COMMUNICATION FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH Kia ora koutou, Thank you for your commitment and ongoing support towards containing Delta - the numbers suggest that we have this under control for now. You are key contributors to containing COVID-19 outbreaks and we appreciate your efforts to date. The government’s plan for Omicron Unfortunately we are now faced with another COVID-19 variant threat called Omicron. Omicron is known to be a more infectious strand and it has a more transmissible rate 2-4 times of Delta. This poses significant risks for our most vulnerable people particularly in Māori and Pacific communities (based on previous outbreak experiences) hence why we need to take a strong proactive approach to Omicron community transmission. The Ministry’s current Omicron Strategy Plan is to keep it at the border, detect and rapidly respond to any Omicron cases in the community; strengthen protection through vaccination with, a focus on vulnerable populations, whilst continually reviewing and strengthening public health measures and the health systems capability and capacity. Once Omicron is seeded in the community the strategy will become one of protecting the most vulnerable to severe disease and/or death, ensuring equity, and limiting the impact on society through the protection of critical infrastructure and workforces. You can read more on this here - the government’s plan to minimise the risk from Omicron. Supply of supervised Rapid Antigen Test to providers In response to the increased risk of transmission from the Omicron variant, we would like to prepare providers by frontloading supervised Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT’s) to help support the Ministry’s efforts to protect our priority populations including Māori and Pacific communities, disabled peoples, and people affected by MH&A. At this stage our focus is to ensure that we have the RATs with each of you ready to go if needed. Guidance and training links on how to do supervised RATs will be released shortly. RATs are generally taken with a front of nose swab and is different from a PCR nasopharyngeal swabs, a combination oral and nasal swab or saliva. RAT’s are less sensitive at detecting cases, especially in asymptomatic people or people who are early in their infectious period. However the advantage of RATs is that they give a result quickly (often in less than 15 minutes), which assists with rapid risk assessment and reduces the amount of time a positive individual is active in the community. RATs can be conducted in a laboratory, a health setting, or in the community e.g., at home. Ordering RATs through the PPE Portal We have added the ability to order RATs onto the Ministry’s PPE portal. The Ministry will be reviewing the orders as they come through, discussing with you if needed, and then confirming for dispatch. Please place an initial order that would support initial testing requirements for the estimated population that you support, rounded to the nearest carton quantity (there are 9 packs of 25 in a carton, 225 tests per carton). Once you receive your RATs delivery, please put these aside in a safe place. We will advise when they are to be used and provide guidance around this. If you already have an existing account on the PPE portal with either Healthcare Logistics (HCL) or Onelink (OL) • You are now able to order RATs via your existing login on the portal.
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