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Home / New Zealand

Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: First death in Gisborne, after being discharged from hospital

NZ Herald
8 Mar, 2022 11:53 PM5 mins to read

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US slaps Russia with oil, gas and energy sanctions, Covid infected healthcare staff can return to work and local councils may still have a voice in the Three Waters Reform in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

A 77-year-old man with pre-existing health conditions and who was also positive for Covid-19, died yesterday after being discharged from Gisborne Hospital.

Hauora Tairāwhiti chief executive Jim Green says the man was admitted to hospital by ambulance last Friday.

The man's health improved and he was assessed as fit to return home.

"From all staff at Hauora Tairāwhiti, we send our thoughts and aroha to the family," Green said.

"We ask the community to respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time."

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The death comes as more than half of the residents and 30 per cent of workers at a South Auckland rest home have tested positive for Covid-19.

Some 58 of the 111 residents at Bupa Erin Park Care Home in Manurewa have become infected with the virus but have so far only experienced mild symptoms, Bupa national operations director Sue McLeod said.

A further 34 employees have also tested positive for Covid-19, but would be returning to work during the next few days as their isolation periods end.

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McLeod said Erin Park, like the majority of Auckland care homes, had been impacted by the Omicron outbreak.

Each infected resident had a care plan in place and the care home was working closely with the Public Health and District Health Board teams.

Bupa did not respond to questions around how many residents had died from the virus.

"We would like to acknowledge the amazing work our people have done to ensure that our residents are cared for. It is challenging with so many people away, but they have been absolutely amazing, stepping up and supporting each other and doing whatever is required to care for our residents."

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Nationally about 5 per cent of Bupa's staff and 4 per cent of its residents have been impacted by Covid-19.

Meanwhile, nurses are disappointed and angry that they will be called to work while infected with Covid-19.

The Government announced yesterday healthcare staff who tested positive for the highly transmissable virus but were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms could work on Covid wards patients without any stand down period as a "last resort".

DHBs could also allow critical healthcare workers to return to work six days after being infected with Covid-19 providing they produced two negative Rapid Antigen Tests.

However, New Zealand Nurses Organisation president Kerri Nuku told RNZ members were angry and frustrated by the new rules.

"They are burned out, they are tired and fatigued, and now these latest orders mean they have to make a choice to go back to work or not go back to work and they should never be put in those positions."

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Nuku said nurses needed time to rest and recover especially if they were symptomatic or even asymptomatic. The Government was not listening to nurses and they had been "pinned into this", she said.

Nurses were already overworked so felt obliged to brush aside their own wellbeing to support their colleagues and community especially when they were asked to do so by their managers.

Some NZNO members were even reporting that it was still a struggle to get hold of PPE gear.

Sarah Dalton, the executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, said they had been working hard to make sure doctors weren't going to work sick and the latest move "flies in the face of this".

"We really hate the idea that any health worker might feel pressured to return to work sooner than they feel comfortable doing. And while these new rules suggest it's by mutual agreement, we know that even without these extra staffing pressures, it is really, really normal in many services to have daily texts and ring-arounds to fill roster gaps."

She said it was a double standard and that the health of workers appeared to be negotiable.

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Dalton urged the DHBs to follow their own advice to the public and tell staff to stay home if they were sick.

"We really hope DHBs don't pick this advice up."

But Australasian College for Emergency Medicine President John Bonning has welcomed changes to isolation rules for critical workers in the health sector.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, Bonning said the changes were pragmatic but some were nervous about them.

He said New Zealand was at a point now where it was about finding ways to live with the virus and that 10 days isolation was just too long.

"It's a little bit frustrating when you're completely well and need to be off work, there's significant impact to the workforce with that."

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He said plenty of other critical services might benefit from the change.

Meanwhile, a growing number of politicians are falling sick with Covid-19.

National leader Christopher Luxon and Auckland mayor Phil Goff have tested positive for Covid-19 this week and are so far experiencing mild cold symptoms.

Luxon told AM he was feeling fine, while Goff has a sore throat.

National MP Mark Mitchell told Newstalk ZB this morning he had tested positive at the same time as his leader, but so far had no symptoms so far.

Mitchell tested positive when he took a routine Rapid Antigen Test on Monday.

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The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 outside Auckland is also ramping up with more than 17,000 people across the Wellington region isolating and in need of some level of assistance.

The virus had also impacted about 15 per cent of general practice staff in Wellington who were also unable to work because of Covid-19, according to RNZ.

Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners medical director Dr Bryan Betty said case numbers, and pressure, had built very quickly.

"One of the issues here is providing services for patients with Omicron, but [there's] a need to maintain business-as-usual services, which are getting compromised at the moment."

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