Visiting hours have been temporarily restricted at North Shore and Waitakere hospitals following an outbreak thought to be brought in from visitors into the wards, leading to a tripling of hospitalised cases in a matter of weeks
A peak of 144 hospitalised cases of Covid in hospitals in the Waitematā DHB as of Thursday this week may have been caused by visitors entering the healthcare facilities while carrying the virus themselves.
Hospitals in the DHB have temporarily changed their visiting policy so general hospital ward patients can only have two nominated people visit them at separate times.
This comes in response to a sudden jump in cases across the region, with the DHB itself reporting 90 patients in North Shore Hospital and 12 in Waitakere Hospital as of Friday afternoon, although earlier in the day the Ministry of Health reported 128 cases in Waitematā.
At present, none of these patients are in ICU.
Its a steep rise from a few weeks ago, like on June 23 when just 44 cases were recorded across the entire DHB - a fortnight later these numbers had tripled.
"There is currently a high prevalence of Covid-19 circulating within the Waitematā community," a spokesperson from the DHB said. "This is reflected in the number of Covid-19-positive patients currently hospitalised within the Te Whatu Ora –Waitematā district and is to be expected."
At the moment, at 105 cases, Canterbury is the only DHB in the country with a higher rate of hospitalisations when comparing the figure given by Waitematā DHB.
According to the Ministry of Health, overall hospitalisation numbers are elevated by the high number of hospitalised cases in Waitematā, which make up 22 percent of the total number reported today.
The DHB spokesperson said the outbreak was tailing off due to measures taken by the hospitals.
"These outbreaks are well under control and numbers are reducing due to the stringent use of standard infection prevention control procedures and people coming to the end of their isolation periods," they said.
Hospital admissions with Covid have gone up significantly over the past week, with last week's rolling average of 377 jumping to 499.
At the same time, staff shortages have plagued many sectors as people are forced to isolate and stay home from both Covid and seasonal illnesses.
The spokesperson for Waitematā DHB said while they understood the importance of visiting loved ones in hospital, they wanted to keep vulnerable people safe from the risk of infection.
"We know how important is it for people in our care to be able to see their family and whānau and thank everyone for working with us to keep their vulnerable loved ones as safe as possible," they said. "These temporary amendments will be revised regularly and any further change will be communicated on our website, through our social media channels and at our main entrances."
They also urged any visitors to the hospitals to follow safety measures such as staying away if sick, wearing a mask and maintaining physical distancing.
This comes after predictions the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron will likely make up the majority of community Covid-19 cases in just a couple of weeks and spark a new wave of cases across July and August, with early signs of a new wave cropping up over the past week.
