Covid 19 coronavirus: Should more New Zealanders be working from home?

Not enough is being done to prevent the spread of Covid-19 within workplaces, experts say.

Epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker said ensuring strict precautions within workplaces was a vital part in preventing community transmission in New Zealand and the country did not have much time to waste.

This meant having as many people working from home as possible and mandatory protocols for workplaces which do require people to come into the office, Baker said.

In Victoria, employers face fines of A$100,000 ($108,000) and workers A$20,000 (NZ$22,000) if they try to cheat the region's stage 4 coronavirus lockdown.

Baker said penalties like this might be needed in New Zealand too if we started to see transmission within workplaces.

He said it was likely that masks would be made mandatory within workplaces as there was still much unknown about the airborne transmission of Covid-19. The World Health Organisation has conceded that "airborne transmission cannot be ruled out".

Otago University infectious disease expert Professor David Murdoch said the more workplaces could be doing to stop the spread of Covid-19 the better.

"It's like another layer of precaution."

TO READ THE HERALD'S FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE CLICK HERE

He said businesses should be trying to work smarter, and where possible employees should be encouraged to work from home.

"Some businesses will be able to do it and some may have changed for good after realising it suited them and might actually be more cost efficient and better for people's quality of life."

In May, Australian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told ABC Radio that Melbourne employers would be fined A$100,000 for breaching new directions for workplaces.

"It is enforceable, there are potentially some very big fines involved, so if someone was to be taken to court if they wilfully, blatantly breached the legal direction, [it's] potentially $100,000 for businesses, so significant penalties."

Melbourne workers who were caught travelling to or from work without their papers could face on-the-spot fines of up to A$1652, ABC Radio said.

Murdoch said Melbourne's situation "scared the living daylights" out of all of us and New Zealand did not want to end up in the same boat.

"I think we could be in a situation where we could bring in desperate measures like [fining], if we were heading in that direction."

But he said New Zealand's approach was very different to other countries, which was perhaps why we had slightly softer regulations within workplaces.

"Our approach has been if we can work hard to eliminate it then we can get back to close to normal life, rather than a slow period of time of adjustment and disturbance."

"It's better than going through a slow burn of minimal contact that doesn't allow the economy to continue but it means that everyday life is still quite disturbed for a long while."

Covid-19 in NZ — 18th December

Active cases

Confirmed & Probable

51

⬆︎8

All active cases are imported

2110

⬆︎10

Total cases

0

In Hospital

0

In ICU

2034

⬆︎2

Recovered

25

Deaths

427

⬆︎10

Border cases

Last updated: Fri 18th December at 12:17 am

Go here to see all our Covid-19 data