New Covid panel to be set up

An expert panel is being set up to help manage people who present with a historic Covid-19 infection.

Over the past two months, the Ministry of Health has dealt with people who have returned a positive test result, but have a high cycle threshold or ‘‘CT value’’ – otherwise known as a weak positive.

International research shows these people are not infectious. Cases often crop up after the person has an acute respiratory illness that isn’t Covid-19.

Residual Covid-19 virus is then picked up.

The latest known case was a person who travelled on a chartered flight from Christchurch to Auckland on September 11 with aman who later tested positive for Covid19 – a week after completing his managed isolation at Christchurch’s Crowne Plaza.

The person, who had displayed no symptoms after arriving in the country from India, had returned negative day three and day 12 tests while in managed isolation and quarantine, directorgeneral of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.

There were four different examples of weak positive cases, Bloomfield said.

‘‘We’re in the process of developing a protocol and setting up an expert panel to help standardise the way these cases are both managed and also reported,’’ he said.

It was hoped both the panel and protocol would ensure ‘‘a consistent approach’’ was taken in dealing with what were effectively borderline cases.

The panel would assess those returning a weak polymerase chain reaction or PCR result with a high CT value to confirm the infection was historical. That would then guide public health measures, including contact tracing efforts related to the infected individual.