New case ‘wake-up call’ for the south

There are calls for tougher measures to limit the transmission of Covid between the North and South Islands after the top of the south recorded its first community case in nearly a year.

It is being described as a wake-up call for the South Island after it was revealed the case was likely linked to the Te Awamutu cluster.

The Ministry of Health said the individual flew from Rotorua and arrived in Blenheim on October 21. He sought a test upon arrival after developing a sore throat.

There was no good news for Auckland or Waikato either, yesterday, as 91 cases were reported in Auckland and eight in Waikato. There were also four in Northland, including two children under 12, and the single NelsonMarlborough case.

Professor of public health Michael Baker said officials should start thinking about how to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to the South Island, which until yesterday had not had a case all year. A single isolated case flying to Blenheim should be quite manageable, Baker said, with ‘‘rapid’’ contact-tracing.

The Blenheim case illustrated the challenge of trying to contain the outbreak where there was ongoing transmission, Baker said.

‘‘It does mean the system will have to remain very vigorous if it’s to avoid this virus transmitting throughout New Zealand, which it could do quite quickly . . . We need a very vigorous effort to stamp out the remaining chain of transmission in Waikato. If transmission becomes well established in Waikato, it’s obviously much harder to maintain a boundary around there.’’

The case also raised questions about whether there was going to be a strong containment policy to prevent the virus becoming established in the South Island.

‘‘Fairly obviously it would be good to think about a very proactive policy to limit transmission now from the North Island to the South Island.’’

University of Auckland microbiologist associate professor Dr Siouxsie Wiles said the case showed why the South Island had not been put at alert level 1, and it was a wake-up call for the south.

Marlborough economist Alistair Schorn said the postive case came at an unfortunate time for businesses, many of which were expecting additional visitors due to the Labour Day and Marlborough Anniversary (November 1) long weekends.

‘‘People are going to be that much less inclined to have face-to-face contact with others until they know how and when this is going to shake out . . . This ‘basic hesitance’ will have some effect on normal economic activities, but how big or small is yet to be determined.’’

The surge in cases in the past week is putting pressure on Auckland’s hospitals, with 55 people now hospitalised with Covid, including eight at North Shore Hospital, 19 at Middlemore, 27 at Auckland Hospital and one at Waikato. Five are in ICU.

Last week the Nurses Organisation warned the country was ‘‘dangerously unprepared’’ for a potential tsunami of community Covid cases. It said there were about 3500 nursing vacancies nationally in the health sector, and training for nurses to pick up ICU duties had been ‘‘woefully inadequate’’.