Hi guys! As everyone is aware, Auckland will stay in Level 3 lock down until Wednesday fortnight. I hope that everyone is relaxing into the lock down, and remembering to bring back all those peaceful activities that we all enjoyed in the first lock down. I've gone for lots of walks, bike rides, cleaned the fish tank, used my gym and my daughter and I are trying to learn how to shuffle dance. It's harder than it looks. EDM rocks (Electronic Dance Music - made popular in the Melbourne clubs in the 90s). Just a few clinic updates and my thoughts on what's going on.
Clinic updates
1. Opening and closing hours will go to lock down times. Starting Monday 17/8/2020 to Friday 21/8/2020, our operating hours will change from 8am to 5pm , to 9am to 4pm. You can still ring our phone number after hours to talk to a nurse health line to give you advice. I know lock down is likely to end on Wednesday 19/8/2020, but in our experience following the last lock down, it takes the next week for rescheduled people to start coming in. So we didn't actually have much work on for the remaining days anyway. 2. Prescriptions - please email the nurse directly to sort repeat prescriptions rather than ringing her if possible at: nurse.baysidemedical@gmail.com This will speed up the processing of your repeat prescription request. 3. COVID19 tests - if you want a test because you have: a) mild respiratory symptoms but feel OK i.e. cough, sniffles, loss of smell b) are well but think you might have come in contact with places or people who have had COVID19 please go to the CBAC / Auckland testing centers. This will keep our clinic less exposed and make it safer for everyone. Locations can be found in this link: https://www.arphs.health.nz/assets/Uploads/Resources/Disease-and-illness/Coronavirus/Covid19_Testing-sites-A4.pdf I know the media says to go to your GP, but lets be honest here. Despite all the PPE that we have, there is no guarantee that if someone infected comes here we might actually get sick. It's safer to go to the designated areas because they have specially prepared areas for testing that's easier to keep clean. HOWEVER - if you have respiratory symptoms and it's more serious such as being short of breath, exacerbation of asthma/COPD, discoloured sputum, feeling quite unwell etc - we really do want to see you. Please let us know in advance so we can see you in the parking lot with all our gear and keep the inside of the clinic clear. If it rains, we will see you in the hallway of the building. We will of course swab you as well at the time.
Thoughts on where we are at with COVID19
1. The number of daily cases is surprisingly low! I would have expected the numbers to head upwards rapidly over a week then drop, especially with a large number of tests being done. I think the very quick lock down was definitely the right move. Melbourne delayed for 3 weeks and it really got away from them. This bodes well for lock down ending in 2 weeks.
2. Where did the infection come from? The only ports are airports and sea ports. It's highly unlikely that the infection came from surfaces or goods. The question here is what kind of monitoring is done at all these facilities. Also the source of the infection might never be found, if they've gotten sick and recovered. I think the public should be informed if all these workers are regularly tested and registered.
3. Economy - I'm not qualified here. But the feeling I get is that it's better for things to close for a bit then open 100% after. Alternatively we could just limp along for months on end and businesses will just have a slow death.
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