March 16, 2020
Tracking to keep Covid-19 from Kawakawa and beyond
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Keep it out, stamp it out.
That's how Labour Party deputy leader Kelvin Davis describes the Government's response to this stage of the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic.
All people arriving in New Zealand from places other than the Pacific Islands are being asked to self-isolate for 14 days, and decisions will be made this week about large public gatherings.
Mr Davis says the 8 cases reported in this country so far are travellers or family of people who returned to the country.
He says the Health Ministry is doing a great job of tracing anyone who may have had contact with those known to be carrying the disease.
"The Ministry of Health is doing a great job which is why we haven't seen any community transmission yet. So if somebody (infected) did go up to Kawakawa, the Ministry of Health would descend on Kawakawa, says 'where did you go, who were you in touch with, which shops did you go into?' all of those sorts of questions and then they would systematically go through tracing all the contacts the person has made. Everyone is then given the information they need to self-isolate to stop them, if they have picked it up from someone, from spreading it further," Mr Davis says.
He says because of the heightened concern over Covid-19, Wednesday's hui at Tau Henare Marae in Pipiwai for the swearing-in of former Northland coroner Brandt Shortland as a district court judge will now be a small whānau occasion than the large hui that was planned.
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