The World Health Organisation has issued a warning about XE - a new strain of the Covid-19 Omicron variant which appears to be 10 per cent more transmissible than BA.2 Omicron, the current strain circulating in New Zealand.
The new variant is a mutation of the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron strains and regarded as a "recombinant", being formed from at least two other viral sources.
XE was first detected in Britain in January.
Bloomfield said today if XE arrived in this country health chiefs would need to look at its characteristics and whether they needed to impose stricter rules such as limiting indoor gatherings to keep the numbers down to a manageable level.
When asked if science and politics have been too intertwined, he said the reason New Zealand had done incredibly well throughout the pandemic was because politicians had listened to the science and had been willing to take the advice.
Ultimately it was politicians who made the decisions, but he thought New Zealand had struck the right balance, he told AM.
Bloomfield said his job was to give the best advice he could and he said he was pleased the advice they had given had influenced the response to the pandemic which he though had served them well.
Bloomfield said he had received advice from the vaccination technical advisory group around the need for a fourth vaccine jab and they would be giving that to Government ministers later this week to consider.
There was a lot of interest in this area, but not a lot of evidence around the globe, he said.
From today, the new Pfizer Paxlovid Covid-19 pill could be prescribed for a very small group of high risk people. The criteria was narrow because it was only a select group who would benefit from it because it was aimed at preventing high risk people ending up in hospital.
Bloomfield said it was an excellent development to have this now available.
