Patients are being diverted from the North Shore Hospital emergency department and short-stay surgical unit after a patient who had been treated there for another condition has since tested positive for Covid.
Given the incubation period of the virus, the Waitemata District Health Board has assumed the person could have been infectious during admission to North Shore Hospital.
Both the emergency department and short-stay surgical unit have been closed to new admissions. Diversions to other hospital emergency departments in Auckland are in place as staff and patients who may have been exposed to Covid-19 are contacted.
Affected staff are to be stood down and advised to follow public health advice and potentially exposed current patients will be notified and isolated as well as tested in the hospital. Patients already discharged will be followed up by public health officials.
The affected parts of the hospital will be deep cleaned today and then reopened as soon as it is safe to do so.