NZ remains exposed to new strain
WELLINGTON: New Zealand remains exposed to the new, more contagious strain of Covid19 despite the Government yesterday bolstering its border and predeparture defences.
The number of daily Covid19 tracer app scans has dropped significantly over summer and new data has highlighted some contact tracing shortcomings after previous incursions.
According to a briefing Covid19 Minister Chris Hipkins received from officials, managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities would be unable to handle a prolonged community outbreak.
“The chances of a community outbreak have never been greater,” Act New Zealand leader David Seymour said yesterday.
“This is an unacceptably dangerous situation.”
Although Mr Hipkins acknowledged the significantly reduced Covid19 tracer app usage was “concerning”, he remained confident the Government’s new border and predeparture restrictions would help keep Covid19 out of the community.
“You can never say never, but we are always looking at how we can strengthen our overall response.”
The app was just one tool the Government was using to keep the virus at bay, he said.
Yesterday, Directorgeneral of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield was given the power to require travellers from all but a few countries to produce a negative Covid19 test before they leave for New
Zealand.
Mr Hipkins expected Dr Bloomfield to officially exercise this power within the next few weeks.
The only exceptions were Australia, the Antarctic and some Pacific island nations.
Anyone who failed to produce evidence of a negative result would be fined up to $1000.
Before the new orders were announced, the only two countries where travellers were required to produce negative tests before heading to New Zealand were the UK and the US.
But with the new restrictions came new risks, such as the ability of a traveller to obtain a fake Covid19 negative result, Mr Hipkins said.
It was for that reason the Government had been making its way through this policy “very carefully”.
“We needed to make sure the regime we put in place was robust, verifiable and trustworthy.”
❛ The chances of a community outbreak have never been greater Act New Zealand leader
David Seymour
Mr Hipkins said publicly available Covid19 testing was becoming more widely available around the world, as more countries required predeparture testing.
The Government would only accept a negative result which had been certified by an official lab, he said.
The blanket predeparture restrictions are in addition to new domestic testing rules, also unveiled by Mr Hipkins yesterday.
From next Monday, anyone coming to New Zealand would be required to undergo day 0/1 testing when entering the country, as well as the routine day 3 and 12 tests.
The only exceptions were Australia, the Antarctic and some Pacific Island nations.
There were still concerns if the virus made its way back into the community, the new strain would cause major problems,
Mr Hipkins said.
A major reason for this was around contact tracing.
Over the summer months, the usage of the Covid19 tracer app had nosedived from a high of 2.5 million QR code scans a day in August to only 500,000 this month.
“This means our contact tracers will have less information to go on when we get our next community case and makes a lockdown more likely,” Canterbury University mathematician and Te Punaha Matatini modeller Prof Michael Plank said yesterday.
Mr Hipkins remained confident the Government’s contact tracing regime was up to scratch, should there be another community outbreak.
Looking overseas, Mr Hipkins called the new, more contagious strain of Covid19, which is ravaging the UK, an “enhanced risk” to New Zealand, echoing the sentiment of University of Otago epidemiologist Prof Michael Baker, who has voiced similar concerns.
National is continuing to criticise the Government for “falling behind the rest of the world” over the introduction of the Covid19 vaccination.
Some countries have already begun administering vaccinations, but New Zealand’s vaccine timetable does not begin until the end of March.
Mr Hipkins said some of those countries were administering the vaccine before it had been fully approved because they were “in a state of emergency”.
“New Zealand is not in that position. We are running a full approvals process, which will be in place by the time the vaccines arrive.” — The New Zealand Herald
WELLINGTON: A study supporting a national introduction of cervical selftesting has presented its evidence, which reinforces previous researchers’ findings it could save women’s lives.
Cervical cancer is caused by the HPV virus and the selftest picks up the strains most likely to cause it.
It was meant to be introduced this year — after already being delayed for three years — but was delayed again as the Covid response had pushed back funding to address the IT system.
Last year, Victoria University of Wellington was given $1 million from the Health Research Council of New Zealand to inform the National Screening Unit on offering the HPV selftest as part of the national screening programme.
About 900 women from the Te Tai Tokerau Northland region were involved in the study, which focuses on Maori women.
Maori women were two and ahalf times more likely to die from cervical cancer than others.
The study showed almost 60% of Maori women took the human papillomavirus selftest when offered it — about three times more women than those offered the standard cervical smear.
The university’s Centre for Women’s Health Research director, Bev Lawton, said she expected that improvement to be seen in all women.
‘‘We also offered it to nonMaori women and they also increased their participation, the underscreened ones, but the whole focus was on Maori, and we would expect it to be acceptable for nonMaori as well.’’
Women could take a vaginal swab alone, rather than needing a doctor or nurse to use a speculum and take cells from the cervix.
‘‘The programme at the moment when you look at cytology
is quite intrusive when you go to the doctor. It doesn’t suit everyone, either for access or time.
‘‘If you’re doing a swab you can just pop in the bathroom and do the swab.
‘‘It’s easy, and I think that’s why it’s acceptable and it means we will increase the screening,’’ Prof Lawton said.
The research centre worked on that study to gather evidence in collaboration with Northland primary health entity Mahitahi Hauora.
Prof Lawton said the HPV selftest was more effective at preventing the loss of life.
‘‘We need the gold standard test which is looking for the virus as it’s 15% more effective at reducing cancer.
‘‘And the other thing is . . . you only have to have the test every five years.
‘‘Cervical cancer is preventable. We should be able to eliminate cervical cancer.
‘‘At the moment, we’re doing a secondrate test — it’s not the gold standard test anymore.
‘‘We were going to change in 2017 and we haven’t, so we really need to push that button.’’
She said the Government now needed to finance a better, more modern health standard for women.
‘‘This new information is going to be very helpful for our programme that we can roll out in New Zealand, providing the Government pushes the button on it.’’ — RNZ
❛ I mean if you’re doing a swab you can just pop in the bathroom and do the swab, it’s
easy