A Pacific health leader in New Zealand says his community needs to clearly understand the new restrictions in order to further safeguard their families from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Photo: Ingolfson [Public domain]
Auckland moved to level 2 over the weekend as nine new active cases were announced on Monday, all of them epidemiologically linked to the city's August cluster.
Chair of the Pacific Expert Advisory Group, Dr Colin Tukuitonga, said while there's community transmission, families should remain alert and embrace new guidelines.
Tukuitonga said three quarters of the cases in the Auckland cluster were Pasifika and it was important the community avoided mass gatherings and wore masks in public.
Colin Tukuitonga Photo: Twitter
There are over 140 active cases and more than 127 of them are linked to the Auckland August cluster, he said.
Tukuitonga is also a senior member of the Pasifika Medical Association and said this is the largest cluster the country has seen.
"People need to understand that there's a limit of ten people if you want to meet in a group. The exception is a funeral, which can have up to 50 people.
"The other important change is the wearing of masks in public, which is compulsory on public transport and highly recommended in other public spaces.
"We have learnt that masks play a big part in preventing people from spreading or catching the virus."
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The Prime Minister said if people don't wear masks voluntarily in public then she would consider making it compulsory and that's a big change, he said.
Tukuitonga said everyone wants to return to Alert Level 1 and for that to happen, the community need to adhere to the guidelines.
"That's the ultimate aim, for the government strategy to eliminate the virus within the community so it allows us to have much more freedoms."
Tukuitonga said the confirmed cases linked to the original Auckland cluster is decreasing, and this showed the current lockdown was working.
"We're reasonably upbeat and optimistic that we could be on top of this cluster in Auckland, that's because our community continue to play their part."