Southern DHB Media Update - Monday 23 August 202
SWABBING – Attributable Dr Susan Jack, Medical Officer of Health, Southern
Today more than 690 COVID-19 tests were taken by WellSouth staff and general practices around the district, and around 6,500 since we moved into Alert Level 4*.
*Please note testing data is preliminary and may vary from final data published by the Ministry of Health. It reflects recorded tests until 3pm.
VACCINATION – Attributable Hamish Brown, Southern COVID-19 vaccine programme lead
After a hugely successful weekend of more than 10,000 vaccines delivered across the district, vaccinations have continued apace, with over 5100 doses administered today. This takes the Southern district to a total of nearly 210,000.
Southern Health has also launched a map-based clinic finder on its website which means people can search for their closest vaccine clinic. Users can search by region, town and through the map view, and click straight through to Book My Vaccine for availability and bookings.
View the clinic finder here: www.southernhealth.nz/COVID19/clinics
Bookings can also be made over the phone by calling 0800 28 29 26.
CONTACT TRACING
All Public Health Units across New Zealand, including Public Health South, are following up with symptomatic contacts throughout New Zealand while they isolate. The other contacts are being followed up by the National Investigation and Tracing Centre. Public Health South is also helping to scope a small number of locations of interest.
Our contact tracers are situated throughout the district and some are working from home, while others are working from various offices. Almost all of the contacts they are working on are located in Auckland, a small number in Wellington, and some from the Southern District.
We have over 40 people working on contact tracing with plans to scale up to 60 by tomorrow. They are working on a seven day roster, with around 20 to 30 staff on each shift. We are actively recruiting and training more contact tracers from Southern DHB staff to assist with this important work.
Apart from everyone needing to stay at home under alert level 4, those who need to isolate for 14 days are those who were at a location of interest at the time of someone who has become a case. These are called close contacts linked with positive cases.
Data is still emerging and we do not have exact numbers but we do know at least 50 are close contacts isolating in the Southern District.
HOSPITAL SERVICES – Attributable Chris Fleming, Chief Executive, Southern DHB
During the level 4 lockdown, urgent medical and surgical medical care is being undertaken at Southern Hospitals where there is a need for face-to-face consultation. Both planned and urgent consultations are also being conducted by telehealth where appropriate. Oncology treatment also continues to be provided.
Emergency Departments are operating as usual and we ask people needing emergency care not to delay seeking treatment. However we ask that patients keep ED for emergencies and access care from their GP where appropriate to do so.
Visiting restrictions continue to apply.
Southern DHB Surgical and Radiology Services have planned care procedures scheduled this week at Dunedin and Southland hospitals.
Services are also working on how much planned care can be safely delivered in the weeks ahead, should alert levels remain elevated, so some Southern patients requiring non-urgent care can continue to be treated. Obviously, the extent to which this can be done will depend on the presence and prevalence of COVID-19 in the Southern community.
At this stage we do not have a timeframe for postponed surgery and outpatients’ appointments but it will be a priority for when we are able to run full theatres and outpatient clinics.
We thank patients and their families for their understanding as we work through the situation