Covid reinfection advice to change as NZ stays orange
Government reacts to rising case numbers
New Zealand will stay at the orange traffic light setting after 7432 new cases of Covid-19 were reported yesterday. Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said the country needed to remain at this setting as Covid case numbers were starting to “creep up”.
The Government also made changes to reinfection advice yesterday. Anyone who experienced symptoms more than 29 days after a previous infection must test and isolate if they return a positive result.
“Moving back to red is unnecessary at the moment. We can continue to manage the virus at orange but are putting in place a range of additional measures to help manage a recent rise in cases,” Verrall said.
The Government also announced 50 child-sized masks would be made available to all Year 4-7 students.
An additional 20,000-30,000 masks a week would be provided to all other students and school staff. Extra funding would be made available to schools and early childhood services to support better ventilation over the winter.
“Getting vaccinated is the number one thing New Zealanders can do to help relieve pressure on our health system this winter. We are seeing an overrepresentation of unvaccinated people in hospital admissions so we urge everyone to make sure they are up to date with their vaccines.
“We are also updating our advice around reinfection and are now asking anyone experiencing Covid-19 symptoms 29 days or longer following their initial infection to test. Should they test positive they will need to isolate for seven days.
“This is a change from earlier advice, which was that people would not need to retest if they had tested positive for Covid-19 within the past 90 days.
“Household contacts who have had Covid-19 within 90 days won’t need to isolate unless they are symptomatic.
“The B.5 variant of Omicron is predicted to become the dominant strain in the country in the coming weeks and is a different variant to what most New Zealanders caught the first time around.
“With these measures, alongside additional support in schools and early childhood services, the Government is stepping up its response to help reduce the spread of Covid. We always said this was going to be a challenging winter and we need everyone to play their part to help us get through safely.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported a further 19 deaths of people with Covid-19 yesterday. These deaths had occurred in the past seven days.
There are 411 cases in hospitals across the country, including six people receiving intensive care treatment.
Two people whose deaths were reported yesterday were in their 50s, three were in their 60s, one was in their 70s, six were in their 80s and seven were aged over 90.
Two of these people were from Northland, three were from Auckland, three were from Waikato, one was from Bay of Plenty, one was from Hawke’s Bay, two were from Wellington, one was from Nelsonmarlborough, four were from Canterbury and two people were from the Southern region.
The total number of reported deaths with Covid-19 is now 1522.
Meanwhile, the seven-day rolling average of community cases is 6114.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases at the same time last week was 4817. — NZ Herald