THAMES COVID-19 CASE REMAINS A MYSTERY – MORE INFORMATION REQUESTED
Written by John Grant on November 19, 2021
We received confirmation yesterday at around 3pm from the Waikato DHB that there was a positive Covid-19 case in the Thames area. In response Te Korowai opened a testing centre at Rhodes Park and a steady stream of locals have been tested.
The case though remains a mystery with no further information provided by the Ministry of health and the only information today from Waikato DHB is the below table indicating that of 154 active Covid cases in the Waikato, 1 is from Thames. No other information such as source of the transmission, locations of interest and if the person had been infectious in the community had been released. Talking to Waikatio DHB’s media team produced no information and a formal request has now been sent to the Ministry of Health for more details on the Thames case.
We acknowledge the need for privacy to protect the individual involved and we have not asked for any information that could identify the person involved. However there has been several comments on social media from people who live or work in the Thames area anxious for more detail in case they have been exposed to the virus.
The Ministry of Health has remain tight lipped and in a response to our questions a Ministry of Health spokesperson issued the following statement;
Unless there a compelling public health reasons to do so, wherever possible, the Ministry of Health does not provide specific information about a person’s testing history, travel history, symptoms history, groups or organisations they might be affiliated with and the location of their residence.
Throughout the pandemic, the Ministry has been careful to balance the need to share information to support the public health response with the need to protect personal privacy. In this instance, Public Health officials do not deem the information requested necessary for supporting the COVID-19 response in Christchurch.
We continue to urge everyone in New Zealand to remain vigilant. Anyone with any symptoms that could be COVID-19 are asked to get a test.
Any locations of interest are added to the Ministry of Health’s webpage, which is updated on a two-hour basis.
The public health priority is to ensure potential contacts are notified of exposure so they can isolate.
On many occasions public health staff identify exposure sites rather than locations of interest. Exposure sites are locations where attendees are well known or have registered their attendance such as a general practice or other locations that require check ins.
We only publish locations of interest where we cannot identify contacts.
Therefore we can confirm that no information has been released and no locations of interest have been listed.
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Fiona Ayers On November 19, 2021 at 6:49 pm
There was a post on grapevine today by a restaurant where staff have been required to have a test and to self isolate until the results ate available.