interpreter with me, but I can assure any viewers who

would otherwise be using sign language to follow the media

stand-up.

And we will have a written transcript

available on our website as soon as possible after the session.

I have with me today Professor Sunny Collings,

who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Health Research

Council.

She's going to speak shortly about a research initiative

that the HRC has just announced.

This relates to a $3 million research fund

into issues around the current COVID-19 outbreak.

And we anticipate any research funded through this fund

will not just guide our planning and preparation

for this outbreak, but also our future planning and response

to these sorts of events.

So I'm going to hand over very shortly to Sunny.

I think this is an exciting initiative.

It's great.

And I know a lot of people have put a lot of hard work

in to develop up this proposal over the last week or so.

And I'd like to hand over to Sunny to talk a little bit more

about it.

[INAUDIBLE]

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] For those who aren't aware,

the Health Research Council is the agency responsible

for commissioning a significant amount of government funded

health research.

And investment is about $125 million a year,

so a significant investment.

So 10 days ago, I got back from Geneva

where I attended the World Health Organization's Global

Research and Innovation Forum for COVID-19.

And since then, our agencies have worked together

to pull together this $3 million research fund.

In Geneva, there was a lot of discussion, not just about

the basic biology of the virus itself

and the way it affects and infected people

but also about the social impact of events like this,

both within and between different countries,

and the need to understand just how this continues to evolve.

International support for [? research ?]

across this whole spectrum was seen as imperative.

The World Health Organization is going

to be pulling together a process to ensure that the research

community can see what's being done elsewhere

to enable collaboration and reduce duplication.

And the health research community

and [INAUDIBLE] New Zealand has international standing.

And those people are very, very well connected.

So this fund also helps [? kept ?]

of the benefit of those connections

that our researchers already have.

The $3 million fund we're making available

could go towards a broad range of research,

including helping with vaccine development for COVID-19,

analyzing how New Zealanders have access to public health

information on offer, looking at different models for health

service responses, looking at how responses

can be led in ways that are appropriate

for Maori and Pacific communities.

How do we ensure that our health system response doesn't

magnify health inequalities?

And we're also mindful of our role in supporting our Pacific

neighbors.

And these are just examples.

We're looking for a wide range of innovative projects.

It's situations such as this that

show that our investment and health research and [INAUDIBLE]

New Zealand is well-placed.

And I'm really confident that our researchers can and will

be able to contribute meaningfully

to the global efforts and answering important research

questions.

At the same time, as making sure the findings

are relevant and beneficial to New Zealanders.

And I'm really pleased that we've

been able to devised this in such a short time.

I've been back in New Zealand for 10 days after that meeting.

And at this point, I would like to thank the Health Research

Council staff and all those in other government agencies who

have worked incredibly hard to pull this together

to get it to this point.

So at this point, I'll hand back to [? Ashley. ?]

And we can have questions later.

Thanks again, Sunny.

I should say, before I go on, is I usually start these briefings

with I confirmed we had no suspected,

or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand at this point.

Over 100 people have been tested as part

of our ongoing assessment.

And with a low bar for testing people,

no positive tests at this point, and no suspected cases.

Just turning to the current border restrictions.

We're at the point in time now where

those current restrictions expire at midnight tonight.

As you know, Cabinet has considered a paper this morning

on whether those should be maintained, or indeed extended,

or modified in any way.

And the PM will be announcing that decision

at [? your ?] post-cabinet press conference later today.

As you're aware at the moment, the restrictions

apply to people other than New Zealanders, people

who have traveled in, or through China in the 14 days

before they arrive in New Zealand.

And we also have a similar restriction

on people who were onboard the Diamond Princess who

might be traveling to New Zealand

within 14 days of having come off that boat.

Right from the start we have impressed

the importance of those restrictions

being temporary in nature.

And that continues.

And we will continue to review them every 48 hours.

As you may be aware, there were quite significant developments

globally over the last 48 hours, in particular, big increase

in cases in Italy, and in South Korea,

and a number of deaths in Iran with an increasing

number of cases there.

We're following this very closely.

And have [AUDIO OUT] from our technical advisory group

on whether we should extend in the first instance

our case definition for a suspected case

to take in some of those areas where

we've seen that big increase in cases over the weekend.

So we're expecting that advice from our technical advisory

group in the next 24 hours.

And we'll adjust our case definition in response

to that advice.

And that will also inform any advice

we give to ministers about whether or not

the current travel restrictions could be extended

to include other places.

I just also want to speak directly

to the question of whether we are in a pandemic situation.

At this point, we're not.

A pandemic is something that the WHO would declare.

And as you can imagine, they will be looking very closely

at the developments, especially the increasing number of cases

in regions beyond Asia.

But at the moment, they will be reviewing that status

regularly.

And we, of course, will take our guidance from them.

So saying we are, with the developments over the weekend,

closer, I think, to a situation where

a pandemic could be declared.

And so we are, of course, adjusting our planning

accordingly to ensure that we are now moving into a point

where, if a pandemic was to be declared,

we would be ready to go with the sorts of measures,

even though we still do not have a case here in New Zealand.

[INAUDIBLE]

As you may be aware, it's been reported

that one of the six New Zealanders being cared

for there was in hospital over the weekend

for an unrelated condition.

As a precaution, that person was tested for COVID-19.

And the test was negative.

They've now been discharged and are

back with the group in [INAUDIBLE],, who are otherwise

all well and being looked at daily, cared for by GP,

and assessed daily.

And my final comment relates to--

final two comments-- first relate

to the folks who came back from the Westerdam, which

was the one that docked in Cambodia.

You may be aware that we had 13 people return to New Zealand.

Our initial advice was that they go into self-isolation.

We have now lifted that requirement in discussion

with colleagues in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia,

because it seems apparent that there was only one case

diagnosed on that ship.

That person is now negative.

And despite very widespread testing

of the people who were on that ship,

no one else has returned a positive test.

Finally, just in the last seven days,

just to give you a feel for the number of people

traveling from China to New Zealand, around 200 people

a day in the last seven days, either coming directly

from China, or from somewhere else

but having been in China in the prior 14 days.

So over 4,200 of the people who have traveled here

since the 3rd of February, 4,200 people

will have finished their 14 day self-isolation period

of a total of around 9,350 people

who have traveled here in the last 14 days.

So once again, a huge response from people, many of whom

have registered with Healthline.

They have voluntarily undertaken this self-isolation.

And that's a key contribution to our efforts

to maintain New Zealand's current preparation

and planning, and also the fact that we are still

free of COVID-19.

I'm happy to pause there and open the floor to questions.

And Sunny, please come closer, because any questions

around the research, I'll hand over to you.

Sure.

[INAUDIBLE]

So in a sense, we're already moving

to plan as if a pandemic had been declared.

We think now it's the time to do that.

What that does then is it just formally would release--

or make available the release of supplies.

For example, our personal protective equipment, supplies,

and other supplies that are specifically ring-fenced

for that sort of situation.

We have already got a very good idea and discussions

over the last few weeks about our hospital capacity

around ICU beds and our negative pressure ventilation rooms.

So we'll put that information up on our website

around where those facilities are.

The other thing is we'll step up our planning around what

might happen in community settings

where, if we had a large number of cases,

we would move to establish what are called

community-based assessment centers

rather than have everybody go to different general practices.

We might set those centers up if we had

an increasing number of cases.

So we're just moving our planning into that phase

as if we were in the management phase, although, clearly,

not yet.

There's a question here?

[INAUDIBLE]

Of the 100 persons that have been tested,

what exactly is it about those people that

has caused you to test them if they're suspected

to have the coronavirus?

Yes.

So the decision to test is with the clinicians

who are assessing those people.

And it would be a combination of their travel

history and their symptoms.

Now, in most cases, I would imagine the travel history is

one that suggests they could have been exposed

to coronavirus, but their symptoms and signs

are not necessarily consistent.

So they may not have had a fever above 38 degrees.

They may not have had a cough, and/or difficulty breathing,

but there's enough suspicion because they've

got some respiratory symptoms.

Most, of course, and as we've found in every case so far,

those symptoms are due to other viruses, which are generally

circulating in the community.

These reports coming out of the UK and Australia that, perhaps,

the 14 days of isolation isn't long enough [INAUDIBLE] testing