New Zealand will move to level 3 of lockdown on Monday, April 27 at 11:59pm. Alert level 3 will be held for two weeks and then Cabinet will assess whether to move down another level.
Covid-19 could have entered a confirmed Whanganui case's household at the time the lockdown began, Whanganui medical officer of health Dr Patrick O'Connor says.
The Ministry of Health confirmed on April 18 that a person aged 20-29, who lives in the Whanganui district, has tested positive despite not having travelledoverseas and having no connection to the other seven confirmed cases.
The case is still being investigated and O'Connor says it's not known if there will ever be a definitive answer on how the situation arose but contact tracing and testing is being carried out to try to find some answers.
The Whanganui District Health Board (DHB) has confirmed the person was not an essential worker and is not living in a space with shared facilities.
The DHB will not reveal the number of people in the person's household bubble to maintain privacy but O'Connor said it was a "pretty standard" household and the number of tests carried out was not large.
Whanganui's medical officer of health, Dr Patrick O'Connor, says final sign-off is awaited on test results for the latest case's household bubble. Photo / Bevan Conley
"Last Friday we had extensive conversations with the case and the household and we have not identified close contacts outside of their household. We have also done tests on all members of the household and are waiting for final sign-off on all of those tests."
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The number of tests carried out throughout the region continues to increase.
Whanganui DHB chief executive Russell Simpson says there is a five-day rolling average of 82 per cent and this has been increasing each day.
On April 20 135 people were swabbed across the region and, to date, 981 tests have been completed. Of those, 802 have been negative and eight have been positive, with 171 pending.
In terms of the ethnicity split, 24.8 per cent are Maori and 75.2 per cent are non-Maori.
"So overall rates have really lifted and our community are attending CBACs [community-based assessment centres]," Simpson said.
"It appears the community are showing up if they have a cough, sore throat, runny nose and they are turning up for assessment which has been excellent."
The DHB is looking at strategies to get more people into CBACs and is in discussions with the Ministry of Health around mobile testing units.
The DHB's incident management team has started to put plans in place to work through all planned care and outpatients' care appointments.
"Making sure we look at every procedure and cancellation and a phased approach to start operations up again," Simpson said.
Ngā Tāngata Tiaki o Whanganui chairman Gerrard Albert said it is the iwi's expectation that the authorities will continue to police the lockdown because level 3 still requires the community to adhere to some rules.
"As you move you down from 4 to 3, people do assume that this means that somehow Covid can't infiltrate our community and we have to work really hard to ensure that doesn't become the view that somehow, because the alert is downgraded, the danger isn't there."
He said that Maori communities had some of the most vulnerable people, so iwi are putting on the pressure to ensure communities maintain the lockdown rules and standards.
The DHB has visited the majority of Whanganui's rest homes and is confident with the precautions put in place. Photo / Bevan Conley
There was one new case recorded in Whanganui in the last day.
Seven cases within the region have recovered, with three people being allowed to leave the region after being given authorisation on compassionate grounds.
O'Connor gave the clearance and was able to do so under the Health Act.
He said it was "in the context of a full recovery from Covid" and the three people were not considered to be of any infectious risk.
"Given their circumstances, I thought it was reasonable for them to go to a place where they were able to receive more support."
