NZ contact tracing gaps went unreported in 2020

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-02-07 09:38

New Zealand; Pacific

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

New Zealand saw its second COVID-19 outbreak in August 2020, involving 179 cases who were mostly Pasifika (59%) or Māori (25%) in Auckland. Fresh research has found only 41% of contacts were reached within the Ministry of Health’s target timeframe - which was to isolate 80% of contacts within 96 hours of disease onset. Pacific contacts were reached significantly later than contacts from other ethnic groups, raising the risk of virus spread in Pacific communities. The authors think this slow public health response for Pacific contacts hasn’t been reported before despite the data being available, so the opportunity was missed to improve the response for subsequent outbreaks in 2021.

Media release

From:

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research Elsevier, Web page

Journal/
conference: IJID Regions

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Auckland, University of Otago, ESR (Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd), Pacific Perspectives Ltd; iNZight Analytics Ltd; Academic Medical Center, The Netherlands

Funder: Pacific Directorate, Ministry of Health, New Zealand. Unrestricted grant.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.