2019-nCoV an Infectious Disease Notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health from Thursday 30 January 2020 30 Jan 2020

Effective from Thursday 30 January 2020,  'novel coronavirus capable of causing severe respiratory illness' will be added to Section B of Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Health Act 1956. This will make 2019-nCoV an infectious disease notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health.  

Dear health practitioners and primary health care providers

Effective from Thursday 30 January 2020,  'novel coronavirus capable of causing severe respiratory illness' will be added to Section B of Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Health Act 1956.  This will make 2019-nCoV an infectious disease notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health.  

Please refer to the Ministry of Health website for the latest information on 2019-nCov and in particular the Interim Advice for Health Professionals which which includes the case definitions.

We appreciate that this is short notice, but Cabinet decisions required to make this change were only taken on Tuesday this week.

If you have any queries about the operational arrangements for notification, please contact your local DHB-based public health unit.

If you have any policy queries about nCoV notification, please contact ncovresponse@health.govt.nz.

NHCC Operations
Ministry of Health