Middlemore Covid cases not unexpected - Dr McElnay

The Covid-19 cases being reported from Middlemore Hospital in Auckland are not unexpected, says Dr Caroline McElnay, after two people with the virus arrived at the hospital's emergency department on Wednesday night for unrelated treatment. 

"While there has been a number of exposure events at Middlemore Hospital, this is not unexpected as there are sub clusters in South Auckland, which Middlemore is the local hospital," Dr McElnay, the Director of Public Health, said. 

"In addition, Middlemore is the receiving hospital for a number of quarantine facilities in the area and as such regularly receives Covid suspect and Covid positive patients from these facilities."

She said Middlemore Hospital was able to plan for their arrival and treatment of quarantine patients. 

"The clinical staff at Middlemore are doing an excellent job at managing this situation."

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said they wanted people with any symptoms to get tested, "but there will be some people for whom that doesn't occur".

"Some people are arriving at the emergency department being completely unaware that they have Covid, but because of the protocols at the hospital they're getting tested and then we're learning about their status as a result of that," he said. 

"It's not a problem at the hospitals. The hospitals are the solutions here. They're dealing with the cases well, they have protocols in place to deal with them, but they will be a centre for people who are feeling unwell go."

"When you hear about contacts, that's out of an abundance of caution to make sure that we don't let anybody slip through the net there."

Numerous people have tested positive for Covid-19 at Middlemore Hospital throughout the outbreak, including three on September 11, with one of those a five-month-old baby .

Middlemore Hospital came under fire in September after a man who shared a room with three others in a surgical ward  tested positive for Covid-19 .