Covid-19 response taskforce

The UFBA maintains active representation on the FENZ Covid-19 Taskforce. Led by Harry Howard SO Greytown VFB, who represents the wider group at meetings, the group representatives cover all regions using their local networks to feedback to him on regional considerations and issues. The UFBA representatives include:

• Graeme Booth - CFO Laingholme VFB and Past President (R1)
• Glenn Williams - CFO Te Puke VFB and Past President (R2)
• Mark Osborne – SO Tawa VFB and Challenge Panel member (R3)
• Hamish Peter - CFO Rangiora VFB and VDM Region 4 (R4)
• Jesse Wilcox – OIC Invercargill VFB and Past President of Otago-Southland Provincial Association (R5)

If you have a particular concern or issue you would like to raise with the group, please email covid19@ufba.org.nz

Latest Covid-19 update. 1 March 2021 - UFBA - cancellation, adaptation and considerations .

Latest announcement from FENZ CE regarding vaccine roll out - 16 March - see below.

The latest meeting minutes can be found below:

Download FENZ's safety housekeeping advice below to ensure your station is in tip top shape for hygiene and safety against infection:

Precautions at all UFBA Challenge events

The UFBA events team and Challenge Panel take Covid-19 precautions very seriously and follow appropriate government guidelines. There are mitigation processes in place including sanitisers throughout venues, QR codes and contact tracing for public attendees and competitors and weekly follow up monitoring of attendees from any 'hot spot' regions that may appear. Any competitors who feel ill prior to the event, or on the day, are instructed to stay away and self-isolate as per government instructions.

We will continue to monitor the situation should changes occur and take appropriate action where necessary to protect first responders.

Latest announcement from FENZ CE - regarding roll out of vaccine (16 March 2021)

Kia ora koutou

As you may have seen, last week the Government released its high-level plans for the COVID vaccine roll out. In this they outlined their phased approach to rolling out the vaccine over the next few months and when certain groups can expect to receive the vaccine.

The next group in line for the vaccine is referred to as Group 2 and this includes around 480,000 frontline workers and people who live in high-risk settings, with a particular emphasis on healthcare workers.

Previous conversations with the Ministry of Health (MoH) indicated that we would likely be included in Group 2. Yesterday I received a letter from the Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, acknowledging the work that our first and co-response brigades do, similar to the work of frontline ambulance services, and seeking more detailed information to assist in their planning.

We have now been asked to provide a further breakdown of information on the number of our frontline personnel who are first and co-responders throughout the country. This information is in addition to what we have already provided MoH on our needs as an organisation. We are working on our response to MoH now.

We remain committed to working closely with MoH to support their planning as they develop their vaccination roll out programme while responding to the changing environment and community needs.

The number of vaccinations that will be allocated to our people as part of Group 2 is still unknown so we still aren’t able to confirm exactly who in Fire and Emergency will receive the vaccine.

I will provide you with more information once we know more. Please know we continue to advocate for what is necessary to keep our people and the public safe. I want to emphasise that the vaccine is another tool, along with our current procedures, policy and protocols that have kept our people safe so far, to assist in protecting our communities from COVID-19.

As always, our focus is on keeping you safe so you can keep our communities safe.

Ngā mihi

Rhys

Rhys Jones
Chief Executive