Covid 19 coronavirus: Auckland locals shouldn’t go to Queenstown for conferences – Chris Hipkins

Health Minister Chris Hipkins says he is uncomfortable with Auckland residents traveling to conferences in Queenstown and has asked city residents to “do the right thing.”

It comes after the Otago Daily Times revealed that a conference held in Queenstown, which includes Aucklanders as guests, will be held despite calls from the Prime Minister for traveling Aucklanders to avoid mass gatherings.

The conference is within the rules, but has raised concerns from a prominent epidemiologist.

When asked if he was comfortable with Auckland residents attending conferences in Queenstown, Hipkins said: “No, it’s the simple answer to that.

“We are asking Auckland locals to continue to take the alert level restrictions with them.”

The alert level restrictions in Auckland mean that people should not attend gatherings of more than 10 people in the city, he said.

“So if Auckland residents travel to other parts of the country, the same rules should apply.”

The government was asking for “goodwill” from Auckland residents, he said.

“We are asking the people of Auckland to play their part as they have done for the past three weeks to keep the country safe.

“There will never be a 100% enforceable system when it comes to these kinds of restrictions, so we ask people to do the right thing.”

‘Not in the spirit’ of PM’s advice: epidemiologist

The Morgo conference will be held at the Heritage Hotel tomorrow and Friday and is aimed at technology companies working to expand abroad.

University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker was critical of the conference’s progress, saying it was proof of the need for a travel ban from Auckland while the current outbreak was brought under control.

Although within the rules, holding a conference or similar event with guests from Auckland appeared to contravene Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s comments, Baker said.

“It is not in the spirit of our Prime Minister’s recommendation that people leave Auckland and attend conferences.”

Since Auckland was the center of the outbreak, people in the city should “question everything they are doing in terms of whether it is exposing others to risk,” he said.

However, it was dangerous to hold people accountable for acting responsibly and instead the government needed to enforce safe behavior, such as limiting travel from Auckland.

“The government is there to make these difficult decisions.”

Morgo conference organizer Jenny Morel did not say how many Aucklanders were attending the event, but pointed to the rules on the government’s Unite against Covid-19 website and said visits to the public and venues were not “gatherings. social”.

This specifically included visits to conference venues.

“It is the social gatherings that are restricted to 10 people in Auckland and therefore are of concern to the government,” Morel said.

“However, events like Morgo – conferences – are not restricted beyond standard Level 2 protocols and allow 100 people anywhere in New Zealand.

“This means that we could even run Morgo with 100 people in Auckland according to the regulations.

“The travel requirements also say don’t travel to events that don’t meet Tier 2 requirements, which Morgo does,” Morel said.

There was no reference to mass gatherings on the government website, which instead spoke of limits on social gatherings.

Southern District Board of Health Medical Officer Susan Jack said her organization recognized that conference venues and hotels would want to get back to work as much as possible.

That was “important both for the economy of the region and for the well-being of the community in general,” he said.

However, Dr. Jack said that Southern DHB asked all those in Queenstown involved in mass gatherings, including conferences, to adhere to the guidelines for events at Level 2.

“Our expectation is that the conference organizers must handle this situation.”

Baker said that when it came to people traveling from Auckland in general, it was highly unlikely that every individual would spread Covid-19, but given the number of people leaving the city to travel across the country, the risk became more significant. .

He believed it wouldn’t be long before traveling from Auckland would be safe again.

“If we can keep a couple more weeks of very intense focus on ending that outbreak in Auckland and minimizing its spread, we will get through it.

“Unfortunately, everything related to the pandemic is very disturbing and expensive, but if it starts to spread to other parts of New Zealand, it is a terrible outcome that we really want to avoid.”