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New Zealand health workers clash over petition calling for Level 4 alert now - Doctor group - raise threat level now or risk becoming like Italy
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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.
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