A public health expert is calling for more vigorous action into containing the coronavirus outbreak in New Zealand.
Otago University public health professor Michael Baker told TVNZ 1's Breakfast this morning, "Now's the time for maximum action and that means putting a lot more effort into the containment approach, this will mean clinics will diagnose and treat cases very swiftly and also a huge effort put into contact tracing and quarantine."
As it stands there are five confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.
Mr Baker said unfortunately New Zealand had wound down its national public health capacity for over a decade, and that the current outbreak was a reminder of how critical it is to have public health infrastructure in place.
But he added, the Government was responding "very vigorously and doing all the right things".
"We're now in that keep it out, stamp it out stage but I think the evidence coming internationally is that the scale is pandemic, it's not like anything that anyone alive has ever seen before."
Mr Baker said, while at an international level the virus is considered not containable, New Zealand should be following China as a model to contain its spread.
"For some countries it will be possible to contain it, China has contained it. It's a very different infection from influenza. Singapore is succeeding and Australia and New Zealand could also succeed.
"I think the game-changer is the success of places like China. At the weekend we had these remarkable milestones, although we had 100,000 cases internationally and it now spreading to more than 100 countries, we actually saw in China for the first time they had fewer than 100 cases in a day, so they are succeeding so we need to learn from the models they're using there."
China put Wuhan, the city of over 11 million people and where the virus began, into lockdown to minismise the spread of the illness.
Mr Baker said New Zealand didn't need to act in the same draconian way, but added it could mean diagnosing cases quickly and following up cases and quarantining.
He said it was too soon to be shutting down big public events and movement restrictions because there is so few cases, but that "maximum planning effort" was needed.
"I think New Zealand had brought time by it's managing the risk so effectively so far and we need to use that time to plan these quite strong interventions."
SHARE ME