"The MoE believes that a shared response is required for managing our Covid response – it is too big a job for one agency to manage alone," Hamill said.
"They have identified that school principals know their communities and can support a targeted bespoke response to positive cases in their communities and schools."
COVID 19 Statement December 1
Melville High School has not been alerted or advised of any active COVID cases within the...
Posted by Melville High School on Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Hamilton primary school principals have also told parents that the new traffic light system would not effect the way schools are operating this year or next.
The only change would be that under the red traffic light, Year 4 students and upwards have to wear masks.
The Ministry of Education would not provide the Herald with the case number projections saying they were held by the Ministry of Health - but confirmed a new process for dealing with positive cases at schools had been put in place.
MoE operations and integration leader Sean Teddy confirmed the ministry would now be the primary contact for schools, kura and early learning services to support them with the classification of contacts.
This would enable public health teams to focus on the case investigation process, focus on household contacts and liaising with contacts identified by the school/service and providing health information whenever necessary, he said.
The Waikato DHB, according to information provided to the Herald last month, has six of its 16 ICU beds designated for Covid-19 patients.
It could increase the number of beds to 22 by re-scheduling surgeries that also uses ICU beds for recovery and expanding to 33 ventilator-capable beds by combining ICU and HDU beds.
Waikato Hospital is the only hospital in the region with ICU facilities.
