Coronavirus: Auckland Could Leave Covid-19 Alert Level 2 Without Zero Transmission

Health Minister Chris Hipkins says Auckland and the rest of the country could return to alert level 1 normal without a “complete elimination” of Covid-19.

Hipkins and Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield led a last-minute Health Select Committee briefing on the government’s response to the second Covid-19 outbreak on Wednesday.

Hipkins told the multi-party group of MPs that the cabinet considered it possible to continue dealing with Covid-19 cases in the community while it was at level 1.

“The real test is different levels of containment at level 2 and level 1, rather than complete removal before moving to level 1,” he said.

READ MORE:
* Coronavirus: Auckland will be ‘advancing’ towards Covid-19 alert level 2, confirms health minister
* Coronavirus: five new cases and a new ‘mini group’ in the Auckland church
* Coronavirus: National points to another risk at the border: an unknown number of returnees are not tested twice
* Election 2020: Judith Collins says Chris Hipkins is ‘essentially a part-time minister of health’

“We have not yet considered any advice from level 2 to level 1 … Our ultimate goal is, of course, to avoid more level 3 blocks.”

Bloomfield said there would be a long queue in the current group, but some measures, such as quarantining families, would reduce domestic transmission y = the amount of time the group persisted.

Auckland is likely to drop to alert level 2 from “2.5” before alert level 2 is lifted across the country, he said, but advice on this has yet to be prepared.

The Select Committee on Health met again to question the couple about the response to the Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland, which was discovered on August 11, despite the end of its activity this legislature.

The committee chair, Labor MP Louisa Wall, agreed to the meeting after National Party health spokesperson Shane Reti wrote twice to the committee requesting the briefing. NZ First leader Winston Peters said his party caucus agreed that such scrutiny was necessary.

The tone of the briefing was subdued compared to previous select committee meetings on Covid-19, where questioning sometimes produced irritating exchanges.

Reti asked Hipkins about the number of Covid-19 cases it would take to raise alert levels again. The answer was: it depends.

“You can have a lot of positive results in one day, but if they’re all known contacts … It doesn’t necessarily increase your risk,” Hipkins said.

A smaller number of positive cases that were not connected to a group would be more concerning, he said.

Bloomfield agreed, saying it was unexpected and disconnected cases that were the biggest concern. Genomic sequencing had played a key role in government decision-making during this wave of the virus.

Testing of workers across the border had been a sore point for the government, as ministers believed that health officials were routinely screening workers, including those at managed isolation facilities, but this was not happening.

Hipkins said that within a week the government will issue a schedule for the routine tests to be carried out at the border.

Bloomfield said some higher risk workers will be tested frequently, such as ship pilots boarding international ships to take them to New Zealand ports. Other lower risk workers will be evaluated monthly.

When asked if the Rydges hotel worker who contracted Covid-19 wore a mask when using an elevator at the hotel, Hipkins said it was unknown as there were no CCTV footage of when the worker used the elevator.

The elevator is believed to be the most likely transmission point, as it was used by the returnee who then tested positive for Covid-19, and then used by the maintenance worker shortly thereafter.