Covid-19: Whānau calls for help soar during Omicron wave

Demand for food parcels and support is so overwhelming a Māori health provider in Auckland says it's been forced to turn people away without help.

The region recorded more than 4500 new Covid-19 cases today, and has more than 200 people in hospital with the virus.

Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere said the provider delivers about 300 food and medical packs to whānau isolating every day.

The demand for help is unprecedented, and Tamihere said the service received up to 750 calls for help in one day alone last week, and is fielding calls from community members and people referred by Work and Income.

"We get MSD referrals and ...then we get public referrals who come through different lines. I don't know any community-based agency that can - I don't even know any Crown-based agency that can handle that type of volume."

The trust also supports whānau with Covid-19 health queries and runs a testing and vaccination centre.

On 2 March it gave out 8800 rapid antigen tests to those who qualified, and it set up a new system for volunteers to help out with the huge increase in demand.

Tamihere says if resources are stretched too thin, those in need are immediately referred to other agencies for support.

The organisation is also dealing with Covid-induced staff shortages while facing the unprecedented demand.

Tamihere said 47 of the trust's 354-strong team have contracted the virus, but this has not dramatically hampered the provider's mahi.

"We're losing anything between five to seven workers every three days. We can bridge the gaps.

"If we had a run on all our nursing staff or some of our backbone leadership we'd have a problem, but luckily it's been up and down and all over the place, and we've been able to swap people out."