The Ministry of Health concedes it doesn’t know how many border workers outside MIQ are still going to work without being vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Asked about this blind spot, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins wouldn’t quantify the level of risk it represented.<\/p>\n
Hipkins and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have been talking up a vaccinated safety barrier at the border from the end of April by moving any non-vaccinated workers away from the frontline.<\/p>\n
The public health vaccination order – now in effect – creates a vaccination barrier across MIQ, but not across all border facilities.<\/p>\n
The order applies to all MIQ workers, workers involved in transporting travellers to and from MIQ, “government officials” in airports and ports, and aircraft cabin crew.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t apply to other privately-contracted workers at the border, which includes airport cleaners, baggage-handlers and retail and hospitality staff, non-government healthcare and engineering workers, and pilots and stevedores who work at the ports.<\/p>\n
Such workers have previously caught Covid-19, such as the worker who cleaned a plane carrying international travellers, or the person who handled laundry from the international airport.<\/p>\n
The Herald asked the Ministry of Health how many unvaccinated border workers there were more than a week ago.<\/p>\n
National director of the vaccine and immunisation programme Jo Gibbs yesterday conceded she didn’t know.<\/p>\n
“The Ministry is continually looking to further improve its data and is actively working to establish a clearer picture of Covid-19 vaccination rates among the wider border workforce,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Asked to quantify the blind spot in terms of risk, Hipkins deflected and said, in general, that any risk should be minimised as much as possible.<\/p>\n
“There is no such thing as a no-risk environment when it comes to Covid, but we can certainly continue to reduce risk.<\/p>\n
“Do I want our data systems to be better? Yes, absolutely … The team who are working on it know that they need to produce more granular information than they’ve been able to produce so far.”<\/p>\n
Given how the border workforce fluctuates, Hipkins said it was “quite difficult” to keep tabs on all the frontline workers at the border, and who among them are vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker agreed, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t doable.<\/p>\n
“Otherwise you don’t know the most basic performance measure, which is coverage. That’s a problem.<\/p>\n
“This is about delivery. The goal is to vaccinate all border workers and their families, so you’ve got to actually define those groups in a practical sense and track how you’re going.<\/p>\n
“The law and the public health infrastructure need to catch up with the intent.”<\/p>\n
Baker also suggested a vaccinated safety barrier across health frontlines, such as at all hospitals, which would mean redeploying unvaccinated healthcare worker away from the frontline.<\/p>\n
Hipkins was lukewarm on this idea, but didn’t dismiss it.<\/p>\n
“To require someone to have a vaccination to do a particular job – there’s quite a high threshold in terms of the risk assessment you need to meet for that. Whether you could apply that to every health sector worker I think would be quite questionable.<\/p>\n
“We want to encourage everyone to take up the vaccine because they see it as a good thing, rather than because they have to.”<\/p>\n