There are still four active cases in quarantine.
Canterbury District Health Board chief executive Peter Bramley announced the new streaming strategy, as well as air flow system changes, this week.
“Our ED has had changes made to its air flow systems and divided the waiting area into two sections to accommodate ‘red’ and ‘green’ stream patients,” Bramley said.
This would reduce the chance of a person with undetected Covid-19 sharing their infection with others.
He said last week had been a “whirlwind” of a short week with the news on Thursday of the first two positive community cases of Covid-19 in Christchurch in the latest Delta outbreak.
This had necessitated “dusting off” emergency response plans to deal with the inevitable outbreak of Covid-19 in the region.
“Our region is incredibly well placed to respond to Covid-19 cases,” he said.
The changes in the emergency department were on top of the capacity the CDHB had been building.
At Christchurch Hospital, in addition to 32 dedicated beds in the newly established Parkside Ground Medical ward, there were 36 beds within ICU and
Children’s High Care which could be used in a pandemic response. In addition, CDHB had 54 negative pressure rooms across its facilities, including 38 at Christchurch Hospital.
“I can assure you, we are well-placed, particularly as in a significant outbreak most people are likely to be cared for in the community, in their own homes,” Bramley said.
