Southern GPs will not accept walk-in appointments from today, while health officials yesterday mobilised to find people linked to Covid-19 cases at a world farming conference held in Queenstown.
With eight cases of Covid-19 now confirmed in the South and 66 nationally, doctors have taken fresh precautions to keep the medical workforce from catching the disease.
The profession’s governing body, the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, said from today GPs would not accept face-to-face appointments unless the patient had first had a remote consultation via text, email, telephone or video.
After that, if a patient needed to be seen, they would be, college president Samantha Murton said.
"We have not taken this decision lightly, but we have spoken with many of our health sector colleagues and Maori partners, and we are confident this is the right action to take at this time."
Southern doctors supported the move; WellSouth chairman Doug Hill and CEO Andrew Swanson-Dobbs saying alternatives for routine and non-urgent appointments would help reduce the risk of vulnerable people being exposed to Covid-19.
"People should be assured that patients who need face-to-face appointments with their general practice team will have access to these appointments," they said.
"WellSouth is committed to working with practices to help them to adapt, to leverage available technologies, and provide support wherever we can."
New Covid-19 cases diagnosed in the South over the weekend were a Wanaka man and a Queenstown man who had been overseas. Both were self-isolating and their close contacts were being traced, the Southern District Health Board said.
The South also has one probable case, the mother of a boy who attended Logan Park High School after contracting Covid-19 from his father. She had mild symptoms and, along with her husband and son, was in self-isolation.
However, southern health officials are braced for more Covid-19 cases, especially after news yesterday that four people who attended an international conference in Queenstown last week have now tested positive to Covid-19.
None of the four people, attendees at the World Hereford Conference, were residents of, or still located in, the southern region, the SDHB said.
Two were New Zealanders. The other two tested positive after returning overseas.
Many conference attendees went on to visit the Wanaka A&P show, and/or take a five-day tour around the South Island.
"Conference attendees have been notified and asked to self-isolate for 14 days from last exposure," the SDHB said.
"In addition to conference attendees, there were a number of people who helped organise the conference who cannot be contacted, as the conference organiser has gone into insolvency."
Workers at the conference, held in the Millennium Hotel from March 9-13, were considered casual contacts and had not been asked to self-isolate, but should monitor their health and immediately self-isolate and call Healthline if they developed symptoms, a spokeswoman said.
One of the positive cases from the conference, an Auckland man, has sparked a Covid-19 scare in Palmerston, having visited family and attended church before returning home.
"His family have been in isolation and members of the church congregation have also been advised to self-isolate since the diagnosis was made," the SDHB said.
"He was most likely exposed at the conference but is now recovering well."
Public Health South has confirmed a Palmerston Primary School pupil may have been exposed to Covid-19 and testing was completed yesterday.
The pupil’s whole household was in isolation at home, and results were expected today.
Once results are known, parents will be informed of any actions that need to be taken.
With health officials still to confirm how two of the 62 confirmed cases had contracted Covid-19, director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield yesterday could not rule out that community transmission of the disease had now happened in New Zealand.
Despite this, the rating on a new Covid-19 alert level system unveiled by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in a national address on Saturday remained at Level 2.
Ms Ardern said previously unimaginable measures had now seemed to be obvious steps as the country tried to stem the spread of Covid-19.
"We will use this alert system every time we update our cases, so you’ll know if the status in your area has gone up, or down, or stayed the same, and what you’ll need to do," she said.
Bars, restaurants and cafes also started to adjust to a new regime, with the Government ordering them to keep a guest register of everyone in a venue in case contact-tracing is required, and to conduct regular head counts of people in a venue so as not to exceed the limit of 100 people on the premises.
