South Taranaki District Council has activated its Pandemic Response Plan following the stricter border controls put in place by the Government to try and stem the spread of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand.
STDC chief executive Waid Crockett says while the risk of widespread community outbreak in New Zealand is still low, the Council's response plan has been activated to ensure essential services are kept operating should the community and council staff be widely affected.
"We want to be prepared to make sure we can best serve the community during this situation and have established our Pandemic Response Team which meets daily, to monitor and action the Pandemic Response Plan and the Ministry of Health's latest advice and guidelines.
"One of our key strategies is to promote basic hygiene messages at our public facilities and through our regular communication channels for both staff and members of the public. According to the MoH these basic hygiene measures are the most important way to stop the spread of this virus."
Waid says as well as following the MoH's hygiene guidelines, the council are putting in place more cleaning and sanitising in facilities, including installing hand sanitiser and wipes for staff and residents to use.