HNZ: COVID-19 Care in the Community update for primary care

Kia ora 

We would be grateful if you can pass on the following COVID-19 Care in the Community updates to your networks where relevant. 

COVID-19 Care in the Community 

• More than 400 pharmacies can now supply oral COVID-19 antiviral medicines Paxlovid and Lagevrio to eligible people who are at a higher risk of becoming very sick, without needing a prescription. This initiative will be offered to all pharmacies in coming weeks and locations of participating pharmacies will be published on Healthpoint.  
• Pharmac has an access criteria assessment tool on its website to help clinicians assess people’s eligibility for funded COVID-19 antiviral treatments.

COVID-19 Response 

• Manatū Hauora/Ministry of Health announced the same vaccination rules for passengers arriving by air will apply to arrivals on cruise ships and recreational vessels with New Zealand’s maritime border fully opening to overseas visitors from 11.59pm on 31 July 2022. 
• A national ‘Masks Matter’ campaign is underway to help get people back on track with those good public health measures that reduce the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19. You can print posters about this here. 
• Locations of where people can go to access free masks from COVID-19 testing stations are now on Healthpoint. 
• The COVID-19 Health Hub has a useful isolation calculator for people to use to create an isolation timeline for their household. 
• Guidance for return-to-work of healthcare workers who are COVID-19 cases or contacts has been updated to make it easier to follow and to reflect current settings, although there has been no substantial change to the return-to-work pathways. 
• The Government has today, 1 August, announced a suite of targeted measures to train more health workers domestically and bring more doctors and nurses into the country to help address immediate workforce pressures.  

Noho ora mai 

COVID Care in the Community Team

waea pūkoro: +64 27 380 9971 | īmēra: COVIDcareinthecommunity@health.govt.nz

133 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, Wellington 6011

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