Health officials remain on high alert

A WEEKEND with no further cases of Covid19 does not mean Otago and Southland are clear of danger where the pandemic disease is concerned, health authorities say.

New Zealand recorded four new cases of Covid19 on Saturday and Sunday, all in Auckland.

The cause of all four cases was known, although surveillance testing is likely to continue this week, as health officials will want to quickly act on any cases in the community, particularly if the Government opts to lower the alert level this week.

If any such cases did emerge, Health Minister David Clark said he was confident upgrades in the contact tracing system meant health authorities would be able to manage that workload.

Dr Clark said on Saturday that the Government was working through all the recommendations in Otago academic Ayesha Verrall’ s report on contact tracing, and that it intended to eventually follow all of them.

Dr Verrall’s report, released a fortnight ago, said increases in contact tracing had been too slow and more resources were needed so as to track down anyone who had been in contact with Covid19 patients.

Dr Clark said five of the eight recommendations had already been implemented and were considered ‘‘business as normal’’.

Those included expanding public health units, development of an outbreak preparedness plan and tighter quarantine monitoring.

“Public health units have more than tripled their capacity and can now deal with up to 185 cases a day, up from about 50 cases a day seven weeks ago,’’ Dr Clark said.

‘‘On top of that, the NCCS (National Close Contact Service), which didn’t even exist eight weeks ago, has more than 200 staff who can make up to 10,000 close contact calls a day.’’

Work on the other recommendations was ongoing and being monitored by a new committee announced last week, Dr Clark said.

Meanwhile, Dr Clark yesterday announced a further $160 million would be put into the combined pharmaceuticals budget over the next four years.

Only $10 million of that funding will be for this financial year, and the remainder spread over the following three years.

However, Pharmac would be funded to purchase a Covid19 vaccine, should one be developed, Dr Clark said.

The funding announcement was greeted with scorn by National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse, who called it ‘‘insulting and misleading’’. “The Health Minister admits the increase isn’t a rampup.

‘‘I would go further and say that it is a significant rampdown in real funding.’’

❛ Public health units have more than tripled their capacity and can now deal with up to 185 cases a day , up from about 50 cases a day

seven weeks ago