Orange setting stays, Covid advice changes

Minister for Covid-19 Response Ayesha Verrall has confirmed that the country will stay at the orange traffic light setting.

The Government also announced yesterday that the advice for Covid reinfection has changed, with people experiencing symptoms more than 29 days after previous infection advised to isolate and test.

The previous window was 90 days. People with symptoms after 29 days who test positive will be required to isolate for seven days

Verrall also announced that there would be 50 child-size masks made available for every year 4 to year 7 student from now until the end of the year. This is in addition to a previously announced policy of free flu-jabs for children aged 3-12

‘‘The Ministry of Education has already secured a supply of 10 million special child-sized masks and intends to have them ready for distribution at the start of Term 3,’’ Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said.

‘‘This means there will be 50 child-size masks provided for every child in years 4 to 7 in schools and kura throughout the country from now until the end of the 2022,’’ she said.

The Government will also be providing extra funding to schools to help meet increased energy costs to cover the running of ventilation units and heating in classrooms over the winter period.

The announcement was a result of a scheduled review of the Covid framework settings, and was the first by Verrall since taking on the job as the Government minister in charge of Covid19 response.

‘‘Moving back to red 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.

‘‘Yesterday the seven-day rolling average of Covid-19 cases was 5808 and there were 395 people in hospital and 8 in ICU.

‘‘For comparison when we moved out of red in April the rolling average of cases was nearly 10,000 a day and there were over 500 people in hospital including 28 in ICU.

‘‘However cases are ticking up and our health system is under pressure so we are putting in place a range of additional measures to help manage the virus over the coming winter months.

It comes as the seven-day rolling average of Covid-19 cases has increased by almost 1000 over the past week. Yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported 7423 new community cases and 411 hospitalisations.