Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 313 new cases in Whanganui DHB region

An incident management team has been set up at Whanganui Hospital to ensure flexibility during the current Omicron outbreak. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Whanganui DHB region had 313 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday.

There are now 1960 active cases in the region with 2632 recovered.

That's according to the Ministry of Health, which announced 18,423 new community cases, 913 hospitalisations and 11 deaths across the country.

The total number of active community cases in New Zealand currently stands at 118,631.

The Whanganui DHB said three Covid cases were in hospital locally, although none were being treated for Covid-19 and none were in ICU.

A four-phase response system is in place at Whanganui Hospital to deal with Covid-positive admissions.

The hospital is currently at phase three.

At phase four, a dedicated Covid ward will be established.

The hospital's director of nursing, Maurice Chamberlain, said an incident management team had also been set up.

"We have to be as flexible as possible because plans change constantly.

"We consider the [response] plan as more of a guideline, because it depends what we face at the time, and we are ready to respond with anything."

While there had been flurries of Covid-positive people attending the hospital, it was still "well away" from phase four, he said.

"The management of them to this point has been better than expected.

"We are in a good position."

The hospital jumped between response phases all the time, and it was "situational dependent", Chamberlain said.

"One area may have Covid patients in it and one may not.

"We have to be flexible in the areas that don't have it and more regimented in the areas that do have it."

He said he was "ever hopeful" that the Whanganui community was resilient and would stick to healthy habits such as mask wearing and hand washing.

"The current picture is positive but we are forecast to get more [admissions] in about two weeks. We are prepared for that.

"We look at capacity - what we have available versus the staff we have available, and the required needs to meet patient demands.

"We have a big hui about that constantly to make sure one plus one equals two."

Chamberlain said there were redeployment strategies in place for hospital workers.

"It's not just the patients who get this [Covid-19], it's the staff as well.

"We are actively training non-clinical staff to help out safely in environments they may not always be in."

It was important for people to understand the hospital was in a different position than it was six months ago, and things "might not run like normal", Chamberlain said.

"The community has been really good so far, and really understanding.

"We are not doubting that this may be the calm before the storm. However, we are also very hopeful that we are in it."

The ministry says its daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level.

This is because of different reporting cut-off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their region of residence.