Medical professionals are "ready to do their job" as they gear up for an influx in coronavirus patients, Ministry of Health Director-General of Health Dr Ashely Bloomfield says.
Dr Bloomfield told TVNZ1's Breakfast today the Covid-19 situation is expected to get worse before it gets better, with the number of infections in New Zealand expected to grow before we see a slow down.
It will take about a week to 10 days to see the benefits of the Government-imposed four-week lockdown due to the lag in infection and people feeling ill, he says.
"I've had a lot of feedback from colleagues around the sector in the vain of 'we are ready'? There's a huge amount of work going on and people on the frontline yesterday, they are nervous about it as any New Zealander is and they want to feel safe and supported, but they are ready to do their job."
Dr Bloomfield also said New Zealand had a good supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers.
It comes as New Zealand saw its first death from Covid-19 today.
New Zealand was doing "an incredible amount of work" looking to bring in more stocks, including ramping up the production of masks onshore, he said.
"Masks are something that frontline staff are really keen to ensure that they can use and can get hold of when they need them and that's what we're working hard to make sure that it is everywhere where people need it."
Dr Bloomfield spoke to Breakfast after New Zealand's first coronavirus-related death yesterday.
A woman in her 70s on the West Coast, who had been treated at Grey Base Hospital initially for influenza, died after her condition deteriorated over the weekend. She had other chronic conditions.
The death came as the total number of cases in new Zealand rose to 514 yesterday.
The number of cases of Covid-19 is expected to grow, but Dr Bloomfield said today, "the extent to which we're on top of this is very much in the hands of all New Zealanders.
Dr Bloomfield told media today the country has a national pandemic supply of personal protect equipment.
"We need everybody's efforts to help break the chain here."
New Zealand is in a four-week lockdown to slow the virus spread - a move the Government took, on the advice of scientists and health professionals, much earlier than other nations.
"The Government moved from [alert] level three to level four so quickly was because to try and head off this growth getting much worse and that wider community spread.
"New Zealand, in a sense, has moved to that rigorous level earlier than other countries have. What we had seen is that other countries that had gone to level three type measures within a week or two had to go to level four anyway.
"We felt that, while the number of cases was relatively low, that was the time to do it although we are expecting the numbers to increase."
He called the situation "strange and extraordinary times" for Kiwis and the rest of the world.
Dr Robert Webster has been warning about the threat of a pandemic for 15 years.
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