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Siouxsie Wiles pleads for Kiwis to follow health advice to slow coronavirus spread - 'This is within all of us to help'

March 23, 2020

Dr Siouxsie Wiles explains how Covid-19 is spread and what we can all to stop the chains of transmission.

An Auckland microbiologist is pleading for Kiwis to follow official health advice to slow the spread of coronavirus in New Zealand.

"Everyone of us can make a choice today that will affect what happens in one to two weeks time," Dr Siouxsie Wiles told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduced a four-tier alert system which helps manage the risk of Covid-19 and as a way of explaining where New Zealand stands.

There are four levels and New Zealand currently sits at two.

The Prime Minister addressed the nation live from the capital today.

But Dr Wiles said where advice says "should" people "must" follow the guidelines.

"This is within all of us to help. The Government can do their thing and I know behind the scenes all sorts of things are going on, but everyone of us can make a choice today that will affect what happens in one to two weeks time. My plea to everyone is make the right choice."

Dr Wiles said what the public does now is a reflection of where we'll be in one, two, three weeks when people feel ill.

She referred to a graphic which shows how the virus spreads and how social isolation works.

"For every person that gets it, they will probably, if they don't take the right precautions, they could infect two to three other people, and then each one of those, if they don't take the correct precautions, will infect two to three other people.

"If you do things now, we can massively stop these chains of transmission for every person that's infecting. If you only infect one other person and they only infect one other person then that dramatically impacts on where we're going to be in   two weeks time."

It comes as an alert system for Covid-19 response has been put in place for all of New Zealand.

Dr Wiles said what's happening in New Zealand at the moment was the result of a growing number of countries with coronavirus cases, then Kiwis coming home from those countries - some of them with the virus not isolating themselves since it wasn't mandatory to do so then.

Dr Wiles said the numbers of coronavirus infections in New Zealand is due to people returning from overseas who've not self-isolated.

"We can all do something about this," she said, adding all people over 70, or 60 if they are Māori or Pacific, or immuo-compromised - meaning they have a respiratory illness, heart issues, diabetes or other condition - must stay home and limit contact with other people.

"I know that you all feel fit and well and that you love going out and socialising, you need to stay home now."

Dr Wiles also said everyone else needed to keep their distance from everyone else, following the health advice of one to two metres and people who can work from home must do so.

"Everyone of us that does this, if we are carrying the virus and we don't know it, it will stop us giving it to somebody else.

"Everything that we can do to break those chains of transmission will help us in one to two weeks time."

Jacinda Ardern says workplaces need to implement plans to work from home if possible.

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