New Zealand health workers are clashing over a petition started by a Wellington urgent care physician which calls for a mandatory nationwide lockdown.
Over 3000 people have signed a petition to Jacinda Ardern started by Dr Kelvin Ward, who says New Zealand needs to go to level 4 alert now to prevent the overrun of our health system and "countless unnecessary deaths".
However New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) calls the number of medical professionals who have signed "absolutely disappointing" - and warns the petition's "very likely" to cause panic.
Dr Ward says we need to "stamp out the virus" - or "allow the horrors like those seen in Italy and the US to happen here".
"All it takes is for one contact to potentially spread the virus widely in a few weeks. Many patients only show minor symptoms but they can transmit this disease to the more vulnerable causing unnecessary harm and death," he told Newshub.
"The question is, do we take strong measures now for about a month and contain the virus or do we do it indefinitely after it's largely too late."
His petition calls for four actions to be urgently implemented:
- Quarantine (not self-isolation) of COVID-19 positive patients
- Extensive testing and contact tracing
- Self-isolation of all asymptomatic contacts
- Mandatory social lockdown
"These actions will be painful for New Zealand, but nothing compared to what we would endure if we don't act now to make our collective voice heard," he says on the petition.
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"The window of opportunity is rapidly closing to prevent COVID-19's exponential growth, which will overrun of our health care system, causing countless unnecessary deaths. If that happens, our generation will forever regret our inaction."
An anaesthetic technician who signed gave his reason and urged others to follow.
"Will be a part of the frontline when the surge of critical patients inevitably present to our high dependency and intensive care units," he wrote.
"We must act now to prevent our small healthcare system from being massively overwhelmed."
However NZNO associate professional services manager Hilary Graham-Smith says we don't need to move to a higher level.
"If it unsettles people and they think the right decisions aren't being made then yes we will have a state of panic," she tells Newshub.
https://www.change.org/p/medical-professionals-to-pm-ardern-4-measures-to-protect-nz-from-covid19
"If we all start running off deciding something different we'll pretty soon end up in a state of chaos."
Graham-Smith says it's "absolutely disappointing" to see so many medical professionals signing the petition.
"I think we should be guided by the Director-General and the Ministry of Health in making these decisions. They have all of the latest up-to-date information," she says.
"I don't think the Ministry has let us down so far, the Government hasn't let us down so far and I think that they will make the right decisions at the right time and we just need to trust that."
A group of doctors and other health workers say the Government has just days or hours to prevent New Zealand from following the path of Italy.
They've begun a petition, urging the Government to raise New Zealand's covid-19 threat to the highest possible level, effectively locking down the country.
Dr Kelvin Ward, an urgent care physician in Wellington, handed the first lot of signatures to the Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield after the his daily press conference announcing the number of new Covid-19 cases.
"It's not hyperbolic to say we have only hours to prevent the inevitable horrors we see in countries that waited too long.
"At the rate we are going, we will look like Italy and the US - running out of medical supplies, turning patients away, Kiwis dying needlessly, because we are over capacity," Ward said.
He said that more than 100 people were signing the petition each hour.
"Over 2200 people from the medical community have banded together to inform this hardworking government that New Zealand has only a short time to avoid disaster on the scale of Italy's coronavirus epidemic - that's how fast this virus spreads," he said.
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"It's our obligation as medical professionals to give the Government the information they need on how to save as many lives as possible whilst minimising social and economic impacts," he said.
Ward said New Zealand had a choice between following the path of countries like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, which had successfully managed to contain the spread of Covid-19, or the path of countries like Italy, where it had spiralled out of control.
"We're here to ask the Government to move to level 4 immediately, as that has worked in countries such as Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong when they were in the same phase that New Zealand is currently at," Ward said.
"We've seen the horrors of exponential growth in countries like Italy where they've just announced 793 dead in just one day because they waited for community spread before taking serious measures," he said.
Ward acknowledged the decision was a difficult one for the Government, but ultimately acting earlier would save lives and long-term hardship.
"The Government has only the next day or two to lead us on the same path," he said.
Ward's petition has been widely circulated on social media forums in the medical community. Although people are being urged not to sign unless they are themselves heathcare workers, it is open to signatures from anyone in the public.
Other public health experts, including University of Professor Michael Baker, had also asked the Government to move faster, urging it to not only "throw the kitchen sink" at the problem, but "the whole house".
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a four-step alert system for Covid-19 on Saturday and put New Zealand on level 2.
This level asks people to reduce contact with others, limit non-essential domestic travel and for people over 70 or with a health condition to stay at home.
However those measures are largely voluntary and there is evidence that many people are continuing to flout the message to stay at home.
If the prime minister announced a level 4 alert, it would essentially place the country into lockdown.
People would be instructed to stay home. Schools and other educational institutions would be closed, as would businesses with the exception of those providing essential services, including supermarkets, pharmacies and clinics.
Supplies would be rationed, and certain essential facilities would be requisitioned by the Government to combat the spread of disease.
Healthcare services would be heavily reprioritised and travel severely limited.
However, guidance from the Government suggests this would only be announced if it was apparent that the disease was not contained or there was a "sustained and intensive transmission" of the virus.
On Saturday, Ardern defended the decision not to push ahead with the highest threat level, despite calls for her to do so.
"There are public health experts who have said we should be doing exactly what we're doing," she said.
On Sunday the Ministry of Health announced there were 14 new cases of coronavirus in the country, bringing the total number of cases to 66.
Fourteen new cases in a day was the highest one-day rise in the number of Covid-19 patients to date, breaking Saturday's record of 13.
There was now a focus on the two cases of possible community transmission announced on Saturday, and a cattle fair in Queenstown where at least four people were infected with the disease.
