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Hawke's Bay residents who have recently travelled to Auckland or Rotorua need a Covid-19 test only if they now have symptoms or have been identified as a close contact, Hawke's Bay District Health board says.
The advice comes as Auckland gets used to alert level 3 after a family offour in the city tested positive for the virus.
Hawke's Bay, and the rest of the country, is now at alert level 2.
The DHB said, on Wednesday, if someone who had been in Auckland develops Covid-19 symptoms, they should call their GP or a testing centre to get tested and say they have recently been the city.
Following a test the person would need to self-isolate at home and could not return to work until they had received a negative result.
Health Hawke's Bay Medical Director Louise Haywood said Covid-19 testing centres were operating in Napier, Hastings, Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay.
She said the highest priority was to test people who were symptomatic or had been in contact with a confirmed or probable case.
ALERTS2
Haywood asked people to remain patient when calling their general practice as receptionists were working as quickly as possible to answer busy phone lines.
"General practice is open for business and we will continue to provide care to our community."
Rest homes around the region are now in full lockdown until midnight on Friday, effectively operating at level 4.
Full lockdown means there will be no service or family visits to rest homes.
Under alert level 2 Hawke's Bay DHB has also revised its visitor policy, and implemented a 'no visitor' policy for high-risk areas of the hospital.
Hawke's Bay Hospital gets prepared under Alert Level 2. Photo / File
The 'no visitor' policy means only with exceptions granted by the Clinical Nurse Managers or shift coordinator of the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Special Care Baby Unit and Mental Health Inpatient Units can people bring a support person with them.
This would be limited to one support person for the duration of a woman's length of hospital stay and one named visitor, but no children to the Hawke's Bay Hospital's Maternity Unit.
In other hospital areas and rural facilities, it will be one visitor at a time, but more than one person will be able to visit during the day, but each person could visit only once a day.
FACEMASK
Chief medical and dental officer Robin Whyman said visiting hours, between 1pm-8pm, would be strictly enforced.
"Security guards at the main entrance to Hawke's Bay Hospital and other DHB inpatient medical facilities would ask visitors to scan their Covid tracer app or their phone numbers would be collected in case there was a need for contact tracing," he said.
Hawke's Bay Hospital's café, Zac's, will be closed to the public, however the hospital chapel will remain open but limit the number of people inside.
People going to a DHB facility for an outpatient, radiology, or laboratory appointment, are being advised to go alone unless they have been advised to bring someone with them.
The exception is if someone was accompanying a child or has a disability.
The visitor policy will help ensure the on-going safety of vulnerable patients and ensure effective contact tracing could be done if required, he said.
Visitors to the hospital are being asked to wear a face mask, which will be provided, as they enter the hospital.
Whyman said it was vitally important that no one visited a patient in hospital if they were unwell. Visitors should follow social distancing rules and make sure their hands were thoroughly washed or cleaned with alcohol gel before and after visiting.
Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group said it was ready to step up if Covid-19 reached the region.
Group Manager Ian Macdonald said the group had plans in place in case Hawke's Bay moved into stricter alert levels.
"We are again planning to provide emergency welfare services if the situation escalates, to support people who might need urgent help to access food, medication or other household goods and services," he said.
"At this stage, we're not standing up our group contact centre to provide emergency welfare support in alert level 2, but we're getting everything in order in case this changes."
Macdonald said the group was well placed to start up again if necessary and everyone had a part to play in keeping the virus at bay.
"If we all do this, we have a much better chance of stamping out flare-ups to avoid the risk of wider outbreak."
Will flights to and from Auckland be impacted under alert level 2?
Travelling into Auckland from Hawke's Bay is prohibited, unless you normally live there and need to get home.
Because Auckland is at alert level 3, travelling to or from Auckland Airport is only for essential service workers or those who are needing to return home.
For the rest of New Zealand at alert level 2, customers can continue to travel around the country on flights, however, social distancing will be practised.
Hawke's Bay testing centres' numbers to contact
People can call one of the numbers below to immediately book a test, or ring their doctor.
