Coronavirus: When you'll be tested for Covid-19 revealed

Tests for Covid-19 have ramped up to 500 following the loosening of the tight criteria and heavy criticism that the regime needs to be liberalised.

An order also came from the World Health Organisation this week to "test, test, test".

New Zealand now has 12 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two probable cases after four positive results were announced on Tuesday.

The Government today announced a $500 million injection into the health sector as part of its package dedicated to fighting the health and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, welcomed the funding, calling it a "significant sliver" of the spending.

The health package is designed to keep the sector from being overwhelmed as the number of cases increases. It also includes:

• Doubling of resources for Public Health Units, specifically to boost capacity to contact trace.

• $32 million for extra intensive-care capacity and equipment at hospitals.

• $50 million in support for GPs and primary care.

• $20 million to improve video conferencing and telehealth consultations.

• $20 million for more Healthline capacity.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said after announcing the package: "If we can manage the virus, we can mitigate the damage to the economy."

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticised governments overnight on Monday (NZ time) for not urgently escalating testing, isolation and contact tracing which was "the backbone of the response".

"We have a simple message for all countries: Test, test, test."

Earlier, National Party leader Simon Bridges said the testing criteria should be loosened because the number of tests in New Zealand was "simply not good enough".

Tot test

Until Monday, there was an average of 11 tests per day.

But this week that number surged to 500 after the loosening of the case definition and criteria by the Ministry of Health at the weekend.

This is almost double the total amount of tests carried out since the start of February with 570 negatives on top of the 11 confirmed cases.

In a letter to doctors, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield dropped the requirement to notify the local Medical Officer of Health before testing and urged GPs to use their clinical judgment to test even if someone didn't quite meet the case definition.

Bloomfield told media on Tuesday that the Ministry of Health was testing according to the WHO's directive and would also increase the capacity of tests which can be processed each day to between 750 to 1,000.

"But we also need to ensure the right people are tested.

"That is to say people with a history of recent overseas travel or of contact with a probable, possible or suspected case and have symptoms suggestive of Covid-19."

Doctors needed to be sure they weren't just testing people with common colds and there was a clear link to the coronavirus but did have the flexibility to use their better judgment.

Meanwhile, Bloomfield said Healthline is already being ramped up to accommodate an unprecedented number of calls ahead of the $20 million injection from the Government to increase capacity.

One Herald reader said they recently waited on hold for three hours while others could only reach a pre-recorded message.

On Monday, more than 24,000 people tried to call Healthline which was seven times the usual number of calls, Bloomfield said. About 3,000 of those people were referred to a Government information line.

This week an extra 50 nurses and non-clinician staff would be brought in to cope with the call load.