MidCentral District Health Board has amended its visitor policy as two new Covid-19 cases and one probable case are confirmed in the region.
MidCentral District Health Board has amended its visitor policy as two new Covid-19 cases and one probable case are confirmed in the region.
A young man with a probable case of Covid-19 is self-isolating with his family in a rural area within Tararua District.
The man, aged in his 20s, attended the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown, held between March 9 and 13. He was on flights from Queenstown to Auckland and Auckland to Palmerston North.
The MidCentral District Health Board was unable to give any further details of the man's location within Tararua.
In the meantime Public Health officials are applauding the efforts of people in the region who have been confirmed as having Covid-19 to ensure they are isolated from the wider community.
The board's Public Health Service has confirmed there are two additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the MidCentral region and along with the one probable, taking the total tally to five confirmed.
"He has worked with airline staff to ensure no-one was near him on that flight. Upon arriving in Palmerston North, he has driven straight home in Horowhenua where he has gone into self isolation."
The man's close contacts are minimal, but the national contract tracing service was working with the appropriate airline to ensure his international flight close contacts were contacted.
"He has done everything right in terms of limiting contacts and going into isolation. It is actions like these that will protect our community and save lives."
The fifth confirmed case, a male in his 50s arrived in New Zealand from overseas on March 18. He flew from Auckland to Palmerston North on the same day. He then went to his Horowhenua home to go into isolation with his family.
There are three other confirmed cases in the MidCentral region, two in Palmerston North and one in rural Manawatū. All are in self isolation in their homes.
Dr Weir further thanked all of these individuals for their efforts to maintain the health and safety of MidCentral DHB's communities.
He encouraged everyone in the MidCentral DHB region to adhere to the requirements imposed by New Zealand's move to an Alert 4 status.
"Please stay at home unless you are travelling for essential reasons. If you do need to leave the house, please remain vigilant by practising social distancing and applying good health etiquette, such as washing hands for 20 seconds and drying them well, sneezing into your arm, and not touching your face. If you are experiencing symptoms, contact the dedicated Healthline number – 0800 358 5453."
To keep patients, whānau and staff safe, amendments have been made to the MidCentral's visitor policy. This means members of the public will be unable to visit patients at Palmerston North Hospital.
In some cases exceptions to this policy will be made on essential and compassionate grounds – for example a parent/guardian who is supporting a child, or a nominated person supporting a terminal patient.
