After guiding New Zealand through two and a half years of a pandemic, Dr Ashley Bloomfield’s time as Director-General of Health has come to an end.

We look back on some of the key moments during his time in the role:

22 May 2018
Dr Ashley Bloomfield was named as the new Director-General of Health while he was serving as the acting chief executive of Capital and Coast District Health Board.

2019
The health system faced some big challenges in 2019. Dr Bloomfield fronted health responses to both a measles outbreak and the Whakaari/White Island disaster.

27 January 2020
“Kia ora koutou katoa, welcome to the Ministry of Health, thank you very much attending this briefing this afternoon. My name is Dr Ashley Bloomfield, I’m the Director-General of Health.”

After two and a half years of a pandemic, it is probably hard to remember a time when Dr Ashley Bloomfield needed to introduce himself.

Before New Zealand had its first case of covid-19, back when it was referred to simply as a coronavirus (WHO would name it covid-19 on 12 February 2020), Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay held a media stand-up.

Like most of the early briefings, it was held at the Ministry of Health.

It was two weeks after the first confirmed case outside of China had been identified and across the ditch, Australia had four cases. There had been 56 deaths worldwide.

28 February 2020
Almost exactly one month later, New Zealand’s first covid-19 case was confirmed in someone that had returned from overseas.

Reminiscent of a format we would come to know more intimately as time went on, the evening news would cut to a live press conference where Dr Bloomfield and then-Health Minister David Clark would provide more details of New Zealand’s first case. (Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in Australia at the time.)

The following day, supermarkets would see a rush of customers buying up toilet paper, hand sanitiser and tinned food.

March 2020
We would start to hear a lot more from Dr Bloomfield as the second, third and fourth (who had been at a Tool concert) cases of covid-19 were confirmed in early March.

By the end of the month New Zealand would be in lockdown and Dr Bloomfield had become a daily part of our lives.

“It did feel a little bit like I was having a performance review at one o’clock every day, broadcast live on television. But that’s as it should be — your job is to ensure that we’re being held accountable for our response,” he said.

Daily cases had jumped to numbers in the eighties and the briefings had shifted to the Beehive, against a backdrop of yellow and white striped Unite Against Covid-19 branding.

On 29 March, during the 1pm briefing, Bloomfield would announce New Zealand’s first covid-19 death.

4 May 2020
“No new cases”. For the first time since New Zealand went into level 4 lockdown on 25 March, Dr Bloomfield announced there were no new cases of covid-19. It would be a phrase we would hear more of as the first community outbreak would start to slow.

And it evoked such emotion that “There are no new cases of covid-19 to report in New Zealand today” came second place in Massey University’s Quote of the Year.

August 2020
In an effort to encourage people to test for covid-19, Dr Bloomfield had his first covid-19 PCR test while filmed at a community testing site.

“It was much less painful than tackling Billy Weepu on the rugby field a couple of weeks ago.”

*Raises eyebrows
With millions of people stuck at home in isolation watching daily media briefings, it was no surprise that Dr Bloomfield would find himself in meme-territory.

This was Dr Bloomfield’s response when he was asked about 5G in 2020:

And a year later when Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said people should go outside and “spread your legs”.

The Guardian on the Hipkins quote.

Festival debut
Who would have thought Dr Bloomfield would grace the main stage at Rhythm and Vines festival?

December 2020
Dr Bloomfield was awarded the New Zealand Medical Association’s highest accolade — The Chair’s Award

17 August 2021
The prime minister announced another nationwide lockdown after a case, assumed to be the delta variant, was detected. That meant the 1pm briefings, and daily doses of Dr Bloomfield, were back too.

22 September 2021
As New Zealand tackled the delta outbreak, Dr Bloomfield broke the news that we may never get to zero cases of covid-19.

A portrait pie of Dr. Ashley Bloomfield. Photo: Supplied / Devoney Scarfe

October 2021
During Super Saturday, Dr Bloomfield was caught on camera busting a move at one of the community events.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield’s dance moves.

6 April 2022
Announced he was stepping down.

“It seems we’re at a good point in terms of the pandemic, the response is shifting, I’m also confident that the system is in good hands with the changes that are afoot, and most certainly my family will be very pleased to have a little more of my time,” he said.

May 2022
Dr Bloomfield tested positive for covid-19 while he was at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

Professional history

• In May 2018, Dr Bloomfield was appointed the new Director-General of Health.
• Dr Bloomfield was the acting Chief Executive for Capital & Coast District Health Board from 1 January 2018.
• From 2015-2017, he was chief executive of the Hutt Valley District Health Board – the first clinician to lead the Hutt Valley District Health Board.
• In 2017 Dr Bloomfield attended the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme.
• Prior to becoming chief executive at the Hutt Valley DHB, Dr Bloomfield held a number of senior leadership roles within the Ministry of Health, including, in 2012, acting Deputy Director-General, sector capability and implementation.
• From 2012-15 he was Director of Service, Integration and Development and General Manager Population Health at Capital & Coast, Hutt and Wairarapa District Health Boards.
• From 1999-2008 he was a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine. Since 2008 he has been a Fellow of the NZ College of Public Health Medicine.
• In 2010-2011 he was Partnerships Adviser, Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health at the World Health Organisation, Geneva.
• Dr Bloomfield obtained a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Auckland in 1990.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Health workers in Aotearoa New Zealand are thanking Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield for his work stopping the ailing health system from collapsing in the covid-19 pandemic — and for saving lives.

They say they can relate to him needing a rest.

Dr Bloomfield leaves his job in July, stepping down 12 months early after the huge stress of the past two years.

There are few public servants who have had the same degree of fame.

For two years he has been a regular in the living rooms of the country, particularly in the first lockdown when almost everyone was home turning in every day to hear news of the covid-19 threat.

Emergency doctor and chair of the Council of Medical Colleges Dr John Bonning said Dr Bloomfield had to step up to communicate with the public in a role that would normally have been done by politicians.

He exuded trust and had stellar public health credentials, as a medical doctor who had worked for the World Health Organisation and headed a district health board (DHB), Dr Bonning said.

Engaged and communicated
He engaged and communicated very regularly with health worker groups.

“He felt the pain, he felt the pressure along with the rest of us,” he said.

Frontline GP and chair of the Pacific GP Network Api Talemaitoga said the country was lucky to have a director-general with top public health skills when they were needed most.

That meant Dr Bloomfield understood the practicalities of what had to be done — like limiting numbers, mass masking, vaccination programmes and the importance of communication, he said.

Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said Dr Bloomfield’s advice had been at the heart of the government’s decision making and he “had saved thousands if not tens of thousands of lives”.

But not everything was perfect under his tenure. There was a blunder that meant high-risk border workers were not being routinely tested as promised, criticisms about spread in MIQ facilities, delays at times over testing, and a slow vaccine rollout for Māori.

Delays over Māori health autonomy
Te Whānau O Waiapareira chief executive John Tamihere said the director-general had done a decent job but he was uncomfortable with the “idolatry” that had sprung up around him.

He had called Dr Bloomfield out over the past two years on issues like the delays giving Māori health groups autonomy to look after their communities, and of the ministry’s initial failure to hand over health data.

It would be mean-spirited to criticise Dr Bloomfield on his way out, he said.

He was a highly-paid public servant who had done a decent job, particularly for mainstream New Zealand, but his copybook was not completely clean, Tamihere said.

“But … Dr Bloomfield will go down as leading a great result when compared with other nations,” he said.

Pacific health groups had shared the concerns about not initially being able to lead the response for their communities, who bore the brunt of early waves of the virus.

Privy to the big picture
GP Dr Api Talemaitoga said while that was frustrating, he and his colleagues on the frontline were not always privy to the big picture Dr Bloomfield was dealing with “in terms of the whole country, the ministry, and his political masters”.

Senior emergency doctor Dr Kate Allan represents the College of Emergency Medicine and said Dr Bloomfield inherited a “broken health system” but led a response that stopped it from collapsing under the weight of covid-19.

“I take my hat off to him. I think it’s been an amazing job and an incredibly difficult job and I can’t imagine how tired he must be,” she said.

Dr Bloomfield is, in turn, quick to credit people like Dr Allan who worked on the frontline to battle the virus.

‘Relentless’
The director-general of health was one of three top health chiefs to announce their resignations yesterday.

Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay and Deputy Director of Public Health Niki Stefanogiannis are also leaving the ministry.

Health Minister Andrew Little told RNZ Morning Report they had been at the forefront of the covid-19 response and had worked tirelessly. “As Ashley said to me in the weekend, he is just exhausted.”

Thousands of front line health workers had done a phenomenal job and would be feeling the same after two years of the pandemic, he said.

There was still work to be done in terms of the rebuild and the nationwide health restructure “because we’ve got to create that extra capacity.”

“I am committed to filling the gaps that are there.”

‘Saved thousands of lives’
Epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson said the key leadership group including Dr Bloomfield, the prime minister, senior ministers and others “saved thousands of lives, it saved our health services”.

“The work that they did over the past couple of years, it’s just relentless.” Jackson said. “I’m amazed that they lasted so long.”

All three were there at the most important stage but it was “a bit worrying” they were leaving. “The next phase is going to be messy, it’s going to be more political.”

However, New Zealand had “fantastic” vaccines and the knowledge on how to slow down and contain a pandemic.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Aotearoa New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield — the man who has tirelessly steered the country’s covid-19 pandemic response for the past two years — is stepping down from his role at the end of July.

Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes revealed Dr Bloomfield’s decision in a statement today.

Dr Bloomfield had signalled to the commissioner late last year he intended to step down before his term officially ended on 11 June 2023, Hughes said.

Speaking at today’s media briefing, Dr Bloomfield said he was most proud of the way the health system and public service had worked so well together to protect the public.

He said the three previous director-generals had also ended their five-year terms early, and he had been thinking for a while about when would be a good time to step down.

“It seems we’re at a good point in terms of the pandemic, the response is shifting, I’m also confident that the system is in good hands with the changes that are afoot, and most certainly my family will be very pleased to have a little more of my time.”

The Ministry of Health today reported 12,575 new community cases of covid-19, with 654 people in hospital and 15 further deaths. Twenty three people were in intensive care, down from 30 yesterday.

Outstanding job
Commissioner Hughes said Dr Bloomfield had done an outstanding job leading the government’s health response to covid-19 and the vaccination rollout.

“Dr Bloomfield has worked tirelessly for more than two years to keep New Zealanders safe from coronavirus,” Hughes said.

“Dr Bloomfield has demonstrated remarkable resilience and courage in leading the health system’s overall response to Covid-19. That response has saved lives.

“I thank Dr Bloomfield for his commitment to public service, his spirit of service to the community and his exceptional contribution to New Zealand’s covid-19 response. I know many New Zealanders will also be thankful for the job he has done.”

Hughes said Dr Bloomfield wanted to stay on until the country had a good hold on the virus, and that time was now.

In a post on Facebook, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Bloomfield had been a true public servant in every sense, through his dedication, drive and calmness.

“He has been central to our COVID success as a nation, and he’s done it with humour and grace (I’ll keep the details of his sporadic mockery of me to myself!),” she said.

“When we spoke about his decision to move on, he mentioned that he wanted to spend time with his family, and that’s the least we owe him. So kia ora from across the Motu, Dr Bloomfield. We thank you.”

‘Give the man a beer’
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins also posted on Facebook after the news was released, acknowledging Bloomfield for being a “reassuring figure” through the pandemic response.

“The amount of pressure he’s absorbed, and the level of commitment he’s shown over the past two years make that an easy decision to understand.

“We thank you Ashley for all you’ve done to keep us all safe. Give the man a beer, he’s truly earned it!”

As a Minister I want to thank Dr Bloomfield for advising the Govt on some of the most important decisions taken in peacetime.
As a doctor I want to acknowledge @AshBloomfield as a colleague who has made an unparalleled contribution to protecting the health of New Zealanders.

— Ayesha Verrall (@drayeshaverrall) April 5, 2022

An acting director-general will be appointed before Bloomfield finishes on 29 July, 2022.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Aotearoa New Zealand will remain at the red covid-19 traffic light setting, says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Ardern made the announcement at today’s post-cabinet media briefing.

She said the rolling average of cases had declined 36 percent in the two weeks since the government refined the traffic light system.

There had been early data showing an uptick since mid-March in people visiting places of retail and recreation in Auckland, as well as more people returning to workplaces, she said.

While cases were dropping in Auckland, Wellington and Tairāwhiti, others region like Canterbury, Northland and Waikato were not experiencing the same drop. Hospitalisations in some DHBs were not expected to peak until mid- to late-April.

“So for now, New Zealand will remain at red,” Ardern said.

“I know there is an eagerness to move to orange, but we are still frankly amid an outbreak and there is still pressure across our hospital network.”

Nine further deaths
The Ministry of Health today reported 10,205 new community cases of covid-19 and nine further deaths.

There are now 734 people in hospital, including 25 in ICU or HDU.

In a statement, the ministry said the seven-day rolling average of case numbers was continuing to decline — down to 13,218 from last Monday’s 16,102.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said health officials would not be looking at a specific number of hospitalisations when advising a move down to the orange setting, but would rather be considering capacity and pressure levels, which also includes staffing at hospitals.

The next review of the traffic light settings will be on Thursday, April 14.

The country will remain at the red Covid-19 traffic light setting, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.

Ardern made the announcement at today’s post-Cabinet media briefing from about 4pm.

Based on health advice
Ardern said the decision today was based on health advice, and the government did not want to move too quickly and lose the progress made.

“It’s less about the case numbers and more about the hospitalisations.”

Asked why Auckland could not move to orange when cases were falling, Ardern said that while there was a decline in hospitalisations, “it is off a high base, the numbers are still relatively high, the pressure on our system is still there, we want to make sure that we’re in the best possible position and we don’t lose the gains we’ve worked so hard for.

“We’ve always said that there is the possibility of moving regions to different levels at different times … but as we’ve said, Auckland has made significant progress but we do still have a relatively high hospitalisation rate.

“We need to look after our healthcare workforce.”

The country needed to help the health system recover and be ready for the expected winter surge, Ardern said, requesting that people get boosted.

“Unvaccinated and people that are not boosted make up a disproportionate number of people in our hospitals. More than 9900 people are due their booster today, please get your booster as soon as you can.”

Looking at overall trends
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told RNZ Checkpoint tonight there were a range of considerations cabinet would have to take account of in its April 14 review.

“We’re obviously looking at the overall trends … how many new hospital admissions as well as those who are in hospital – but also the demographics,” he said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand’s Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, says covid-19 case numbers have passed their peak in Auckland, the country’s largest city, but that people should remain vigilant.

Dr Bloomfield said there were 20,907 new community cases of covid-19, a further 15 deaths and 1016 people in hospital in today.

He said the latest analysis showed covid-19 case numbers had passed their peak in Auckland, and were tracking down in all three district health boards.

Dr Bloomfield said that analysis also showed case numbers nationally — not including Auckland — were also slowing. They increased just 1 percent in the seven days to March 20, compared to a 44 percent increase in the week ending March 13.

The pattern did differ by DHB, with cases still increasing in the South Island, although there were encouraging signs they were peaking in the Midland region and in the Wellington region.

He said case numbers appeared to be largely now following the modelling for a high-transmission scenario. Case numbers were higher than the modelling suggested, and Dr Bloomfield said this may be because most cases in New Zealand were the BA.2 subvariant.

Hospitalisations in the northern region were also levelling off.

“We’re watching carefully and the expectation is that they will start to drop as the week progresses,” Dr Bloomfield said.

“The average length of stay for people on wards in the Auckland hospitals who have been discharged is now 3.2 days compared to just over two days last month, and the average stay in intensive care is five days.

“This increase in average length of stay reflects that we’re now seeing that people who are needing longer care, they may even be over their covid infection but they have symptoms that need to be managed, often from underlying conditions.”

Watch the update 

Video: RNZ News

Dr Bloomfield said that even though cases in hospital in Auckland were staying high, the number of new admissions each day was dropping quickly. But because those being admitted now were sicker and required longer care in hospital, the total number of people in hospital remained fairly steady.

Emergency department admissions testing positive remain highest at Middlemore, but they had fallen from 40 percent last month to 28 percent now. Auckland Hospital was down from 30 percent to 22 percent, while Waitematā was steady about 18 percent.

Whangārei’s ED positivity rate was still increasing, he said.

“Admissions in the rest of the country are growing and we will continue to see them grow.”

Dr Bloomfield said hospitalisation rates during the delta outbreak was about 8 percent, whereas the omicron outbreak had been about 0.9 percent.

“That hospitalisation rate will appear to increase over coming weeks, because as the cases drop yet people remain in hospital we’ll see the denominator decline much quicker … hospitalisations will decline but more slowly,” he said.

“The number of deaths each day is also likely to increase and will take longer to decline.”

He said staffing shortages were a major pressure on the health system, and there was real pressure in hospitals as well as care in the community, including rest homes.

‘Covid isn’t done with the world just yet’
Dr Bloomfield said New Zealand could expect ongoing waves of covid, and looking across the Tasman was instructive.

“The number of people hospitalised with covid in New South Wales never dropped below 950 after their first omicron wave … it’s now back over 1000 as cases started to increase again.

“In contrast, in Victoria the number of hospitalisations declined down to around 200 and remained steady there … so two quite different pictures.”

He said this showed New Zealand should expect to see a residual number of cases and people in hospital.

The UK had seen increased case numbers with the BA.2 subvariant, with Scotland hit hardest.

“Case numbers there are just below their previous peak, and hospitalisation figures the highest they have been since 2020. Globally it’s likely there will continue to be further waves of omicron and likewise there will be new variants of concern.”

He said New Zealand would face these just as other countries would.

“Covid isn’t done with the world just yet.”

Looking ahead
Tomorrow the government is due to announce if it will relax mandates, vaccine passes and the traffic light system as the omicron outbreak passes its peak in Auckland. Cabinet discussed reducing the restrictions yesterday.

Ahead of the announcement, Dr Bloomfield said New Zealand was still in the middle of a global pandemic which had thrown curveballs before and would continue to.

“We need to be prepared to redeploy the measures that we already have in place or have used in the past.”

He said there was a balance between protecting the population — particularly vulnerable groups — and only using restrictions for the extent they were needed.

At the moment, total ICU and HDU beds were about 60 percent occupied, he said. Each day hospitals were looking at the number of beds available and staffing those accordingly.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Royal NZ College of General Practitioners president Dr Samantha Murton gave a briefing today on the government’s response to the omicron outbreak as hospital cases continue to climb.

The daily number of new community cases has dropped slightly today to 21,015 community cases, but the number of people in hospital with the coronavirus continues to rise, reaching 845.

There are now more people in hospital with covid-19 than at any other point over the past two years, the Ministry of Health said.

Today’s numbers are down compared to yesterday’s 22,454 and 742 hospitalisations, with a record 19 cases in ICU.

Speaking at today’s briefing, Dr Murton said 80 percent of GPs were now looking after more than 20 patients.

“It has put a huge amount of work on general practice. When you think about the fact that there are 20,000 people who have got covid every day and across the country 50,000 consultations normally happen every day, that’s a 50 percent increase in workload if we had to deal with every one of those 20,000 that came through,” she said.

‘Huge amount of work’
“It has put a huge amount of work on general practice. When you think about the fact that there are 20,000 people who have got covid every day and across the country 50,000 consultations normally happen every day, that’s a 50 percent increase in workload if we had to deal with every one of those 20,000 that came through,” she said.

“My colleagues want me to remind everyone that we are working really hard, doing our best for our patients and although we are prepared and have done the best we can do for when the outbreak occurred, it is still going to be a little bit messy for the next couple of weeks.”

Watch the media briefing

Video: RNZ News

She said that was because there were people who wanted care and then people who needed care and were “quite vulnerable”.

Those vulnerable people will be the ones GPs are focusing on, she said.

“The other thing we have found is that across the country, people are stressed.

“People are stressed about having covid, people are stressed about being isolated, about not being able to go out, about having family members who might be sick and the practices are under pressure to provide as much care as they can and so that stress can often end up with a lot of anxiety and peoples’ emotions might flare, to put it politely.

“My colleagues have suggested people be kind to their providers.

‘Have a bit of patience’
“Please have a bit of patience as patients.”

She also put out a reminder that booster vaccine shots were the best protection people could get.

Auckland hospitals have reported that they are dealing with far more covid-19 cases than even their worst case scenarios predicted, with daily case numbers as high as 533 across the city’s hospitals this week.

In Wellington, frontline care workers are operating around the clock to help the more than 17,000 people across the region who are isolating at home and in need of some level of assistance.

Canterbury District Health Board is already teetering on patient capacity, three weeks away from an expected peak of covid-19 cases.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins has announced that the isolation period for covid-19 cases and their household contacts is reducing to one week, down from 10 days, from tomorrow.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the national health system relies on New Zealanders’ continued cooperation as almost 20,000 cases are announced today.

Dr Bloomfield is resuming his appearance at daily 1pm media briefings amid the omicron outbreak, with peak cases and hospitalisations expected in the next few weeks.

He said today nearly 20,000 new cases of covid-19 had been reported, with 373 people in hospital, nine of whom are in ICU.

He said it was hard to estimate how many people in hospital with covid-19 were there because of the virus, as opposed to simply having the virus and being there for a different reason.

However, he said Middlemore Hospital’s estimate of about 70 percent to 80 percent presenting because of covid-19 symptoms gives a good gauge.

There are just under 100,000 active cases across the motu, he said.

“I know that such a high daily case number can be concerning for people to hear, and many of us will now have whānau members who now have covid-19, but it’s important to remember that covid-19 now is a very different foe to what it was at the beginning of the pandemic.”

He said what had helped New Zealand so far had been doing the basics well and people should keep doing this — wearing masks, practising good hand hygiene, and avoiding going out if unwell.

“There’s no doubt the next few weeks are going to be tough, the health system can’t do it alone, so thanks in advance to all New Zealanders for continuing to support our efforts to live with the virus on our terms.”

Watch a replay of the briefing here:

The media conference today. Video: RNZ News

He said the high vaccination rate meant for most people omicron would be a milder illness and could be managed safely at home.

Dr Bloomfield says PCR testing had served New Zealand “incredibly well”, but with thousands of cases each day the country reached the point last week where rapid antigen testing became both useful and appropriate.

He said samples were typically pooled earlier on in the outbreak, but a positive test in a batch means each will need to be retested. Higher test positivity rates now, however, mean it becomes less feasible.

He said prior to February 7, none of the labs had ever exceeded 5 percent test positivity, but the swift increase in positive cases has affected that. Labs have also had other difficulties, including vacancies in roles and sickness because some lab workers had contracted the virus.

Apology over test result backlog
Dr Bloomfield said he wanted to apologise to people whose tests had been delayed, but said they had committed to completing the test processing.

People are still advised to seek a test, though some people facing a longer delay should also seek a rapid antigen test, he said.

The samples affected by the backlog might be slightly less accurate — they were more likely to show a negative result — but all positive results would be accurate.

Dr Bloomfield said some 9000 tests were sent to Queensland for testing, to help clear the backlog. He said the backlog was clearing, but anyone who had had a test on February 23 or earlier, or who had developed symptoms, should collect a rapid antigen test from their local testing centre or seek advice from Healthline.

He said the problem with delays in PCR testing was less to do with delays in rolling out rapid antigen tests, and more to do with the ministry being “a day or two late” to recognise how quickly the virus was spreading.

“Once the samples were in the lab it’s hard to take them out and redistribute them, so we still had capacity across the network but we didn’t have the opportunity to redistribute them and probably if we’d started to do that a day or two earlier, then we may still have had a backlog but perhaps not such a big one.”

Dr Bloomfield said test processing had got to a much more manageable level in the past 24 to 48 hours.

He said there was strong uptake of RATs for people who had symptoms, or who were household or close contacts, as well as surveillance testing at hospitals and aged care facilities.

If people needed to pick up a rapid antigen test, the Healthpoint website had an increasing list of places where they were available.

Dr Bloomfield said there were good numbers of the tests available now — more than five million had been distributed in the last seven days, there were over 12 million in storage, and more than 16 million were expected to arrive this week.

Self-reporting of test results
Bloomfield thanks the more than 40,000 people who have self-reported a rapid antigen test result. He says it is an important measure to give officials a good idea of how far the virus is spreading.

He says people who are unwell will be given enough tests for three tests per eligible person in their household. People who are critical workers can also preorder the tests online from testing centres.

During question time Dr Bloomfield said there was a bit of a lag on whole genome sequencing for those who have been in hospital, and with the short hospital stay times, there is not an accurate picture of how many cases in hospital are omicron versus delta.

The most common symptoms are cough, sore and scratchy throat, a runny nose, and generally feeling unwell, “that sort of flu-ey feeling, the whole body aches”, but people who are not boosted are far more likely to have more severe symptoms.

Dr Bloomfield said the loss of sense of smell and taste does not appear to be as much of a notable symptom for omicron, but some young people had also been experiencing an upset stomach.

The past two days have seen daily cases above the 14,000 mark, and hospitalisations have also continued to increase, reaching 344 yesterday.

It comes as the government yesterday confirmed New Zealanders would be able to return to New Zealand without isolating, with the date for returnees from countries other than Australia brought forward to Friday.

New Zealanders in Australia and critical workers were yesterday able to return without entering managed isolation.

People who are eligible but have not yet got their booster shot are urged to, as it protects against both transmission and severe illness from the omicron variant.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific leaders say offering “visas for vaccinations’ would be the ultimate incentive for New Zealand overstayers to get the covid-19 jab, as Auckland struggles to stop delta variant infections spreading through the community.

It comes as epidemiologists say the government needs to pull out all the stops to get people vaccinated amid rising case numbers.

Immigration lawyer Richard Small of Pacific Legal today called for visas only to be granted to those who get inoculated, and an amnesty to overstayers who are double-jabbed.

The Ministry of Health reported a record 102 community cases today, the first time the number of new cases has reached triple figures.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said on the current trajectory there could be up to 180 cases a day within two to three weeks. The number of these cases that ended up in hospital would depend on how many had been vaccinated, he said.

The latest modelling showed there was not a large amount of undetected cases, and the numbers being found were what would be expected, he said.

Plea for an overstayer amnesty
The Pacific Leadership Forum is calling for an overstayer amnesty through a parliamentary petition, which won support from the Employers and Manufacturers Association.

The forum’s Pacific Response Coordination Team chair Pakilau Manase Lua said that adding in an immigration incentive to that amnesty would be very effective.

“I would guarantee that probably 99.9 per cent of overstayers would come out of the woodwork and get vaccinated if that was their pathway to residency or amnesty to get their papers to be legal here,” Lua said.

“They’re desperate. It was hard enough before covid arrived for these people to survive – they have to work, they have to find a way to make ends meet.

“Moving from house to house and at the whim of the family and friends who are sheltering them. And that’s a risk to themselves and to others if they’re not vaccinated”

Among an estimated 14,000 overstayers, the highest numbers without valid visas are from Tonga and Samoa.

A fifth of the current active covid-19 cases are among Pacific people, and their fully vaccinated rates are lower (at 59 percent) than the national average (67 percent).

‘They fear authority’
If the government was concerned an amnesty would be unpopular, it needed to make sure politics did not trump public health, said Lua.

“The optics don’t matter, it’s life or death – in a pandemic, what are optics compared to human lives? We’ve got a virus raging in South Auckland among our communities where most overstayers are living.

“And despite all the reassurances to go out and test and to get vaccinated, we know that many have yet to be vaccinated – some have gone in, but the majority have not.

“Rightfully, they fear authority – these are people who are hiding from authority because they’ve got deportation orders or other things that are hanging over them.”

Tongan Manase Lua, an overstayer as a child during the Dawn Raids era before an amnesty gave his family a permanent future, said launching a similar reprieve now would also recognise the reality that no-one could be deported back to the Pacific Islands while there was a risk of them spreading covid-19 there.

It was mind-boggling that the government was disregarding the risk, as well the contribution overstayers make, he said.

“They’re resourceful, they work hard, they often do the work that nobody else wants to do on the front lines — while we’re working from home and in the safety and security of home, they’re out on the front lines picking fruit, cleaning the floors, mopping the hospital floors and all the hard work that we take for granted.

“So they would love this opportunity to be a person, be a human being in the country that says it’s kind.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand’s streets were largely silent today as the three-day nationwide alert-level 4 lockdown kicked in with 10 cases of covid-19 reported so far — the first outbreak for more than six months.

As test results rolled in this morning, it was announced four other people were covid-19 positive. The new cases were linked to Case A, a 58-year-old Devonport tradesman, diagnosed with the virus yesterday.

It was subsequently confirmed he had the delta variant, something health experts already took for granted.

Two more cases were announced at the 1pm media briefing by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, again all linked to Case A, and another three were added to the total towards the end of the day.

The three include a 60-year-old woman who has no known link to the existing cluster, but does have a link to the border.

The other two are a man in his 20s who is the partner of a known case who was reported as a positive case this morning; and a woman in her 20s who has a connection with another case reported today.

Two of the cases announced at 1pm today have also now been linked to existing cases, including a female teenager who was a close contact of a case reported today and a man in his 20s who visited the household where three of the cases reported today live.

AUT student among cases
An Auckland University of Technology student who was at a lecture yesterday is also among the new cases of covid-19 reported in the community today. The student was infectious when attending a social institutions lecture in room WG403 on AUT’s City Campus between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday.

Other positive cases

• A 29-year-old workmate of Case A
• A 25-year-old female teacher at Avondale College who is a flatmate of Case A’s workmate.
• An Auckland City Hospital nurse, 21, a flatmate of Case A’s workmate. She was fully vaccinated and had worked four shifts not knowing she had the virus.
• A 20-year-old man, a flatmate of Case A’s workmate.
• Two friends of those living in the flat tested positive – a 21-year-old woman and a man aged 19.
• A man in his 20s who is the partner of a known case, and a woman in her 20s who has a connection to the other cases.
• A woman in her 60s who does not have a connection to the other nine cases but does have a connection to the border.

Further details about the three most recent cases will be announced at the 1pm update tomorrow.

Ardern this afternoon also confirmed genome sequencing had linked Case A to the New South Wales outbreak.

She said three people had tested positive with this covid strain in New Zealand managed isolation facilities, including two this month. It will be known later this evening if Case A’s strain matched either of these strains in managed isolation.

Locations of interest have spiralled in light of the cases and the Ministry of Health is regularly updating these on its website.

It was announced that one of the women infected had visited a North Shore church on Sunday morning and also gone to a nightclub in Auckland’s central city on Sunday night.

Central Auckland Church of Christ in Freemans Bay and SkyCity Casino are being treated as important locations of interest.

Dr Bloomfield and modeller Professor Michael Plank said cases of the delta variant could exceed 100, but that the hard lockdown would give authorities time to stamp it out.

Mask-wearing made mandatory
The government made it mandatory to wear masks while visiting essential services, including supermarkets and petrol stations.

Speaking to media this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “From 11.50pm tonight, it will be mandatory for everyone aged 12 and over to wear a mask when they are visiting any of the essential services that are currently open, including supermarkets, pharmacies and service stations.”

Staff will also be required to wear a mask. Mandatory mask use includes places like bus terminals and taxis.

Supermarket panic buying
Meanwhile, supermarkets have experienced a run on products, with stocks being diminished as people panic-buy items during lockdown.

Supermarket chain Countdown is continuing to limit the amount of some products people can buy in Auckland and the Coromandel, as shelves empty fast.

Countdown also says it has purchased an extra 2000 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to boost its fresh produce supply.

Finance Minister backs recovery
Also addressing media today was Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who said he was confident the the economy would be resilient in the face of the current outbreak.

Robertson yesterday announced businesses that had a 40 percent drop in revenue would be eligible for the wage subsidy scheme and could also apply for the resurgence support payment.

He said the government did not need to take on additional borrowing at this time.

“Clearly if we were in a situation as we were last year and we had a very extended lockdown, the Reserve Bank would look at what its role is.”

Fear of Aucklanders taking delta to holiday homes
Residents in Northland said today they were concerned to see high traffic levels heading up highways, fearing Aucklanders were coming en masse to stay in holiday bachs, potentially bringing the delta variant with them.

Police turned back vehicles heading into the Coromandel and urged the public not to set up their own checkpoints.

Vaccinations to resume
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this afternoon a resumption of vaccinations, paused to ensure public safety during the transition to alert level 4 lockdown.

Ardern said plans are being activated for all DHBs to resume vaccinations under level 4 conditions, and in some cases they would resume today.

She said people who had booked in for a vaccine for tomorrow onwards should go to receive the jab, even if they had not heard anything.

“To put it bluntly if you’ve had the vaccine you are less likely to catch covid-19 and much less likely to get sick or die,” she told the 1pm media briefing.

Prominent conspiracy theorist Billy TK led the small crowd of about 50 protesters outside TVNZ’s HQ in Auckland and was arrested by police. Police confirmed four arrests and four further arrests at a protest in Tauranga.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said police would not hesitate to arrest people at unlawful gatherings during lockdown.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The 21-year-old nurse is a flatmate of a man who worked with the first case to be discovered and announced yesterday. She was fully vaccinated, the Ministry of Health said earlier.

Auckland Hospital had written to all staff asking them to stay home if unwell, to wear masks and to restrict their movement around the central city buildings as much as possible.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there had not been any cases from New South Wales at Auckland Hospital.

Dr Bloomfield said there was no suggestion that the nurse worked in any other health facilities.

There are two new cases of covid-19 in the community, in addition to the four announced earlier today.

Dr Bloomfield said that brought the total number of community cases to seven.

All case friends
He said the two new cases were linked to the current outbreak and were in Auckland. They are friends with the four cases reported this morning.

Dr Bloomfield said there were also three cases in managed isolation.

The other four cases found earlier today include a work colleague of the case found yesterday, who is a 20-year-old man. He has three flatmates — including the Auckland Hospital nurse — and has been working in recent days.

There is also a 25-year-old teacher at Avondale College and a 29-year-old man.

The two more recent cases found today include a 21-year-old woman and 19-year-old man who both live in Auckland and are linked to the current cases as friends.

The wife of the original case has returned a second negative test.

Dr Bloomfield said contact tracing capacity had been increased, and with the latest cases being active young people in their 20s, there were expected to be many locations of interest.

Locations updating
Those locations would be constantly updated as more information comes to hand, he said.

Dr Bloomfield said calls to Healthline should be restricted to seeking a test.

On genome sequencing, Prime Minister Ardern said overnight it has been confirmed that the outbreak was the delta variant, and that it was linked to the NSW outbreak.

She said only three positive cases had arrived into MIQ from Sydney since 1 July. One on August 9 on their day 1 test, and two on August 14 on their day three test.

These three cases were being genome sequenced right now, as part of the usual processes, Ardern said.

Ardern said everyone who came from NSW and Queensland was compliant with the travel restrictions.

She said despite that, the government was preparing to contact all cases who had arrived from Australia should they find the community case was not linked to the three positive cases from MIQ.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced an alert-level 4 lockdown starting at 11.59pm tonight for seven days in Auckland and Coromandel, and three days elsewhere.

Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield briefed media after a Cabinet meeting on the covid-19 community case identified in Auckland today.

The Ministry of Health announced about 2.30pm today a new case had been found in the community in Auckland, saying a link between the case and the border or managed isolation had not been established.

Health officials had been interviewing the case so contacts could be traced and any locations of interest identified.

This evening health officials released five locations of interest in the Coromandel, which has been published on the Ministry of Health website.

In announcing the government’s decision, Ardern said going hard and early had worked before and that the delta variant was harder to combat.

Dr Bloomfield said they were assuming it was the delta variant. The man, a 58-year-old male from Devonport, on Auckland’s North Shore, lives with his wife.

She was tested yesterday and returned a negative test.

Vaccinations have also been paused for 48 hours.

Dr Bloomfield thanked the person who tested positive for going for a test and emphasised that although the man was not vaccinated, he had been booked in.

Watch the media briefing here. Video: RNZ News

Ardern said it had not been a matter of if but when the variant arrived in the community.

“I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for that eventuality and that we will now be putting in place that plan to contain and stamp out covid-19 once again,” Ardern said.

“Going hard and early has worked for us before, while we know that delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat the same actions that overcame the virus last year can be applied to beat it again.”

The couple visited Coromandel last week, Dr Bloomfield said. They returned on August 15.

The man is a frequent user of the covid-19 tracer app.

Five locations of interest in Coromandel

Locations of interest have been identified in both Coromandel and in Auckland.

The contact tracing locations of interest include Star and Garter Hotel, Umu Cafe, BP Gas Station on Tiki Rd and Taras Beads. The man visited them between August 13 and 15.

Current locations of interest in New Zealand

Further locations between Coromandel and Auckland are likely to be identified.

Dr Bloomfield said there would be additional testing centres in Auckland tomorrow and all district health boards would ensure efficient testing capacity.

Last wastewater testing on North Shore on August 11 has returned negative results.

“This case was identified in Auckland but it is a national issue,” Dr Bloomfield said.

Ardern said New Zealand was one of the last countries to experience a case of delta. It was a “game changer” and the country only had one chance to get on top of it, she said.

“We have made decisions on the basis it is better to start high then go down levels,” she said.

New Zealand had seen overseas the consequences of not acting quickly enough, she added.

Lift our game
The underlying principal of level 4 was to reduce contact to a bare minimum, Ardern said.

“Beating delta means lifting our game,” she said. “I ask New Zealanders to please follow the rules to the letter.”

People must stay at home in level 4, only leaving for essential services, she said. “And if you undertake these activities, please wear a mask when you leave your house.”

“Stay 2m away from anyone you pass, don’t congregate and don’t stop to talk to your neighbours,” she said.

“We know from evidence overseas, that the delta variant can spread just by walking past someone.

“If you are completely isolated or live alone, remember you can join a bubble with one other person…it must just be one other person though.”

The public can drive locally to essential services, such as the supermarket, but need to stay 2m away from others and wear a mask. The public are asked to wear a mask when they go out anywhere.

“Remember to always act like you have covid-19. Stay clear of others and don’t put them in harm’s way,” Ardern said.

The government will provide the necessary financial support over the coming period.

Vaccinations suspended
Ardern said vaccinations would be suspended for 48 hours, but vaccinated people must follow the rules like everybody else.

Dr Bloomfield echoed her warning and said even with high vaccination rates, the country would still need to have public health measures in place.

Health officials will be looking at what extra protocols might need to be put in place before the vaccination campaign resumes.

Dr Bloomfield said it was reassuring wastewater testing in Auckland last week did not show any signs of covid-19, which indicated infection was not widespread.

Dr Bloomfield says the most important thing is to stop the outbreak, which requires stopping people’s movement.

Ardern and Dr Bloomfield will provide another media update at 1pm tomorrow.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz