7. Question No. 7—HealthHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 7—Health7. Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National) to the Minister of Health: How many of the 500 tests that were being processed yesterday were conducted on people who did not meet the case definition of having symptoms and either case contact or recent travel? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): Firstly can I advise the House that the final number of COVID-19 tests that were processed yesterday was 620. I would caution the member that at this time in matters medical we must rely on the advice of clinicians and the scientific experts that guide them not on the judgment of politicians. To answer the member's question: we would have to contact hundreds of clinicians to ask why they had their patients tested. It is not in the public interest to interrupt our medical staff to gather that information at this time. We need to unite against COVID-19 and support the important work of our doctors nurses and allied health staff. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Do all of the 150 students and staff at Logan Park High School being tested meet the case definition as set out in the Ministry of Health information sheet dated 14 March 2020? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: As the member knows the case definition was recently widened and specifically states that due to the ongoing changing global and domestic situation clinical judgement should apply as to whether someone who doesn't [quite] meet the current case definition should be tested or not." That means it's up to clinicians and the experts that guide them to decide who needs to be tested. They should exercise their judgment and of course politicians should not second-guess that. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Will all of the students and staff tested go into 14 days of self-isolation even if their test is negative? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: My understanding is that those who are considered close contacts are being tested and are expected to go into self-isolation. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Does he agree that asymptomatic carriers could eventually become symptomatic spreaders and doesn't that support a broader earlier testing regime? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I'd like to remind the member that decisions on who is tested should be made by clinicians and the experts that guide them. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Does he believe there is a link between the expanded testing regime yesterday and the record number of announced cases today and that if more tests were performed earlier more cases would have been confirmed earlier? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: Given the outbreaks we are seeing overseas it is not at all surprising that we are seeing more cases arrive from overseas. I'd remind the member that the eight cases confirmed today by the Director-General of Health were all related to international travel. It is important that we continue to test the right people and we will continue to identify more sporadic cases. This is evidence of our public health response working as it should. We are identifying cases and doing the contact tracing to contain COVID-19. Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern: Can the Minister also confirm that routine testing of patients who are in ICU or high-dependency units with respiratory issues are part of the testing regime which is another way of catching if there are wider issues of community transmission for instance? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I can confirm that we have been testing for some time patients in ICUs with pneumonia. Given the high number of patients internationally that require intensive care for COVID-19 it is likely that we would have had cases reported here if there was a similar community transmission as is happening overseas."