Covid-19 Delta outbreak: Contact tracing for new Covid cases being outsourced to Whanganui and other regions

Contact tracing responsibility for new Covid-19 cases is being devolved to regional health networks, Whanganui's Dr Patrick O'Connor says. Photo / NZME

The Ministry of Health is outsourcing contact tracing responsibility for new Covid-19 cases to regional public health units, including Whanganui's, as capacity within Auckland tightens.

Whanganui Medical Officer of Health Dr Patrick O'Connor said public health teams in places like Whanganui and Palmerston North were now being given responsibility for a number of Auckland cases.

That responsibility included being the direct point of contact with the cases, and involved establishing a list of close contacts and locations of interest which were then relayed to the Ministry of Health.

O'Connor said regional public health teams had been assisting with contact tracing for a number of weeks now, but predominantly for close contacts and people who may be symptomatic.

"A few weeks ago, they devolved contact management out to the various public health units, especially for people who had symptoms. They had too much work on their hands in Auckland," O'Connor said.

"There was a division of labour between Auckland and Healthline, and places such as ours took on the task of following up people in Auckland."

But that changed in recent days when the active management of cases was devolved further into regional health teams.

"The latest thing that has been devolved to us is the actual management of cases, so we will be contacting cases and working out their exposure events and contacts."

O'Connor said the number of cases regional teams such as Whanganui were working on varied, but they were currently managing around one case a day.

"We're really getting the system streamlined, but we may well be in a position to take more if needed."

On Thursday, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay warned that, given current modelling, cases could double within the next week.

McElnay also said contact tracing capacity would reach its limits at "170 to 180" cases a day.