COVID-19 Exposure Events in SDHB facilities

One of the many safety measures the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) have put in place to help keep our patients and staff safe is the use of red and green streaming. Streaming helps keep COVID positive patients (red stream), separated from non-COVID patients (green stream). Unfortunately, despite all preventative measures in place, Omicron has found its way into our green stream. However, this scenario was predicted and the SDHB have plans in place to deal with the current situation.

It has been increasingly challenging to keep all green stream areas COVID free with the Omicron outbreak nearing its peak, having several exposure events since the COVID-19 outbreak. However, none of these exposure events have resulted in patients in green stream areas testing positive for COVID-19 up until last week. Staff, visitors and patients with Omicron can show little to no symptoms and is one of the main reasons why SDHB conduct a PCR test on all inpatient admissions.

On the Thursday 17 March 2022, a patient who was admitted to Ward 10A (SDHB secure intellectual disability ward at Wakari), became symptomatic and tested positive for COVID-19. Despite the additional layer of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in place, there were an additional two inpatients on Ward 10A who returned positive surveillance tests. All three patients are reasonably well with their infections while staff and the rest of the ward’s inpatients are undertaking further surveillance testing.

In another unrelated exposure event that happened on Friday 18 March 2022, a patient tested positive upon admission at one of SDHB’s Rural Trust Hospital, following a transfer from Ward 4C at Dunedin Public Hospital. The patient was a inpatient at Ward 4C for some time and was asymptomatic. Prior to the transfer, the patient was in a four-bedded unit. Close contacts of the patients and one other patient who was also asymptomatic were tested positive. The other inpatients of the four-bedded unit tested negative. SDHB’s ward outbreak plan and IPC measures were implemented immediately, and all positive cases have been isolated.

Early this morning two further patients, again who are asymptomatic, tested positive for COVID as part of surveillance testing following the initial case - all cases have been inpatients on Ward 4C.

Today, SDHB is undertaking PCR testing of all patients on the 4^th floor at Dunedin Public Hospital. Staff who have worked on the 4^th floor over the last five days will be tested and all staff on the 4^th floor will be RAT tested before starting their shift. All staff and patients are taking all the IPC precautions and personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements seriously to minimise further infections.

The 4^th floor at Dunedin Public Hospital is closed for further admissions and visiting has been stopped until the extent of the exposure event is clearly understood. Patients are being kept informed of the situation and SDHB apologise for the inconvenience to visitors and the patients of the 4th floor, but the actions are necessary to maintain good IPC and to minimise any further infections.

SDHB would like to take the chance to publicly thank our staff who continue to go above and beyond in their work to maintain patient safety for the people we care for.

Media enquiries:
SDHB Communications Team
communications@southerndhb.govt.nz