Covid 19 coronavirus: workplace testing to start next week, says Bloomfield

Workplace testing is set to begin next week as some Kiwis head back to their jobs when the lockdown lifts.

But it would not be random and would be focused on higher risk workplaces like healthcare centres and supermarkets, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said.

Bloomfield told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that community testing in high risk areas would continue throughout the alert levels.

And workplace testing would start next week but it wouldn't be random because New Zealand's case numbers were so small it would be difficult to flush out any unknown cases, Bloomfield said.

"So it will be targeted but will be designed to get a good geographical spread by ethnicity.

"And will also [be] in those higher-risk settings, like healthcare settings and supermarkets."

The Government announced yesterday the lockdown would be lifted on Monday, April 27, at 11.59pm which would allow more Kiwis to go back to work.

Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said workplace testing would start next week. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

Bloomfield was also asked by Hosking about a new paper authored by economist Ian Harrison which claims the death tolls modelled by the University of Otago Covid-19 Research Group (OCRG) and the University of Auckland's Te Pūnaha Matatini were unrealistic.

The paper claims the modelling didn't factor in measures like social distancing.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

Bloomfield said social distancing while there was an outbreak in the community "just wasn't sufficient" to break the chain of transmission, Bloomfield said.

This was what many countries like Italy, France and the UK started to do but because they couldn't get on top of the transmission and only introduced lockdowns after it had got out of control, Bloomfield said.

Hosking asked what the point of modelling was if it was only going to scare people and wasn't going to be real.

Bloomfield replied: "Well it was going to be real - that's the thing. The other thing about modelling is it doesn't tell you what is going to happen, it's painting a scenario and it's using the data you've got."

He also responded to the week-long delay in releasing Dr Ayesha Verrall's rapid report on the nation's contact-tracing abilities.

Bloomfield said the wait was because the Ministry of Health wanted to respond to the recommendations in the report and then give Cabinet a chance to consider it.

"There's certainly nothing to hide."

Verrall, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Otago, audited the ministry's contact-tracing abilities.

She found the public health units (PHUs) were its main weakness, and recommended they urgently be expanded with extra staff to help isolate possible cases.

It also found each of the 12 units had different systems for storing information which couldn't be accessed by the Ministry of Health and recommended a national computer system be established.

And at the time of the rapid report, only 60 per cent of contacts could be easily reached by phone, either because of incorrect contact details or because people choose not to answer calls from an unidentified number.

Bloomfield said the report "was clear" about the areas that needed strengthening.

As the report was released yesterday, the Government announced funding to PHUs would be expanded to allow for a surge capacity of 300 fulltime-equivalent staff and the National Contact Tracing Solution would be developed.

Bloomfield also said he was comfortable with New Zealand's level of testing and how it was being used.