Daily Media Update - Friday 24 April 2020

No new cases in Southern

The Ministry of Health has announced no new COVID-19 cases in the Southern district today, for the sixth consecutive day. The region’s total remains 216, with 22 active cases, 192 now recovered and two deceased.

Please note confirmed and probable cases are combined, to match Ministry case reporting. For a breakdown by Territorial Authority please visit the Southern Health website: 

https://www.southernhealth.nz/sdhbCOVID19/cases-updates

More testing underway

Further community testing of asymptomatic patients in the Southern district is underway, following a request from the Ministry of Health, as we seek further information about any possible undetected presence of COVID-19.

The further testing is targeting higher risk communities that may have been exposed to the virus, or where people may not have been well represented in our overall testing. This includes health care workers, Māori and Pacific people, and those with a history of international travel such as those staying in backpackers’ hostels.

The first groups to be tested are people in Queenstown living in short-term accommodation or backpackers’ hostels, starting today and over the next few days.

We are working closely with WellSouth and testing to reach the other identified target groups will be undertaken in the coming week.

The targeted testing follows 343 tests at a Queenstown supermarket last week, which aimed to see if COVID-19 could be detected across a random sample of the population. All those tests were negative.

Southern DHB Medical Officer of Health Dr Susan Jack says the additional targeted testing supplements the information we already have, with a particular focus on trying to uncover any pockets of disease that have not yet reached our attention.

“Again, we thank everyone for their cooperation in helping us learn as much as we can about the prevalence of the virus in our community, and helping to inform the extent to which we can relax the restrictions we’ve been living with in recent weeks as we’ve worked to control this outbreak.”

COVID-19 tests not required for return to work

Public Health Physician Dr Michael Butchard today presented a webinar for Southern businesses, to help them prepare for Alert Level 3.  A recording of this webinar is available on the Southern Health website, under COVID-19 Advice for Workplaces.  https://www.southernhealth.nz/sdhbCOVID19/workplace

One of the key messages Dr Butchard gave was that healthy staff do not need medical clearance, or COVID-19 testing, before returning to work at Alert Level 3.  This is even if a worker has previously been a COVID-19 case.  Public Health South has closely monitored people who have been a COVID-19 case and have let them know if they are able to return to work.

Other key health messages for businesses in Alert Level 3 include:

• If your business requires close physical contact it can’t operate;
• Your staff should work from home if they can;
• Customers cannot come onto your premises;
• Businesses should support vulnerable employees to continue working from home wherever possible;
• Public Health South will inform workplaces if there is any risk to workers as a result of new or suspected COVID-19 cases.

Moving to Alert Level 3 and beyond

Comment from Chris Fleming, CEO

Planning is now well underway for a return to more health care services, as we move from Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 3 next week.

The measures we undertook Alert Level 4 were very important and we are extremely pleased this is showing in the reduced number of new cases in our district. I want to acknowledge our public health, laboratory and primary care teams for their exceptional efforts over the past weeks, and thank those people who have cared directly for COVID-19 or suspected COVID- 19 patients within our hospital network.  And indeed thank you to everyone in the community for the actions you have taken in Alert Level 4 as we have faced this shared challenge.

At the same time, our thoughts have been with the people who have had their elective surgery or other services postponed because of COVID-19, and we are very conscious of the need to provide the care they have been waiting for.

Services have been impacted across the community, as well as in our hospital settings. More than 400 elective surgeries were postponed and 2,500 outpatients appointments were impacted during the lockdown – some of these outpatients have been contacted by phone or Skype, and some have had their consultations conducted remotely. However the delay in planned care, as well as anyone in our community who has delayed accessing acute care, will place our system under continued pressure in the weeks and months ahead.

Next week we will be resuming as much care as we can manage safely. This means:

• Current screening measures remain in place for staff and patients.
• Physical distancing and other safety measures must be maintained.
• Maintaining capacity to manage surges in demand.
• We are contacting patients to reschedule appointments and surgeries.
• Our visitor policies are also being reviewed.
• Services are developing ways to maintain physical distancing of patients, for example in waiting rooms.

We need to acknowledge however that we do face a significant backlog, and constraints around delivering care will remain for some time. We also believe there may be a ‘hidden waiting list’ of people who delayed seeking care during lockdown and whose conditions may be more acute when they present to us. Further, the stresses and economic impact of the pandemic will very likely bring further demands on our health services.

Therefore we do need to look at alternative ways of working in order to increase capacity safely.

While we are hopeful that through our collective efforts we have avoided the worst case scenarios, there is no doubt we continue to have a long road ahead of us. However, everything we have seen in recent weeks gives me confidence in our teams to rise to these challenges. Again I thank everyone for their patience and understanding over the past weeks, as well as for the role everyone in the community has played in helping try to stamp out COVID-19.

Southern DHB Community Services – Alert Level 3

As we move from Lockdown Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 3, people at home will have questions about Southern DHB’s Community services, including District Nursing, Community Rehabilitation, and Physiotherapy Outpatients.

Southern DHB’s Community Services have continued to provide essential services during Alert Level 4, and Level 3 will see a careful expansion of services, where possible, to support treatment that has been deferred.

Under Level 3:

• Patient contact is still only permitted where essential for treatment that cannot be deferred – this will continue to maintain patient and staff safety.
• Non-patient contact options, such as telephone or Zoom, are being expanded where appropriate to support treatment that had been deferred.

Services will be in contact with patients where there is an opportunity to recommence care or treatment safely.  Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

DHB Funded Home and Community Support Services

Home and support service providers will be making decisions on an individual basis, rather than a blanket approach.

This recognises that some clients expect a ‘return to normal’ under Level 3 where possible, while other clients are still not wanting carers in their bubbles.

Gloves or no gloves at the supermarket?

We have received a media inquiry about whether gloves should be worn when shopping at a supermarket.

The response from Dr Susan Jack, Medical Officer of Health, Southern, is as follows:

We can understand and appreciate people wanting to take precautions to protect themselves and others at this time.  It is good that people are thinking about health and hygiene in the community and how to keep themselves safe.

The advice around gloves is that they are only safe if used correctly. Hands should be washed before and after using them.

The Ministry of Health does not recommend gloves for the general public in supermarkets.  Instead, they advise that basic hygiene measures are the most important way to stop the spread of infections, including COVID-19.

Basic hygiene measures include:

• hand hygiene – that is, washing hands regularly with soap and water, or cleansing with hand sanitiser
• staying at home if you are sick
• coughing or sneezing into a tissue or your elbow and then performing hand hygiene
• cleaning surfaces regularly.

The Ministry of Health, which is our governing agency, has advice for people around this on its website.  https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-novel-coronavirus-health-advice-general-public/covid-19-face-mask-and-hygiene-advice

ENDS.