2 June COVID-19 health key messages FINAL

Latest COVID-19 health key messages Approved messages for use in your communications Consistent messaging helps us to coordinate our efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This document provides approved key messages from the Ministry. You may share this messaging with your internal and external audiences. New sections and changes to messages are in red.

2 June 2021 FINAL

Advice on COVID-19 in Australia NSW exposure sites NSW Health has issued a public health alert after an individual who had visited a number of locations in southern NSW later returned a positive COVID-19 test on return to Melbourne.

Anyone who was at a location of interest and is now in New Zealand should call Healthline, get a test for COVID-19, and isolate until you receive a negative result.

Victoria travel pause A pause on quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and the state of Victoria from 25 May is in place until 7.59pm Friday 4 June.

Ministry of Health officials will conduct a risk assessment on the situation in Victoria before briefing Ministers ahead of a decision on the pause on Quarantine Free Travel.

The Ministry has contacted nearly all the 4539 people who flew from Melbourne to New Zealand between 20-25 May to instruct them to self-isolate and get tested.

Travellers are advised to keep checking Victoria Health’s latest information on locations of interest in Melbourne as the number of exposure sites continues to expand.

See advice here Quarantine-free travel: Contact tracing locations of interest. Testing for anyone who has been in Melbourne is free. For testing locations nationwide visit the Healthpoint website.

Read more on the Unite Against COVID-19 website.

Contact tracing The Melbourne cluster reinforces the critical importance of everyone in New Zealand keeping a record of where they have been by scanning QR codes or keeping a manual diary of their movements. It can help contact tracers quickly find potential close and casual contacts if there is a positive COVID-19 case in New Zealand.

Download the latest version of the NZ COVID Tracer app, the seventh major release since its launch in May 2020. There are now 2.8 million registered app users and 1.3 million devices have Bluetooth activated.

Testing for COVID-19 As we head into winter it’s important that anyone with cold or flu symptoms should stay at home and get a COVID-19 test. You should continue to stay at home until you have received a negative test result.

Testing continues to be a core part of our elimination strategy for COVID-19 and is in addition to the current public health measures being practiced at the border such as physical distancing, basic hygiene measures, and appropriate PPE use. The vaccination roll-out is another key measure New Zealand is using to reduce the spread of infection.

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Testing after vaccination Even if you have been vaccinated, you should get still tested for COVID-19 if you develop symptoms or if you are subject to regular testing.

This vaccine is highly effective if people have both doses. That means, if you do catch COVID-19, you are far less likely to fall seriously ill or transmit the virus to others. Studies have shown that 95% of people who received both doses of the vaccine were protected against getting seriously ill.

While the data is clear that vaccines protect people from the effects of COVID-19, research is ongoing to determine whether a vaccinated person could still transmit the virus to someone else – so in the interests of safety we must assume there is still a risk of transmission

New testing guidance for the health sector We regularly review of our Testing Guidance for the Health Sector to ensure we’re achieving our goal of keeping the disease out of our communities. New guidelines were released on 26 May 2021.

The primary focus of the Testing Plan is to ‘keep it out’ by testing at the border, particularly testing arrivals into New Zealand, international air and maritime crew, and border facing workers, including MIQ workers. The secondary focus of the Testing Plan is to ‘stamp it out’ by testing in the community to quickly test and identify any cases of COVID-19, should it be present.

We ask everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand to remain vigilant as we continue to discover new cases of more transmissible variants of COVID-19 at the border.

Saliva testing expansion for frontline border workers The Government has announced that saliva testing, which has been available on a voluntary basis for workers in quarantine and dual purpose facilities, is being expanded to include other frontline border workers working in high risk environments.

Clinical and scientific advice is that frequent saliva testing complemented by nasopharyngeal testing is considered to be a robust surveillance measure. Some people who have frequent testing, such as frontline border workers, find having a swab inserted via the nasal passage hard to tolerate. Saliva testing would make testing more comfortable for them.

Asia Pacific Healthcare Group (APHG) has been contracted to deliver nation-wide saliva testing services for the border workforce. APHG has been heavily involved in New Zealand’s response to COVID-19, processing a third of all nasopharyngeal swab tests carried out in New Zealand to date. Its brands include Northland Pathology, Labtests Auckland, Taranaki Pathology Services, Southern Community Laboratories, Canterbury SCL, Wellington SCL and Medlab South. APHG will be working with Pathlab BOP to provide coverage in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes districts.

A phased roll-out of saliva testing, prioritised on the basis of risk, will begin in June. Workers will have the option to have a nasopharyngeal test once every 14 days, instead of weekly as it is currently, with saliva tests every 2 to 3 days in between nasopharyngeal tests. Combined oropharyngeal/anterior nasal swabs will continue to be offered as an alternative swab type when nasopharyngeal swabs cannot be tolerated.

The Ministry is working with other agencies to work through the operational design detail, including compliance recording and monitoring. Following the initial roll-out to workers currently on a 7 day nasopharyngeal swab testing regime, an assessment will be carried out to determine if and how saliva testing can be rolled out to other workers who currently undergo mandatory nasopharyngeal testing on a 14 day cycle.

National Supply Chain – critical medical supplies Following a new Medsafe recall on 25 May 2021 related to batch specific Baxter intravenous consumables and other Baxter products, District Health Boards have been asked to limit orders of the impacted product and supply stock numbers to the Ministry of Health. This recall relates to Baxter intravenous consumables, some of which may 2

have been supplied to DHBs or independently sourced in response to the Becton Dickinson Intravenous pump, dedicated and non-dedicated set recall of 12 March 2021.

Although the consumables are likely to be sterile, there is a risk that products may be improperly sterilised and there is a very small risk of infection from treatment with these devices. It is important to note that no infection issues have been identified relating to these products in New Zealand or globally.

In conjunction with our Clinical Advisory and National Clinical Engineering groups, we have developed a model to allocate alternative pumps and/or consumables to DHBs if require. As the supply of recalled and replacement consumables is uneven across the country, we have put in place a nationally centralised management approach.

Intravenous consumable supplies required to maintain the infusion sets are in short supply both domestically and internationally. This has led to demand for more non-dedicated options in a wider range of health settings and as we have explored opportunities to acquire non-dedicated options it is very clear these are also in critically short supply. We have also brought these under the management of the Ministry’s Covid-19 Supply Chain.

It is essential that any DHB lets the Ministry of Health know if they identify back orders with suppliers across any critical items needed to maintain services. Please send information to COVID.healthsupplychain@health.govt.nz

COVID-19 Vaccine Everyone in New Zealand, no matter citizenship or visa status, will be offered the vaccine. There will be enough vaccine for the entire population to be vaccinated and no one will miss out. The vaccine is free.

Health and safety of COVID-19 vaccine Medsafe only grants consent for a vaccine to be used in New Zealand once it is satisfied it’s safe and effective enough to use.

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It is recommended that the following gaps between vaccines be observed: • At least a two-week gap between the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and influenza vaccine • A four-week gap between the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and the Measles Mumps Rubella vaccine, when MMR is given first. The gap can be reduced to two weeks when giving MMR after the second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Having a gap between the different types of vaccinations makes it easier to judge which vaccine may be responsible for any side effects. Note that there are no clinical safety concerns should the gap between vaccines be less than the recommendations above. Do not delay vaccination if such a gap is not possible.

Clarifying underlying health conditions for accessing the COVID-19 vaccine The Ministry has provided clarity on underlying health conditions. This means more people in Group 2 in the Counties Manukau DHB area, and more people in Group 3 can now get earlier access to the vaccine.

People who meet one or more of the following criteria can now receive their COVID-19 vaccine as part of Group 2 (if in the Counties Manukau DHB area) and Group 3: • •

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they have a health condition that means they are eligible for a publicly-funded influenza vaccine including pregnant people they have been diagnosed with severe mental illness (which includes schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder, and adults currently accessing secondary and tertiary mental health and addiction services) they have poorly controlled or severe hypertension/high blood pressure (generally defined as requiring two or more medications for control or, not currently under adequate control) they are severely obese (defined as a BMI ≥40).

Details about the expanded underlying health conditions can be found here.

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Rollout numbers As of 1 June, 668,115 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered: •

432,509 people have received their first dose of the vaccine.

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This is an increase of more than 61,466 from the week prior.

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235,606 have received the second dose and are now fully vaccinated.

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In the past seven days to Tuesday 1 June 2021 we administered 104,029 vaccination doses to people. This is 18% higher than the 88,033 vaccinations administered in the previous seven days. Overall, DHBs are tracking 9% ahead of plan.

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Vaccinations have been administered across 356 different sites, utilising over 2,500 vaccinators so far. More than 6,600 have now completed the vaccinator training that is required for them to administer vaccines.

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Over the last seven days there have been over 220 vaccination clinics operating. This number will fluctuate as smaller clinics close and facilities that can accommodate larger groups of people open.

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Across the country 42,897 Māori have received the first vaccination, of which 21,493 have also received the second vaccination. 28,965 Pacific peoples have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Of those, 14,387 Pacific peoples have received their second dose.

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Of the estimated 50,000 family and household contacts of the border and MIQ staff in our main centres, 25,965 have received the first dose and 21,029 are fully vaccinated.

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Vaccinating group 2 individuals is continuing with 291,767 first doses given and 180,507 individuals fully vaccinated.

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181,819 people aged 60 and over have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, of which 67,499 have also received their second dose.

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Vaccinating Group 3 has commenced and to date 72,910 first doses have been given and 11,254 individuals are fully vaccinated.

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We’re also adding to our stocks of the Pfizer vaccination. We have received around 971,100 doses into the country – enough to vaccinate more than 485,500people with the two doses required for maximum protection.

Rollout sequencing: There are four main COVID-19 vaccination groups. Timings will overlap, start dates are indicative only and will depend on vaccine delivery schedules, and our transmission scenarios. Find out when you can get a vaccine here.

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