'The right people get tested'- Director General of Health outlines who qualifies for Covid-19 testing

March 22, 2020

It comes as Dr Ashley Bloomfield says Healthline is ‘overloaded’ with people calling for the wrong reasons.


With cases of coronavirus multiplying around New Zealand, the Director General of Health has outlined the conditions under which people will be tested.

The number of new coronavirus cases has risen by 14, increasing the total number from 52 to 66.

So far, 6,000 tests for Covid-19 have been undertaken, with 1200 being completed yesterday.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says most tests come back negative.

“The standard for testing is that the right people get tested,” he said today.

“And the case definition is still clear that at the moment people should have a history of overseas travel, or an obvious link to that. Or a history of being in close contact with a probable, suspected or confirmed case and they should have symptoms.

“We shouldn’t be at this point, and we can’t be testing everybody who has symptoms of an upper respiratory or lower respiratory tract infection,” Dr Bloomfield said.

“That is the reasonable thing to do.”

He said no patients are in intensive care units with the virus, and none of the new patients diagnosed overnight in hospital.

Mr Bloomfield said there was no data yet on the number of recovered patients in New Zealand.

“We are still working on that, that requires us to go back and check with each clinician on what the status of those patients are,” he said.

His comments come as the dedicated helpline for those worried they have the virus is being stretched to its limits.

“Yes, Healthline is overloaded,” he said today.

He said the helpline is there to give health advice, rather than general information on Covid-19.

“It is not there to give general advice about Covid-19, it is not there to give information about self-isolation, that information is freely available on the Covid-19 website or the Ministry of Health website . It is not there to just make general enquiries about Covid-19.”

Mr Bloomfield said those who needed to self-register could do it online.
 

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