Covid 19 coronavirus: Entrance controls in place at Taranaki hospitals and health centres

Visitors to hospitals or some health centres in Taranaki will be required to sign in at the main entrance.

During alert level 2 there will be a security presence at Taranaki Base and Hāwera hospitals, to ensure Covid-19 tracing processes are carried out.

The visitor policy has not changed, however, visitors will be required to sign in at the main entrance to either facility, Becky Jenkins, incident controller for Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB), said in an emailed statement.

Once visitors have gone through the main entrance, they will be issued a visitor pass to identify they have been through the tracing process, she said.

"Visitors will also be asked to use/scan the QR codes placed around our hospitals and health centres to track their whereabouts."

The measures taken will help with contact tracing if needed, as well as protecting patients and staff she said.

"People attending an outpatients' appointment do not need a visitors' pass, neither does their support person as their details will be recorded at the appointment for tracing purposes."

Covid-19 testing is continuing in the region, with 1405 tests carried out in Taranaki last week between August 8 and 15. The current test rate is 11.2 per 1000 people. The average wait time for a test result is 23 hours. Becky said the testing of people with symptoms remains a priority at this time.

When it comes to who is being tested, statistics for the region show slightly more females than males are being tested, with 55 per cent of all tests in the region being for females as of last Friday. Māori make up 23.6 per cent of those tested, while the average age of people being tested is 39.

There is no issue with the supply of medicine in the region, Becky said.

"There is no need to stockpile on medicines. Community pharmacies stay open to the public through all Covid-19 levels and will be available to support the Taranaki community with medicine supply and information needs.

"For people who don't need a prescription straight away, they can arrange for the prescription to be sent through to a pharmacy of their choice and then make contact with that pharmacy to arrange a convenient time to pick-up or have it delivered. This allows the pharmacy team to spend time with people and minimises numbers in pharmacies at any one time to support physical distancing."

The Taranaki District Health Board has a dedicated Covid-19 webpage with health and wellbeing advice, self-help tools, details of helplines for children and young people, and support for frontline health care professionals. It can be found at www.tdhb.org.nz/covid19

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