As COVID-19 cases rapidly increase in Hawke’s Bay, Hastings District Council is contingency planning to ensure essential services continue to be delivered.

While Council has implemented measures to help keep the community as safe as possible, COVID could impact staffing levels.

Council chief executive Nigel Bickle said maintaining essential services was a priority, in the face of the possibility of an increasing number of staff away, either sick or needing to self-isolate with COVID.

“If community transmission in Hastings continues to surge, this will potentially put a strain on our resources and we may have to look at how we manage non-critical services temporarily if staff need to be away, or are redeployed to maintain critical services.

“This could affect our facilities, such as the libraries and pools, which may need to close for short periods of time if there are not enough people available to work.

“Our planning is focused on ensuring our critical services continue to operate, such as our drinking, waste and stormwater, solid waste and animal control.

“We have planned for this and our staff’s health and safety, as well as that of the community, is paramount – we ask for your patience as we work through this.”

Council is in regular contact with all of its contractors and monitoring the situation, but notes that the contractors are under pressure with staffing resources at this time.

While at this point all services are continuing as normal Council will keep the community informed through its website and social media platforms of any changes, as it responds to the impact of COVID-19 in Hastings.

For more information and updates regarding council services, and the Government’s COVID-19 response go to www.hastingsdc.govt.nz/our-council/covid-19/

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