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A coronavirus outbreak plan for the contact tracking system is still being drafted, three weeks after a critical audit.
As New Zealand waits to find out whether Covid-19 restrictions will be eased next week, the government says the previously inadequate public health system is now “well placed” to handle the virus outbreaks.
But many of the improvements recommended by a system audit are still incomplete, including creating a plan for a virus outbreak.
Contact Tracing, which causes health officials to quickly track people who have come into contact with someone who tests positive for the virus, received a $ 55 million funding boost three weeks ago.
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Minister of Health, Dr. David Clark. (File photo)
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Health Minister David Clark released a press release Saturday that a second review of the system showed that efforts to strengthen the system were “progressing well.”
In April, the Ministry of Health published a system audit written by infectious disease expert Dr. Ayesha Verrall that made numerous urgent recommendations to improve the system’s capacity.
Verrall, in a letter to the ministry released by Clark on Friday, said she was “pleased” to see that the ministry was increasing the capacity of regional public health units (PHUs), which are tasked with investigating new Covid cases. -19.
“The project [outbreak] The preparedness plan is clear, flexible and focused on the PHU, “he said.
She said regional PHUs needed to be provided with the software used by a newly created national contact center for contact tracing. The software allows all health officials to track efforts to reach contacts in a Covid-19 case.
The ministry’s chief health officer, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, in a letter in response said that making PHUs use tracking software should be “carefully managed,” and until now PHUs had “read-only access.” which means they could see, but not add to the database.
Clark said a government-developed contact tracking phone app that would speed up tracking is now “well developed and is expected to be released for voluntary registration very soon.”
Monique Ford / Things
A Covid-19 testing clinic in Wainuiomata, near Wellington. On the left, Nurse Rosemary Burns, Dr. Kim Hurst, and Nicole Richmond.
Details on how this phone app looks have been scant. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed this week that the government continued to analyze a wide range of options, including apps that used Bluetooth signals to record when two phones were approaching, but did not say when a contact tracking app could be launched.
Sir Brian Roche, charged last week with overseeing the improvements by the government, said “great progress has been made to date and we will seek to strengthen what is necessary.”
The contact location system has been criticized for failing to adequately manage an influx of Covid-19 cases, as New Zealanders returning to the country from virus hotspots abroad helped the virus spread locally.
Things On Friday, he reported, New Zealand remained a day too slow for contact tracing on a critical goal: to be able to assess and isolate a person with Covid-19 and 80 percent of their contacts in four days.
The system was poorly prepared for a large number of daily cases. Cabinet documents released by the government on Friday afternoon showed that since New Zealand counted 12 active cases on March 17, the system was only able to handle 10 active cases.
As of April 23, when New Zealand abandoned stringent blocking measures, the system could handle 185 new cases per day.
Verrall recommended that regional PHUs have a strong capacity to investigate 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day, an ambitious target that Bloomfield suggested should set between 300 and 500 cases per day.
It appears that the ability to manage new daily cases has not improved in the subsequent three weeks, although there have not been a large number of Covid-19 cases requiring increased capacity.
Clark said Saturday that the system could handle 185 new cases per day, representing “an increase from 50 cases per day seven weeks ago,” meaning that capacity had tripled.
“Besides that the [national call centre], which didn’t even exist eight weeks ago, has more than 200 employees who can make up to 10,000 close contact calls per day. “
Epidemiologists, or infectious disease experts, have said the poorly equipped contact tracking system was likely the reason the New Zealand blockade was extended, a suggestion that Ardern has rejected.
