Medical expert urges people to prepare for Covid-19 at home
A medical expert advises people to plan for Covid-19 at home, as the virus is likely to spread quickly once the Auckland border opens.
Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners medical director Bryan Betty said people should make sure their pantries are stocked with basic items including hygiene products, pain relievers, ice packs for sore throats and toilet paper to last the 14 days of self-isolation.
He also advised people to make sure they had enough medication on hand for any conditions they had, including high blood pressure, cholesterol, and depression.
It was also important to organize a family member or friend who could go to the supermarket on their behalf.
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“It’s about thinking about the future, much like you would for disaster preparedness. “
Betty said the virus would spread rapidly across New Zealand once the Auckland border opened and became endemic.
Her comments come after South Auckland doctor Matire Harwood told RNZ that positive cases among the 4,000 patients at the Papakura Marae health clinic where she works now occur daily instead of weekly.
She currently had 20 households with positive cases for Covid-19 and feared public health officials would contact patients who self-isolate for up to three days after their test results.
The situation had forced Harwood to see his patients in person and take pulse oximeter tests to establish their oxygen levels.
It is important to record oxygen levels because Covid-19 patients can have levels almost half of what is considered healthy but still feel good. By the time their condition worsens, the situation has already become serious.
Harwood said the Department of Health previously said it would make sure people have oximeters.
“But that was not our experience. People wait two or three days to hear from someone… I’m really worried that people are waiting too long, â€she told RNZ.
Betty said the college was told there was “quite a bit of pressure” in Auckland due to the speed of transmission.
Royal College of General Practitioners of New Zealand / provided
Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Medical Director Dr Bryan Betty urges New Zealanders to prepare their homes in case they need to self-isolate.
“There have been patients who have been diagnosed with Covid-19, but they haven’t had rapid follow-up from public health or mobile health units and GPs are caught in the middle. “
The college had asked the Ministry of Health to deal with the problem. Betty believed it was important to have clear communication about who did what when patients were self-isolating.
“There must be clear clinical supervision from a central organization or a general practitioner.”
Betty said it was important for GPs to have good access to the ministry’s stock of oximeters because not all brands in the market were reliable.
He believed the issues would be resolved and all positive patients would be given an oximeter to self-test during isolation.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Dr Matire Harwood is a doctor at the Papakura Marae clinic and says patients wait up to three days to hear from public health officials after testing positive for Covid-19.
The Harwood clinic was also delivering hygiene and kai kits to positive households in South Auckland as many families struggled with poverty. Some parents had been unemployed for weeks while others were unemployed.
Parents feared looking after their children while facing discomfort, she said.
“There are more and more children impacted by Covid-19. “
Betty said a comprehensive support service was needed for those who did not have enough food and were isolated from the community.
“There are issues around that, as we saw in Auckland.”
Provided
Beef and Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor urges farmers to put plans in place in case they need to visit MIQ.
Beef and Lamb NZ had also joined the call to prepare for Covid-19, urging farmers to prepare in case they are sent to a quarantine facility. The situation was even more urgent after a positive case was confirmed on Friday at a Waikato farm.
General manager Sam McIvor said farmers should check with their meat processors if they can still offload inventory if they have a positive case on the farm.
He urged them to get vaccinated and put a plan in place now.
The Department of Health has been approached for comment.