Covid-19: Three New Cases Related to Middlemore Hospital

According to the Ministry of Health, three people, including a five-month-old baby who was admitted to Middlemore Hospital this week, tested positive for Covid19.

Photo: LDR / Stephen Forbes

The Manukau County Health Commission said in a statement released by the ministry that women who gave birth to the hospital’s birth evaluation unit on Wednesday and were discharged were subsequently tested positive.

Parents and their five-month-old babies who arrived at the hospital’s Kidz First Emergency Department yesterday afternoon also gave positive results.

Both the Birth Assessment Unit and the Kidz First Emergency Department are treated as potential exposure sites.

Potential exposure in childbirth and assessment units

A woman who underwent regular prenatal assessments at the hospital on Wednesday, September 8, developed symptoms the next day, dhb said.

dhb was informed today that she took the test and returned a positive result.

She is currently in a controlled quarantine facility.

“While in the maternity unit, the woman was asymptomatic and answered no to the contact question screening. This is because she was not exposed to Covid-19, had no symptoms of Covid-19, and was interested. It shows that he wasn’t in a certain place, “dhb said.

“The woman was in the maternity unit within 48 hours before the onset of symptoms, so ARPHS considered some staff and patients to be considered contacts.”

dhb said it was in the process of establishing a number of patients to be considered contacts and would contact them “to provide them with information and to allow them to be quarantined safely.”

They are also working to understand if staff are considered contacts.

“Manukau DHB County is grateful that the woman in question was aware of the symptoms when she developed the disease and was tested for Covid-19 as soon as possible.

“By doing so, Manukau County DHB and ARPHS (Auckland Community Health Services) are now able to track potentially affected staff and patients as quickly as possible.”

Potential exposure with Kidz First ED

Parents and their five-month-old baby visited the child’s emergency department yesterday afternoon and have since returned positive Covid-19 results, dhb said.

“Parents gave a negative answer to the screening of contact questions, indicating that they had never been infected with Covid-19 and were not in a place of interest. However, Triage’s clinical staff The child was identified as a symptomatic treatment. “

For this reason, the child was managed under the “Covid route” of the hospital. This is a system for all suspicious patients. Part of the process involves testing.

“Parents and children were advised to leave the hospital and quarantine at home because no hospitalization was required for the presentation,” dhb said.

“All staff, including N95 masks and goggles, wore proper PPE, so they don’t have to stand up.”

All people in ED need to be socially distant and adults need to wear masks, but act “with great care” and ARPHS (the authorities that care for these cases) 5 Dhb said it is investigating two potential contacts.

Details of both cases will be announced tomorrow, according to the ministry.

A series of hospital-related cases

These new cases follow two other hospital-related cases recently.

The man, who was hospitalized last weekend, spent hours in a small ward with other patients. He was initially admitted to part of the hospital for people at low risk for Covid-19, but later turned out to be infected with the coronavirus.

As a result, 149 patients and staff were tested and All returned a negative 3rd day test..

In another case 36 patients and some visitors were considered potentially exposed After a woman went to the emergency department on a problem unrelated to Covid on Thursday morning. She said she had no exposure to the virus, no symptoms, and was not in a place of interest.

She spent time in the emergency department and adult short-term stay ward before deciding to go home, but the Covid-19 test performed at the hospital later returned positive.

The woman is currently in a controlled isolation.

Seven police officers who also interacted with the patient were stranded.