The Government has not yet confirmed if the virus has been spreading under lockdown, and the contact tracing system is under strain. Public Health South is managing more than 400 close contacts as part of the national response and more people are being trained to join the effort. The Dunedin City Council had not been asked to redeploy staff to help with contact tracing, but would be ready to do so if asked, council chief executive Sandy Graham said. Dr Jack put the discrepancy largely down to people needing to call Healthline to be sure of their information being added to contact tracing data. ‘‘Address data is collected when contact tracers place the contact tracing call,’’ a ministry spokesman said.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 24, 2021 16:33 UTC