Health staff confident practices are prepared

SOUTHERN health officials met yesterday to ensure the region’s Covid19 defences were at the ready following the confirmation of New Zealand’s first community case of the disease in two months.

There is no indication of other community cases beyond the Northland woman whose Covid19 diagnosis was established yesterday.

However, the case sparked a surge of calls to the southern Covid19 hotline, many of which had been referred for a followup test.

‘‘There has been an increase in calls and those people have been triaged and, if necessary, gone to practices and had testing completed,’’ WellSouth chief executive Andrew SwansonDobbs said.

Mr SwansonDobbs said the primary health organisation had never stopped telling both general practices and the general public about the importance of hygiene measures to prevent the spread of Covid19.

Yesterday, WellSouth reiterated to practices what their role was in detecting any possible southern community cases of Covid19.

‘‘I am absolutely confident that the practices are prepared and ready for the testing which may stem from this one case in Northland,’’ Mr SwansonDobbs said.

‘‘We are ready, practices know what to do and they are doing it.’’

Southern District Health Board medical officer of health Michael Butchard said some southerners who had been in Northland recently had asked for advice as to whether they should be tested.

‘‘This new case is a reminder why we all need to remain vigilant about the precautions we can take to slow the spread of Covid19, and put us in the best possible position to stop it in its tracks if it does make its way into our district.’’

Cabinet meets today for the first time this year.

Covid19 Minister Chris Hipkins said the programme for the introduction of the Covid19 vaccine was one of the main agenda items, and the new community case would be a priority.

‘‘That includes any changes to the Covid19 response that may be deemed necessary.’’