Coronavirus: Chris Hipkins to review communications about Auckland's latest outbreak

Coronavirus: Chris Hipkins to review communications about Auckland's latest outbreak
Photo credit: Getty Images

Government publicity and communications about the latest COVID-19 outbreak will be reviewed by COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins, to see if they were effective.

There have been no new cases of the virus in the community today.

Hipkins said he was feeling positive that this outbreak had been contained, but said Auckland was not out of the woods yet.

"I've learned never to get too optimistic, but I'm feeling reasonably optimistic about this one, at this point."

Extensive testing and vigorous tracking down of people who needed testing had helped to manage and contain the potential spread, he said.

There was just one close contact remaining who the police are still trying to track down for testing.

Hipkins said there would be a nervous wait over the next week to feel sure that there had been no community transmission, but he added that if there had been, authorities would have expected to have seen more cases by now.

The next step would be reviewing whether the close contact and casual-plus contact categories were effective, after some had claimed it was confusing, he said.

However, Hipkins warned that changing part of the system could cause more communication challenges, so any changes must be made in such a way it would remain robust.

RNZ