There are three new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today. The number of cases has remained in single digits for 12 days. There are no further deaths.
The Ministry of Health has made assurances it doesn't have the same issues district health boards have experienced with tens of thousands of masks deemed unfit for purpose in the fight against Covid-19.
The main problem DHBs across the country have discovered is a deterioration in the elastic strap ofolder masks.
South Canterbury DHB's entire pandemic stock of 58,000 N95 masks was called into question due to their age, and the Ministry ended up replacing them while it decided whether or not they could be used during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Ministry spokesperson said there were currently no issues with its own stock deteriorating, but it would continue to assess and identify potential issues and deal with them.
They said it should not be a surprise to anyone that on the rare occasion problems arise, and what mattered was that immediate steps were taken to rectify the situation.
"Our manufacturer behaves in exactly this way, and to our satisfaction. Our contract with them requires, that there is a process for recalling any faulty items, replacing them immediately with unfaulty items, and then working to identify the nature of the fault, and how it occurred. Finally, any necessary remedial action is taken," the spokesperson said.
In the case of Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley district health boards, 100,000 masks between them were found to have crumbling elastic.
The original plan was to replace the elastic so they could be used in non-clinical areas, but they've since decided to discontinue with the repair job as testing of the retro-fitted masks showed they were not reliably fit for purpose.
The DHBs have also since improved processes for regularly examining pandemic supplies in storage to minimise the risk of the same thing happening again.
Hawke's Bay DHB confirmed it also discovered some masks had deteriorated prior to the pandemic being declared when stocks were being checked, but it did not report how many were affected.
Canterbury DHB reported 3,450 of its masks had crumbling elastic and were manufactured in 2008.
The Ministry said stock in its national reserve was tested regularly to ensure it continued to meet appropriate standards, but said DHBs were responsible for quality assurance of any PPE held in their reserves.
The Auditor-General announced last week that issues surrounding frontline workers' access to PPE, including masks, would be independently reviewed, saying that the Ministry had agreed to a review of its management of PPE for the Covid-19 response.
In the meantime, Health Minister David Clark has also ordered a rapid stocktake of PPE distribution to ensure that it is making it out from DHBs to frontline health services in a timely and appropriate way.
