China sends masks to district
and sexually transmitted infections.
Previously, samples being tested for difficult-to-diagnose conditions had to be sent to Christchurch and results would take between 48 and 72 hours to be returned.
The system can test specimens from 24 patients at a time, and can test for multiple diseases within a patient, which is particularly useful during Covid-19 testing, as a patient can also be tested for flu at the same time, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board head of microbiology Neil Campbell said.
“The risk with only testing for Covid is that flu cases could be missed, given the symptoms can be similar. From here on in, patients can be tested for both from the same sample.
“This allows our clinicians to act quickly in patients with severe disease.
“At the level of testing we were doing at the height of Covid we would still need to access facilities outside of the region. However, at the levels we are in now and during normal times, we will be able to process almost everything we need here.”
Campbell said the turnaround time and multiple disease capabilities of the technology is a game-changer.
“In the case of a serious issue, we have the capability of running this machine 24 hours a day, running hundreds of patient samples.
“This gives our doctors and public health specialists the ability to act rapidly in responding to disease outbreaks in the region.
“On a routine day it can process approximately 140 patient tests, which will easily accommodate our normal hospital numbers.”
Campbell said the DHB management acted quickly to source the machine once its benefits were recognised.
“We had been monitoring the success of this technology for some time and so we were ready to act. Within days of confirming the need, we had an order placed with the manufacturers in Baltimore, USA.
“It arrived on Friday, May 22; we had three days training on the computer program, and our first real tests went through it on Thursday, May 28.”
More than 10,000 surgical face masks arrived in Hastings during the Covid-19 lockdown from China.
The masks were gifted to the district from businesses, cities and individuals in China.
Hastings District councillor Kevin Watkins distributed the masks to volunteer organisations and individuals working face-toface in the community.
Watkins said the masks were a “kind surprise”, as nobody had asked for them.
“This is entirely due to the relationships we have built up between Hastings and the regions and cities of China,” he said. “One example was the city Xiangyang, where residents frantically boxed and couriered several thousand face masks as soon as they became aware Hastings had its first confirmed Covid-19 case.”
Among the first recipients was Hastings Church, which worked with the homeless during the lockdown and delivered food parcels to families.
Watkins said it would not have been easy navigating Customs restrictions to get the masks to New Zealand the height of the pandemic.
Hastings was the first district in New Zealand to sign a Sister City agreement with a city in China – with Guilin in 1977.
During the China-Hastings Year of Tourism 2019 project, more than 20 regions in China exchanged gifts with Hastings.
Watkins, who said he still had a supply of masks, urged charitable organisations requiring free masks to get in touch with him through Hastings District Council.
This allows our clinicians to act quickly in patients with severe disease.