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New public health advisory group to advise Govt on Covid-19

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 8 Apr 2021, 10:20AM
The issue of reopening New Zealand to the world post-vaccination is a concern. Photo / Getty Images
The issue of reopening New Zealand to the world post-vaccination is a concern. Photo / Getty Images

New public health advisory group to advise Govt on Covid-19

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 8 Apr 2021, 10:20AM

A strategic public health advisory group has been set up to guide the Government on the next steps in its Covid-19 response.

They'll help with issues including much of our population needs to be vaccinated before border settings can be eased - and what to do when new variants emerge.

Group leader professor Sir David Skegg told Mike Hosking at some stage we have to open the border, and it's a question of when we can do this safely.

"There's new information coming out every day about the virus and about the vaccines, so it's a question that can't be answered with any finality right now." 

Skegg doesn't see us as being behind other countries in our vaccination roll-out.

National has criticised the vaccine rollout as being too slow - saying we're second to last in the OECD.

However, Sir David says New Zealand has a far less urgent need than some places to get the vaccine into people.

"Secondly, it's enabling us to learn from the experience of the countries that did need to desperately start their vaccination."

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