‘Cautious optimism’
Taranaki may have dodged the coronavirus bullet, but it’s a waiting game to make sure, the region’s medical officer of health says.
As the nation passes the halfway point of the national lockdown, Taranaki has had 14 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19, but the most recent, a woman in her thirties, was announced a week ago on April 1.
Eight Taranaki patients had recovered and were able to come out of isolation, while the one person hospitalised was discharged to their home on Monday.
Yesterday, New Zealand’s numbers went up 50 to 1210 confirmed and probable cases. Of these, 282 have recovered.
Taranaki District Health Board’s medical officer of health, Dr Jonathan Jarman, has praised the local community for its united vigilance.
‘‘We are cautiously optimistic that we might have dodged the current Covid-19 bullet, but need to wait for another two weeks to have more certainty,’’ he said.
The TDHB laboratory has received 652 test swabs since
February, TDHB Incident Management Team controller Becky Jenkins said on Tuesday.
‘‘Over half of these have been received in the last 10 days.’’
But 652 was not the total number of tests in the region. That figure was not revealed.
Testing continues in New Plymouth, Waitara, Opunake and Ha¯ wera.
The TDHB has reviewed its arrangements for transporting lab samples after recent cuts to domestic flights.
TDHB continues to send coronavirus test swabs to the Canterbury DHB’s lab for testing on weekdays, while on the weekends the test samples are driven to Wellington.
The arrangements are being reviewed regularly.
‘‘The turnaround time on test results is 2-3 days, but priority is given to essential workers and people who are in hospital,’’ Jenkins said.
Emma Jordan, team leader of community testing centres, said if people are feeling unwell they should still contact Healthline or their GP who will refer people to them. ‘‘Then we talk to them and do a full screening with them over the phone.
‘‘Then they get slotted into an appointment time so there’s a bit of privacy and confidentiality around their timeslot, and then they get swabbed, and then the next person rocks up and the same thing happens.’’
Taranaki Civil Defence Emergency Management Group Controller Craig Campbell-Smart said it was important not to ease off. ‘‘It’s more important than ever we stick to the guidelines,’’ he said in a statement
Taranaki residents have been praised for the overall adherence to the restrictions as the halfway point is reached, but Campbell Smart noted there were still people breaking the rules.
‘‘Nobody is immune, and nobody can afford to drop their guard.’’