Members of the disabled community are worried they'll been left on their own, unable to get out of bed or go to the toilet when the Omicron outbreak hits its peak.
Twenty five percent of New Zealanders have a disability, some with complex needs requiring carers for day-to-day tasks.
It's a profession that is already short staffed, and advocates for the community are worried about who will step up, when carers get sick and have to isolate.
Disability Connect chair Colleen Brown's son lives in a flat with four others. They have a rotation of six carers who make sure they are dressed, fed, and deal to their complex needs.
Collen Brown and her son Travers. Photo: Supplied
They have been asked to plan for isolation, but making that work is near impossible, Brown said.
"You have to kind of speculate and suppose what can you do the best to look after your young disabled person? Or if you're a disabled person, how am I going to look after myself?
"I have got nowhere to go to get additional help for our son's flat.
"I cannot think of any other person I can call on to go and support those four young people living in their flat should two or three of our staff go down with Omicron."
Brown said getting staff was already difficult, and the idea no one will be available left her with grave concerns.
She said lack of information made the anxiety worse.
"If you don't get the information, then people speculate about what might happen or what might not happen.
"That gives cause for alarm and people fill in gaps with rumours, 'I'll be left at home, in my own excrement, nobody will be here to help me, who's going to know, who's going to care?'"
Complex Care Group director Lisa Martin said in some cases the person would be forced to go to hospital, because it could be the only option get specialist care.
"We're talking about assistance with toileting and showering, getting in and out of bed.
"There could be some complex medical procedures involved, some people required tube feeding for example and oxygen support."
Martin said staff shortages had already left people in vulnerable positions.
"There are some disabled people whose support worker may simply not turn up and that person has sometimes left and bed until the afternoon, or perhaps until another person can be sent to provide what is actually very necessary support and also from a dignity perspective."
She said the disabled community needed to know they had back-up and want certainty a pool of support workers would be available.
Information, specifically from the Health Ministry remained at the core of the problem.
Māori health provider Te Roopu Waiora researcher/kairangahau Tania Kingi said if it was accessible for Māori with disabilities then it would be accessible for everyone, but that had not happened.
"We started holding zoom sessions with the deaf community. I think it was about our third zoom when someone asked whether Delta was an airline or a type of plane..."
Kingi said it hadn't improved three years into the pandemic.
Many of the turi/deaf community had stopped listening to the updates, because despite the new language, key terms weren't properly explained.
"You can finger spell epidemiology, but if there's no knowledge behind what that means, then what's the point?"
Kingi said people, especially decision makers needed to remain acutely aware of the gaps as planning for Omicron continues.
