A DAY TO CELEBRATE

Above: Dr Stephen Bridgman

21 May marks International Tea Day and the day that Amelia Earhart became the first woman to complete a trans-Atlantic solo flight.

In our part of the world, it’s also the day that our last active case was discharged from isolation – a day that we could confidently say that Nelson Marlborough was ‘COVID-free’.

The announcement was made by Dr Stephen Bridgman, Clinical Director of Public Health, who credited the co-operation of our community towards stamping out the virus.

“I’d like to thank all cases and their local close contacts, who co-operated with strict isolation and quarantine requirements. The general public have also made a phenomenal effort to follow the Alert Level rules, and to get symptoms assessed and tested.

“The huge collective effort of our health services prevented sustained community transmission – the spread of the virus in our community between people who do not know each other. This is clear in our testing data – of the nearly 7000 local tests over the past two months, we have identified only 37 cases through testing,” Dr Bridgman said at the time.

At a speech to celebrate the closure of the Nelson CBACs on 12 June, Dr Richard Everts gave Stephen a special mention.

“We saw Stephen’s true colours during this crisis – as a scientist, a leader and someone who cares about people.”

Richard is particularly impressed with Stephen’s role as chair of the clinical technical advisory group (CTAG) who were dealing with a brand-new virus – looking at symptoms, transmission, and means of diagnosis.

“They provided evidence-based advice throughout the pandemic, and encouraged everyone on the group to have a say,” Richard says.

THE ROLE OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH DURING PANDEMICS —

The Health Act 1956 and the Epidemic Preparedness Act 2006 give significant powers to medical officers of health during outbreaks of notifiable infectious disease.

COVID-19 was classified as such a disease in New Zealand on 30 January. On 11 March, the Health Act was updated so that both ‘novel coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19’ were also designated as quarantinable infectious diseases. A wide range of powers were subsequently made available to NMH Medical Officers of Health Dr Stephen Bridgman and Dr Andrew Lindsay.

These include the power to:

- require a probable, suspected or confirmed case to refrain from working, using public transport or travelling, and to stay in isolation

- direct the closure of educational institutions (including early childhood centres)

- carry out contact tracing in order to identify the source of the disease, make contacts aware that they might be infected, and limit transmission

- require probable, suspected or confirmed cases to provide information about their contacts

- require any suspected cases on board an aircraft arriving in New Zealand to be examined, provide samples, supply information and to stay under surveillance

- require people to report or submit for medical examinations or testing (if authorised by the Minister of Health)

- require people, places, buildings, ships, vehicles, and aircrafts to be isolated and quarantined (if authorised by the Minister of Health)

- request Police for assistance when exercising those powers.