“Te Whatu Ora will continue to encourage people to wear masks when they go to hospital - they won’t be mandated.”
Covid cases accounted for just over 2 per cent of hospital admissions, Verrall said.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told Morning Report this was the last step in winding down Covid-19 restrictions.
“We waited until after the winter peak period. The health system overall, while it’s been under pressure and it’s still under pressure, had a much better winter this winter than last winter.”
He said it was on the advice of the director general of health and there was never a perfect time to make changes to health settings.
General Practice New Zealand chairman Dr Bryan Betty said practices like mask-wearing and self-isolation should be encouraged for all viruses, not just Covid.
He told Morning Report people needed to continue with the lessons that were learned from Covid but which were applicable to all viruses that were spread from person-to-person, such as influenza and RSV.
“Voluntarily staying at home if you do have a flu or a cold so you don’t spread it, and I think masking in public areas of health facilities voluntarily, is something we should still keep in play.”
Health providers should consider ensuring masks were worn in places where sick people gathered, such as hospitals or GPs’ waiting areas, Dr Betty said.
Vaccination would still play an important part in reducing infection and reinfection, he said.
“We do that every year for influenza, we are potentially going forward going to be recommending that for Covid, especially for vulnerable populations.”
Employers should be considering how to support workers so they do not come in to work sick, he said.
Employers should give people with colds, the flu or Covid the opportunity to work from home if they can to avoid spreading the illness around the workplace, he said.
University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker also urged people to stay home when they were sick with Covid-19, even though all of the health restrictions had been lifted.
Professor Baker told Morning Report Covid had transitioned from a pandemic threat to an endemic infectious disease.
“Unfortunately that means it’s there the whole time, it is still in New Zealand amongst the infectious diseases, the leading cause of death and hospitalisation and we know that those infections and reinfections are going to add to that burden of long Covid.”
People must remember that it was still vital to isolate when they were sick and not go to work or school or socialise, which spread the virus, he said.
People should also continue to wear masks in medical facilities and in poorly ventilated indoor spaces.
New Zealand had come through its fourth wave of infection for the Omicron variant, he said.
“We are going to see new subvariants or lineage of the virus arrive, they will be better at escaping from our immunity, our immunity will wane of course unless you get boosted.”
The Government needed to look at how to reinforce those behaviours that prevented Covid from spreading now that the mandates had been removed, he said.
“I mean this could be running media campaigns or developing codes of practice, say with employers, Business New Zealand, I mean this is a chance for them really to show leadership about how they’re going to support the workforce in New Zealand, self-isolating when they are sick.”
Hospitilisations and mortality rates showed Covid-19 continued to have an impact and watching those rates would indicate whether the mandates had been removed too early, he said.
New Zealand needed to develop a coherent, integrated approach to dealing with all respiratory infections, which were the infectious diseases that had the biggest impact, he said.
“They have a big drain on our health resources and so we do need to look at better surveillance for these infections that will tell us what’s happening and also really it’s just having a culture of limiting transmission of these infections.”
That meant staying home when sick and using masks in indoor environments with poor ventilation, he said.
