Vaccine passes will be required for people visiting Ōpōtiki iSite and Ōpōtiki District Council chambers from next week but not at the reception area of the council or the library.

The council met yesterday afternoon to decide whether vaccine passes should be a requirement for council facilities.

A policy adopted on February 9 required all council staff, contractors and volunteers to be vaccinated.

A report to yesterday's extraordinary meeting from the council senior management team said the Ōpōtiki district was 86 percent double vaccinated.

'However, for the Ōpōtiki township this is at 78 percent for all and 71 percent for Māori. Modelling predicts between 700 and 800 cases a day in the Eastern Bay at the peak of the outbreak, with 70 percent of cases likely to be Māori.”

The report said Ōpōtiki was likely to face higher risk of a significant outbreak due to limited resources to manage wellbeing and lack of appropriate isolation options.

'Alongside mask wearing, scanning in and social distancing, requiring vaccine passes is a mechanism that can help to slow the spread of Covid across our community while allowing 86 percent of the community to continue to access services,” it said.

The council had three public facilities and one retail space it was considering restricting access to for people without vaccination passes.

These were the front-of-house or reception area of its St John Street offices, where residents would go to pay their rates and conduct other business with council staff. Other areas considered for vaccination pass requirements were the council chambers located in the same building, the library - Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi - and the i-SITE.

The vaccine mandate for Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi was the most divisive of the four locations, with councillors Louis Rapihana and Shona Browne voting for the vaccine requirement and Mayor Lyn Riesterer, and councillors David Moore, Steve Nelson and Debi Hocart voting against it.

Councillor Barry Howe was absent from the meeting.

All councillors present agreed that any decision they made should be reviewed in two weeks.

Mrs Browne said she would like to see all four locations requiring vaccine passes as it would bring the district in line with neighbouring councils and lessen confusion. All other councils in the Bay of Plenty require vaccination passes to their indoor facilities.

Mr Rapihana said he was happy for people without vaccine passes to have access to the front of house at the council offices but wanted a vaccine pass requirement for the three other facilities. He forwarded a motion to that effect which was outvoted, two votes to four.
With Covid-19 starting to spread in the community, he said the next few weeks would be critical.

'Now is the time when we need to protect our communities, not wait until the numbers are high,” Mr Rapihana said.

Mr Moore questioned whether there was any point in requiring vaccine passes at the library for adults when unvaccinated children under 12 would still be allowed in. 'How does that do anything to protect people”. He said the iSITE was another matter as there were fewer children that used the facility.

Mrs Hocart forwarded a motion that vaccine passes be required within the council chambers and the iSite but not Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi or the council reception.

The front of house, reception area of Ōpōtiki District Council in St John Street is still open to people without vaccination passes but the council chambers where council meetings are held is not.

'I don't think the library should require a vaccine pass. I feel like we will be excluding the community. Especially when it comes to people who use the computers there because that is their only access to the internet. I would be happy with i-SITE requiring vaccine passes as it would work in better with DoC,” Ms Hocart said.

One of the reasons given for requiring vaccine passes at the i-SITE was that the building was in the same building as the Department of Conservation and shared toilet and kitchen facilities. This had created issues for DoC which does require vaccination passes.

There was also a DoC kiosk in the i-SITE, which was not being manned because the i-SITE does not require vaccine passes.

Ms Hocart's motion was passed with only Mr Rapihana and Ms Browne voting against it.

Voting was unanimous to direct staff to implement any additional security requirements as needed. Management confirmed that the cost of this would be around $6000 a month. They expect to be able to implement the changes by Monday next week.

Councillors agreed the decision would be reviewed on March 9.