The Prime Minister is encouraging all New Zealanders with a sniffle or sore throat to be tested for Covid-19 to help firm up the country’s contact tracing regime.
Jacinda Ardern made the plea to Kiwis today, on the eve of the Government's decision to either remain in Alert Level 4 - the strictest level of precautionary restrictions - or to drop down to Level 3.
“If you even have a sniffle or the slightest sore throat get a test because the sooner we get on top of knowing that someone has the symptoms of Covid-19 the more successful our isolation and contact tracing will be,” said the PM.
There is strict criteria in place in order to move out of Level 4 lockdown, with Cabinet beginning deliberations tomorrow at 10.30am. The public is set to be informed of the decision at 4pm.
That criteria includes contact tracing with a need for rapid case identification in contact tracing. There also has to be search capacity available in the case of an outbreak.
New Zealand now has 1431 confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases. (Source: Other)
Ms Ardern said national standardisation of contact tracing data is important, but not without the local knowledge.
"We essentially have to do forensic interview with people to find out where they've been, who they've been in contact with and try and chase the origin of Covid-19."
Both Ms Ardern and the Ministry of Health today expressed confidence in New Zealand’s contact tracing system.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield believes the tracing is on the right track.
“I’m of the view that we are definitely on a pathway to having a gold standard end-to-end process because that will be essential,” said Dr Bloomfield.
Ms Ardern said the fact that New Zealand even has contact tracing is a good thing.
It comes following a young person in Whanganui testing positive without a clear link to the source of the infection. (Source: Other)
“One important thing to keep in mind is we have contact tracing across the country - some countries don’t even have that. What we want is to make sure that we just get better and better and better.
"It's one of many lines of defence that we need to have."
Dr Bloomfield said the ability to conduct contact tracing to the "gold standard" has been reviewed over the weekend, and will be presented to Cabinet tomorrow to help inform the decision on staying or leaving Level 4.
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