Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said BoP DHB had a robust plan including ringfencing any transmission after a staff member tested positive to Covid-19. (Photo / Mark Mitchell)

Bay of Plenty mental health staffer tests positive for Covid-19

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020, 3:36pm

A mental health worker at Bay of Plenty District Health Board has tested positive for Covid-19.

Direct-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told reporters this afternoon he had been made aware of the positive test in Tauranga on Friday and had been given an update on the steps the DHB was taken.

"I got a text two evenings ago form the chief executive outlining a very robust and fulsome response to that. I know the medical officer of health and the staff in the unit have been working very hard on this over the last couple of days to effectively ringfence that."

The measures included ringfencing any transmission by making sure there are no further admissions, testing staff and inpatients widely, and not accepting any new patients to that ward, he said.

Any new patients requiring admissions would be diverted to Whakatane or other DHBs instead.

He did not have the figures immediately to hand about how many staff had been stood down.

Bloomfield said the transmission between staff reflected that colleagues in the hospital were working closely and it was much harder for them to keep their physical distance.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

"What it points to is making sure all those measures are in place - physical distancing, but also really good hygiene, hand washing and availability of appropriate use of PPE."

However all these three or four layers of protection for staff weren't always failsafe and that's why the MOH had a low threshold for testing staff who were symptomatic and going "very hard" with staff who may have been in contact with someone with Covid-19 were stood down and tested.