COVID-19: Government reveals next steps in response to surging cases

14/07/2022
Jamie Ensor

COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall has announced the Government will provide free mask and rapid antigen test (RAT) kits as cases surge across the country.

It will also remove eligibility criteria for free RAT tests while Pharmac is making anti-viral treatments more accessible.

More than 11,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Thursday, with 23 deaths and 765 people in hospital.

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The focus is on what "will make a difference to our numbers".

COVID-19 update coming: PM reveals what's on the cards

He pointed out that in some places overseas, "there is no mask-wearing at all".

'Very, very confusing': Luxon laments 'myopic' COVID settings, wants 'conversation' about ending health worker vax mandates

These live updates are now over.

3:55pm - Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, an epidemiologist and senior research fellow at the University of Otago, has welcomed the Government's changes, but says questions must be asked about the performance of the traffic light system.

"The arrival of new Omicron subvariants and the return of flu were predicted well in advance, and winter shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone," she said.

"The fact that it has taken so long to get to this point indicates that the traffic light system isn’t delivering the flexible and proportionate pandemic response that New Zealand needs to get us through winter 2022 and emerging outbreaks."

She said the system isn't forward-looking, therefore requiring ad hoc changes.

"An upgraded Alert Level system would deliver the integrated and forward-looking response that New Zealand needs now. That means having a system that works in an organised way to suppress transmission of multiple infectious disease threats whether they’re predictable ones like seasonal flu, or unexpected ones like monkeypox.

"Put together with a world-class disease surveillance system and a range of health and social protections for those who experience the highest impacts, a well-designed Alert Level System would ensure that each public health threat is identified and actively managed long before it becomes a crisis."

3:25pm - COVID-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank says there is a clear message Kiwis need to understand as cases jump again.

"Boost, mask, test, ventilate. The message is clear that these are the public health measures that are needed to get us through the current wave. Modelling shows that, because of the combination of the BA.5 variant and the increase in average age of cases, there is the potential for the number of hospitalisations to be higher in this wave than in the first wave. Taking these simple measures will help our healthcare system get through the difficult winter period.

"Deciding whether to wear a mask doesn’t need to be a forever decision. During a wave is the most important time to be taking precautions. So if you’ve got out of the habit, digging your mask out and using it for the next month or so will make a difference.

"Making RATs freely available to everyone is a welcome move. RATs are an excellent tool for people to check whether they are infectious so they don’t unknowingly spread the virus. This also applies to people who’ve had Covid before, because the BA.5 variant is causing an increasing number of reinfections. Doing RATs before large gatherings or before visiting vulnerable relatives is a great way to reduce risk."

3:05pm - Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker says the announcements on Thursday are "very positive" and will help in reducing the impact of the pandemic alongside lowering influenza transmission.

"The main element missing from this announcement was any expansion in requirements for mask use indoors," he said.

"The obvious setting where a mask mandate is needed is in schools. Schools have been left to make their own individual decisions about mask use, which means that many children and their teachers are missing out on this protection. There are many benefits in school students learning to use masks effectively. One is that they can take this message home to their whānau.

"Aotearoa New Zealand needs to shift to become a mask using society, at least until we have got through winter. Effective masks need to be used universally in all indoor environments when people are with others who are not members of their usual households.

"We know this behaviour change would save lives. It needs to be supported using every tool we have available, in a similar way to how we approach road safety measures such as mandating the use of safety belts and laws to reduce drunk driving."

2:50pm - Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson has echoed the messages of COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

"As both Dr Bloomfield and Dr Verrall said today, our health system is under pressure with COVID, other winter ills and some staffing issues. But the dedicated professionals are working hard, and we can all do our bit to help by getting the basics right

Wear a mask
Test and stay home if you are sick
Get vaccinated, including your second booster if you are eligible
Ensure indoor spaces are ventilated

"Its easy to get complacent about COVID but its still with us and each of us needs to play our part to keep our friends and families safe, and take the pressure off our health system."

2:40pm - If you missed the press conference, you can watch the start of the briefing above or the full question and answer session below:

2:35pm - The Green Party says while it welcomes the Government making N95 masks more accessible, it could have gone further.

"We called for free N95 masks back in February when new mask requirements came into force - and we’re pleased the Government has finally taken up most of our call. The Government should have gone further, but this is welcome progress," COVID-19 Response spokesperson Teanau Tuiono.

"We are also pleased to see free RATs for anyone regardless of symptoms, and expanded eligibility for antivirals. But with the risk of new variants and other winter ills, there is more the Government can do to protect people from getting unwell in the first place.

"We want to see the Government urgently put in place a COVID-19 Action Plan for schools with mandatory masking indoors before the new term begins."

The party also wants to see improved ventilation, financial support for community groups to install better monitoring and filtration, and to support Māori and Pacific health providers to boost vaccinations.

"The pandemic isn’t over, and we need to be prepared by putting in place protections for the long-term wellbeing of our communities, especially our disabled, immunocompromised, under-5s and elderly whānau."

2:20pm - Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles from the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Auckland says the changes announced on Thursday are "sensible and important".

"Better access to masks, rapid antigen tests, and antiviral medications will help lower the transmission of COVID-19 if people use them. And that's the big if," she said.

"There is clearly no appetite for mandating masks more widely, and that's no surprise given the protests earlier this year. But the message is really clear - if you are outside of your home, wear a mask. I hope everyone in New Zealand takes this message on board.

"I know plenty of people who would happily wear a mask but feel the weight of peer pressure not to because it isn't a requirement. Worse still are those workplaces that have mask policies that aren't following the science - it doesn't matter if you can stay two metres away from others, in a badly ventilated indoor space, that distance is meaningless."

If it's unclear how well ventilated a space is, Wiles said to mask-up.

"If we all do this, in our workplaces especially, it will make a difference," she said.

"We need to recapture the spirit we had early in the pandemic - our actions matter. Wearing a mask, taking a test, isolating when positive, opening a window - all these things will protect our lives and our livelihoods and is the least we can do to support our healthcare workers who are trying to care for sick people under the most difficult of circumstances."

2pm - Here's the key data from Thursday's Ministry of Health release:

COVID-19 hospitalisations

COVID-19 Cases in hospital: total number 765: Northland: 17; Waitematā: 133; Counties Manukau: 54; Auckland: 105; Waikato: 55; Bay of Plenty: 47; Lakes: 17; Hawke’s Bay: 27; MidCentral: 33; Whanganui: 18; Taranaki: 15; Tairawhiti: 4; Wairarapa: 12; Capital & Coast: 32; Hutt Valley: 27; Nelson Marlborough: 12; Canterbury: 94; West Coast: 3; South Canterbury: 15; Southern: 45.
Weekly COVID-19 Hospitalisations - 7 day rolling average: 673 (This time last week 474)
Average age of current COVID-19 hospitalisations: 63
Cases in ICU or HDU: 11
Vaccination status of new admissions to hospital*: Unvaccinated or not eligible (51 cases); partially vaccinated <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (5 cases); double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (80 cases); received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case (384 cases).

*These are new hospital admissions in the past 7 days prior to yesterday who had COVID at the time of admission or while in hospital, excluding hospitalisations that were admitted and discharged within 24hrs. This data is from Districts with tertiary hospitals: Auckland, Canterbury, Southern, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Capital & Coast, Waitemata and Northland.

COVID-19 vaccinations administered

Vaccinations administered in New Zealand

Vaccines administered to date: 4,028,844 first doses; 3,981,467 second doses; 33,572 third primary doses; 2,691,660 first booster doses: 136,292 second booster doses: 264,907 paediatric first doses and 138,735 paediatric second doses
Vaccines administered yesterday: 30 first doses; 41 second doses; 76 third primary doses; 1,026 first booster doses; 15,573 second booster doses; 78 paediatric first doses and 486 paediatric second doses
More detailed information, including vaccine uptake by District, is available on the Ministry website.

Tests

Number of PCR tests total (last 24 hours): 4,054
Number of Rapid Antigen Tests reported total (last 24 hours): 18,425
PCR tests rolling average (last 7 days): 3,365
Number of Rapid Antigen Tests dispatched (last seven days as of 12 July 2022): 2.3 million

COVID-19 cases

Total number of new community cases: 11,382
Covid re-infection in community cases 412, of which 144 were cases between 29 and 90 days of a previous infection
Number of new cases that have recently travelled overseas: 334
Seven day rolling average of community cases: 9,826
Seven day rolling average of community cases (as at same day last week): 8,013
Number of active cases (total): 68,737 (cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered)
Confirmed cases (total): 1,464,237
Location of new community cases by district over past 24 hours

There were also 23 new deaths reported, taking the total to 1760 and the seven-day rolling average to 20.

1:50pm - The Greens are talking up the Government's announcement as a win.

"BREAKING, after pressure from NZ Greens the Govt has finally announced medical masks will be free for all, and N95 masks will be free for those most at risk in our communities," the party posted on social media.

1:40pm - While New Zealand deals with an outbreak of the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of COVID-19, a new strain has also arrived on our shores.

The strain dubbed 'Centaurus' was detected in a traveller from India and officially reported by the Ministry of Health last Tuesday. The strain, which is another Omicron subvariant, is formally known as BA.2.75 and has a large number of mutations.

Centaurus was first reported in India in May and has since spread to multiple other countries including the UK, Australia and, as of last week, New Zealand.

Read more here.

1:30pm - Dr Verrall confirms there has been no consideration of a short, circuit-breaker lockdown. She suggests a variant this transmissible can't be eliminated, even with a lockdown, as essential workers would still need to move around.

That brings an end to the press conference.

1:25pm - ACT's David Seymour has reacted to the Government's COVID-19 announcement.

"The Government’s decision not to use the red setting of the traffic light system confirms what ACT has been saying for months about the traffic light system, it is redundant and should be dumped," says Seymour.

"The traffic light system started out as a matrix of masking, tracing, vaccination requirements and crowd size limits. Now it amounts to two restrictions, masks in orange and crowd size limits in red, there is no need for a traffic light system to reflect two conditions."

He is calling on the Government to dump the system as well as the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act which underpins restrictions.

"We still face a serious problem with hospital demand, but ineffective rules do not help," Seymour says.

"The real Government failing is that, two-and-a-half years into the pandemic, hospital capacity is the same or lower than when we started. Labour borrowed a net $76 billion over the last two financial years, but failed to improve hospital capacity. Too little, too late."

1:20pm - The Director-General says the country has a good stock of RATs, but people should not be hoarding them. He trusts people to be sensible on when to get free RATs.

Dr Verrall doesn't believe the current variant can be eliminated.

1:15pm - Dr Bloomfield says the ministry's recommendation for mask-use is the one the Government is currently promoting. He reiterates that masks remain required in some locations, like in retail. But it's a good rule of thumb to wear masks in all indoor environments outside of the home, he says.

Mask-wearing should be like wearing a seat belt for the time being, Dr Bloomfield says. He acknowledges that some people can't wear masks and the general public should be generous to those who cannot. Exemptions are available for those people.

Case rates are going up all around the country, Dr Bloomfield says, not just in Auckland like in some previous outbreaks.

Modelling shows the peak in cases will be sometime in the second half of July and the peak in hospitalisations a week later.

The ministry recommended staying in 'orange', but officials are looking at whether any changes are needed to the 'red' settings for potential future variants or outbreaks.

1:10pm - The Ministry of Health has released the full data of Thursday's cases, hospitalisations and deaths.

The ministry says the 23 new deaths take the country's total to 1760 and the seven-day rolling average to 20.

"Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today: four were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, one was from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from Taranaki, one was from Hawkes Bay, two were from MidCentral, one was from the Wellington region, two were from Nelson / Marlborough, seven were from Canterbury, one was from South Canterbury and one was from Southern," the ministry says.

"One was less than 10 years old, five were in their 70s, nine were in their 80s and eight were aged over 90. Of these people, 11 were women and 12 were men.

"This is a very sad time for whānau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment on today’s reported deaths.

1:05pm - Asked why masks won't be mandated at more indoor locations, Dr Verrall just emphasises that mask-use will improve the situation in the health system.

The reason why New Zealand is not moving to 'red' is because transmission is primarily happening in homes and workplaces, not at large events where gathering limits would make a difference, Dr Verrall says.

1pm - Here's the full announcement:

The Government is rolling out additional measures to help tackle the second Omicron wave and record levels of flu to ease pressure on the health system and health workers.

"There's no question the combination of a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations, the worst flu season in recent memory and corresponding staff absences are putting health workers and the whole health system under extreme pressure," Minister for COVID-19 Response Dr Ayesha Verrall said.

"Our modelling suggests we're at the beginning of a second Omicron wave that could be bigger than the first, with the more transmissible BA.5 variant becoming the dominant strain in the community.

"There has been a significant increase in cases over the past two weeks, and worryingly the biggest jump is in cases amongst New Zealanders aged 65 and over. That in turn has led to an increase in hospital occupancy.

"We are continuing to ask New Zealanders to do three things - get vaccinated, wear a mask in many or most indoor settings and isolate when sick to suppress the spread of the virus over the remaining winter months. If we all play our part we can take some pressure off the health system.

"To support this we are implementing a range of measures to help Kiwis stay well. These extra measures will help get us and the health system through the winter months. Please do your bit.

Medicines

"We are increasing access to antiviral medication to those most likely to end up in hospital, making free masks and RATs more widely available and doing another push to lift uptake of flu and COVID-19 vaccines including the second booster.

"Antiviral medications can reduce the seriousness of COVID-19 meaning fewer people need to be hospitalised, so we are making these more widely available as pharmacy-only medications.

"Pharmac are also broadening the eligibility criteria to enable more people from higher risk groups to access antiviral medications. Pharmac will be making further announcements about this today.

"These eligible groups will be able to access antivirals without the need for a doctor's prescription. This means access will expand from 2 per cent to 10 per cent of cases.

"From Monday 18 July anyone over 75 years of age who has tested positive for COVID-19 or anyone who has been admitted previously to an Intensive Care Unit directly as a result of COVID-19, will be eligible to access antivirals through their GP.

"This will help alleviate pressure on primary care by removing the need for GPs to review every COVID-19 patient that may be eligible for antivirals.

"To speed up access to antivirals, GPs can now provide back pocket prescriptions which means at-risk patients for acute respiratory illnesses can be preapproved and have their prescription ready should they become unwell and need the medicine immediately.

RATs and masks

"To increase uptake in use in RATs and masks packs of medical will be provided free along with free RAT kits for individuals and households from testing centres and in more locations by the end of the week. You do not need to have COVID-19 symptoms. And P2/N95 masks will be available for clinically vulnerable and high risk individuals.

"Free RATs will be available from all current community providers, including marae, testing stations and local pharmacies.

"We are encouraging everyone who needs extra RATs or masks to head to a testing site or other location and collect a free pack for you and your whānau. There is no criteria, you don't need to be unwell or have symptoms.

"Wearing masks can reduce new cases of the virus by as much as 53 per cent. We are asking New Zealanders to keep up good mask wearing, especially over the remaining winter months where the virus is more likely to pass in indoor settings.

"The tried and tested measures: wearing a high quality mask, strong vaccine and booster uptake, antivirals and testing are highly effective and will put us in the best position to get through what is one of the toughest winters we've faced.

"We are also providing 10 million child-size masks available for year 4-7 students in New Zealand and up to 30,000 masks a week for all other students and school staff, alongside extra funding to support better ventilation over winter.

"These are the most effective measures we have. They are simple but if we all do them we can lessen illness and the burden on our health system and dedicated health workers, and get through this darkest part of winter," Dr Verrall said.

12:55pm - Dr Verrall addresses criticism - such as from National's Christopher Luxon - that the traffic light system is too complicated. She says people making those claims under-estimate New Zealanders. Kiwis should get vaccinated, wear a mask, stay home if they are sick and open windows, she says.

12:50pm - Dr Verrall says we must use the most effective measures we have. Ministers have weighed up moving to 'red'. But there would only be an incremental difference, she says.

Most of the transmission is happening in homes and workplaces. Wearing masks, getting boosted, getting tested and isolating are the most effective measures, she says.

The Government's response must be fast and flexible, but also proportionate. Restrictions must be balanced with practicality. These measures also help with reducing the likelihood of catching the flu.

The country will remain at orange, Dr Verrall says. Wearing a mask halves your chance of catching COVID-19.

The Government will soon be providing free medical masks with RAT kits at all existing collection sites. P2 or N95 masks will be given to clinically vulnerable or high-risk individuals. It will also remove the eligibility criteria for free RATs, but people should continue to use the website to request RATs before heading to a collection site.

Businesses will also be engaged to ensure they are aware of the guidelines for safe workplaces, such as employees not working when their unwell and for businesses to have good ventilation.

A new campaign will be launched to encourage more people to get their booster shots and flu vaccinations. Health officials will call and text those eligible.

Dr Verrall also mentions the Pharmac announcement below.

12:45pm - We've just received this update from Pharmac:

Te Pātaka Whaioranga - Pharmac has confirmed today that it is further widening access to the three antiviral treatments it funds for treating early COVID-19 to more than 400,000 more New Zealanders if they get the virus.

Pharmac funds nirmatrelvir with ritonavir (branded as Paxlovid), molnupiravir (branded as Lagevrio) and remdesivir, an infusion treatment (branded as Veklury) – all antivirals used in the community and Te Whatu Ora Hospitals to treat people with early COVID-19 at risk of severe illness.

"We want to ensure that more New Zealanders could benefit from these treatments by accessing them,” says Pharmac’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr David Hughes. “These antivirals reduce the risk of severe illness, which helps takes pressure off our health system."

"Effective from Monday 18 July 2022, the access criteria for the antiviral treatments for COVID-19 will be widened to include a larger priority population of people at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection,” says Dr Hughes.

"This includes all people aged 75 years and over and those who have been admitted previously to an Intensive Care Unit directly as a result of COVID-19. The number of factors Māori and Pacific Peoples are required to have to access these antiviral treatments will reduce, with greater emphasis placed on factors that are most predictive of poor outcomes from COVID-19 infection including age and vaccination status."

12:40pm - Margie Apa, the Health NZ chief executive, says frontline healthcare workers are doing important work during significant challenges. Many staff are doing extra shifts and working across different teams, she says.

Increased demand means it can be harder to get appointments and longer wait times, Apa says. Health NZ is looking to roll out new schemes to manage the capacity. She understands how distressing it can be if procedures are deferred. This can be impacted by the number of staff who ring in sick each day. Some hospitals this week have reported more than 200 people ringing in sick.

12:35pm - Modelling shows hospitalisations could hit 1200 beds occupied, if nothing changes in terms of mask-use, Dr Bloomfield says. This is driven by the large number of cases among the elderly. Cases would be expected to hit around 21,000 a day under this scenario.

However, if changes are made in terms of limiting exposure to the virus, the peak in hospitalisations could fall to around 950. Cases would peak at under 18,000 in this scenario.

Dr Bloomfield says it is important to correctly wear a mask. Anyone not wearing a mask because it is a hassle should think of health and disability workers wearing them throughout their work.

"If they can do it, you can do it," he says.

Testing remains crucial. There remains a requirement to isolate. There is a wide group of people who are eligible for the fourth dose of the vaccine, he says.

If everyone does their bit, we will get through winter, Dr Bloomfield says. He pleads for all Kiwis to do their bit.

12:30pm - There is no doubt this winter is one of the toughest the health sector has ever faced, Dr Verrall says. She notes that COVID and flu cases are increasing. The measures she will outline will help us through "this darkest part of winter".

Dr Bloomfield tells reporters that globally, the number of weekly cases has increased over the last month after a decline since March. This is happening despite testing numbers dropping. This is being driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. New Zealand is watching the response in Australia.

There are 11,382 new community cases, including 412 reinfections. There are 765 people in hospital and 23 new deaths. The seven-day rolling average is 9826 cases. In the week ending July 10, there was a 32 percent increase in case rates compared to the week prior.

Amomg people 65+, cases have jumped 33 percent. This is "quite significant", says Dr Bloomfield. This age group wasn't so impacted during the first Omicron wave, he says.

Only about half of cases are being reported, Dr Bloomfield says.

The BA.5 subvariant will be the dominant strain soon. There is no evidence this causes more severe illness, he says. Three doses of the Pfizer vaccine remains effective, but the strain is better at evading immunity.

12:25pm - We are now waiting on the press conference to begin. The livestream should begin shortly.

12:15pm - The Government is holding a COVID-19 briefing at 12:30pm at the Ministry of Health.

It will feature COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, and Te Whatu Ora chief executive Margie Apa.

Newshub will livestream that above when it begins.

12pm - There will be no change to the traffic light settings on Thursday. They were last formally reviewed at the end of June, when the Government decided to keep New Zealand at 'orange'.

At the time, COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said cases and hospitalisations remained lower than the peaks seen earlier this year.

"Moving back to Red is unnecessary at the moment. We can continue to manage the virus at Orange, but are putting in place a range of additional measures to help manage a recent rise in cases," Dr Verrall said on June 30.

"Yesterday the seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases was 5,808 and there were 395 people in hospital and 8 in ICU. For comparison when we moved out of red in April the rolling average of cases was nearly 10,000 a day and there were over 500 people in hospital including 28 in ICU.

"However cases are ticking up and our health system is under pressure so we are putting in place a range of additional measures to help manage the virus over the coming winter months."

They have ticked up significantly since that point. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health said the seven-day rolling average was 9710 cases. There were 729 people in hospital.

The Government announced at that point more masks for children in schools, funding for better ventilation in schools and early childhood services, and an extension to free flu vaccines.

11:45am - While New Zealand is dealing with its latest COVID-19 outbreak, cases are on the rise overseas as well, particularly in Europe.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Wednesday warned of the growing number of COVID-19 cases caused by the highly infectious BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants of the coronavirus even as overall cases dipped in the Americas.

Read the latest wrap of international developments here.

11:25am - National Party leader Christopher Luxon has spent recent days lambasting the country's traffic light system as "way too complex and complicated". He's instead advocated for a "clear set of rules" around where to wear masks. The 'orange' light setting lays out what indoor environments masks are and aren't required.

He says Kiwis have been through "a number of different systems" since the pandemic began and now presents an opportunity to be "really clear on a few basic things". Those are supporting people to get their fourth vaccination shot if they're eligible, promoting "sensible masking rules" and ensuring people follow isolation rules.

But Luxon also believes the fourth dose (or second booster) should be open to anyone who wants it and for the Government to introduce a test-to-work scheme allowing household contacts to return to work if they are testing negative for the virus and are asymptomatic regardless of their occupation.

Currently, the fourth vaccination dose is available for anyone aged over 50. The Ministry of Health says it's "not yet needed by younger people who are generally healthy and do not have underlying health conditions".

There is also already a household contact test-to-work scheme in New Zealand. However, it is only currently available for workers at critical services.

National leader Christopher Luxon. Photo credit: Newshub.

11:10am - Health experts and schools are eagerly awaiting the announcement by Dr Verrall.

University of Otago immunologist Dianne Sika-Paotonu told RNZ that while Kiwis may want the COVID-19 pandemic to be a thing of the past, it's not over.

"We've got approximately 100 deaths associated with the pandemic still being reported each week, and unfortunately this is likely to continue," she said.

"Higher transmissibility [in the new variants] means more cases of COVID-19, which leads to more people who are unwell - more people ending up in hospital ICUs and sadly dying."

Meanwhile, Principals' Federation president Cherie Taylor-Patel said better access to masks and RATs "would be a good start".