution is relaxing our immigration settings to let in the nurses offshore. A longer term solution is to train more nurses here. But he says that’s a seven year plan. 
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The Delta outbreak could go either way.
New Zealand has 18 new Covid-19 cases today - two are unlinked.
Canterbury University's Michael Plank says cases could increase in level 3 - but could also be controlled with strict bubbles and contact tracing.
He says we aren't seeing the effect of level 3 yet - but towards the end of this week we'll have a better idea of whether numbers will creep up.
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