Testing the missing link in fight

Every day we stay home and do our bit. Every day the Government releases a new set of numbers. More cases of Covid-19. More people in hospital, more people who have recovered. And more tests being run. But there’s something a bit off about the numbers. We’re told sitting at home will help break community transmission of the virus – yet there’s little such transmission being found.

‘‘Test, test, test,’’ said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday. ‘‘We have the capacity,’’ we’ve heard ad nauseam from her lieutenants.

And here we have the missing link in New Zealand’s coronavirus response. A four-week lockdown might help break community transmission but, as both experts and health officials have made clear, we can’t end this forced isolation without knowing we’ve ended the virus spread.

Yet, a week into the lockdown, we don’t appear to be eyes-wideopen.

A mere 1 per cent of 708 Covid19 cases are deemed the result of community transmission.

The Ministry of Health has stopped providing the number of tests run each day, though Ardern has acknowledged it has dropped off in recent days. Instead we’re provided a seven-day average, currently at 1843 tests, with no reasonable explanation for the change.

And New Zealand’s full daily testing capacity, now at 3700 a day, has not once been exhausted. The countries that have grasped and suppressed the virus have tested like there’s no tomorrow.

Ardern yesterday reiterated the failure to reach the quota when pressed on testing. And she placed the blame at the feet of the clinicians tasked with swabbing patients.

‘‘You will have heard me constantly and consistently saying that clinicians needed to use their discretion, and that always existed, regardless of international travel, regardless of contact with anyone else who had Covid, they have always had the discretion to test if they believe they needed to.’’

But clinicians are not closing their ears to Ardern’s message; many have queried the testing criteria and many have had requests to test denied in recent weeks.

Though ‘‘clinical concern’’ was offered to doctors and nurses as a testing criteria some two weeks ago, a Wellington GP told Stuff the term was vague and unhelpful.

Many people with Covid-19 don’t have severe symptoms, making it hard to justify the concern. And, if a clinician was concerned about community transmission – as we now are – they would be swabbing every sore throat.

And, despite the claims of ample capacity, the Wellington doctor was not alone in saying the local laboratory had withheld swabs over concerns about supply.

Ardern said this was a distribution problem. The same explanation was given after healthcare workers complained they were short on personal protective gear – and the Ministry of Health has promised to remedy this through nationalising distribution.

Maybe the same needs to happen for testing swabs.

There is no doubt a balance. Not every cough can be tested, not every healthcare worker needs to wear full protective equipment.

But, above all, what’s needed is for those leading the response to be eyes-wide-open. The tests aren’t being run, the problem needs to be fixed, and it needed to happen two weeks ago.