August 17 2021
Auckland and Coromandel will go into level 4 lockdown for seven days – and the rest of the country for three days – from 11.59pm tonight.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced Covid vaccinations will be suspended for 48 hours due to a nationwide lockdown.
"We want to ensure vaccinations can still take place in a safe environment... we will be providing a further update in the next 24 hours," Ardern said this evening.
She saidofficials would be considering whether drive-through vaccinations were the best option and what other precautions could be put in place to ensure it was safe.
Director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield echoed Ardern's comments, saying we wanted to minimise movement as much as possible.
It comes as the Government has made the decision to shift into a nationwide lockdown due to 58-year-old man in the Devonport testing positive in the community.
Auckland and the Coromandel regions would be in lockdown for seven days and the rest of the country for three days.
The Prime Minister said it was unknown yet whether the man was carrying the Delta variant but it was assumed he was as all MIQ cases had been for the last three weeks.
The last 79 cases detected in MIQ facilities in this country have all involved Delta.
Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners medical director Bryan Betty said under a level 4 lockdown general practices would move into a predominantly virtual consultation model.
"Patients would be required to ring up prior to coming to see their GP, very similar to what we saw during last year's lockdown. Those patients who need to be seen in person will be," he said.
Midwives union MERA's co-leader Caroline Canroy said midwives were "well seasoned" and "all geared up" to transition their practise to alert level 4.
She said most hospitals maternity wards already had visitor limitations in place due to RSV.
A level 4 lockdown meant midwives would be required to wear PPE and thorough screening would be used so vulnerable midwives weren't caring for women with potential Covid, she said.
"Video appointments would be more common but that didn't mean face-to-face meetings couldn't happen where required."
The head of the doctor's union, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Sarah Dalton said she hadn't received any advice from hospitals yet but would assume the usual precautions would apply like social distancing and staying away unless urgent.
The link between the case and the border or managed isolation is yet to be established.
