Message from Dr Ashley Bloomfield
19/11/20
Kia ora koutou, Further to our email on Friday, we have undertaken our regular review of our Testing Strategy and I’m writing to confirm that, for the period 16 November – 6 December, we’ll continue to focus our testing efforts on testing all people with symptoms of COVID-19 in all regions. This includes a focus on testing: • • •
Regions/groups that have been underrepresented in recent data, in particular Māori communities Targeted geographic locations, to ensure access for communities and in specific areas related to cases (e.g. Auckland) or settings with target populations At the border, including testing border workers and those in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
In addition to this, we are encouraging anyone with cold or flu symptoms to get a test and stay at home until they have a negative test result, in Auckland and the rest of New Zealand. There are some locations of interest in the Auckland CDB and in central Wellington, relating to the latest cases, and we have asked anyone who was at any of these locations between 3 November and 12 November inclusive to get a test, regardless of whether they have any symptoms. This is an enhanced surveillance tactic to ensure we are not missing any cases who may be asymptomatic. Further information is available on the Ministry’s website or the Auckland Regional Public Health Service website. Testing numbers have remained consistent and we anticipate this to continue, with a minimum of 30,000 and potentially up to 40,000 tests per week, including the mandatory border testing. The full current advice for 16 November – 6 December is available here. Thank you for the work you do every day to ensure that testing is available and accessible throughout the country and for keeping our communities and whanau safe. Kind regards, Dr Director-General of Health
Ashley
Bloomfield