Covid-19: 'Do not apply the Delta rules to manage Omicron,' Australian business leader urges

New Zealand's close contact settings need to change in order to avoid the same “crippling labour shortages” Australia experienced during its Omicron outbreak, an Australian business leader says.

In a video conference, led by former New Zealand prime minister Sir Bill English, Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott​ shared lessons Australian businesses had learnt over the past four months of its Omicron outbreak.

Australia made the mistake of not quickly abandoning its Delta settings, which resulted in workforce shortages and supply chain disruption, she said.

“Do not apply the Delta rules to manage Omicron,” Westacott said.

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Australia has had more than 2.2 million known cases of Omicron, and at the peak of the outbreak in January up to 40 per cent of workers were sidelined because close contact rules designed for the Delta variant meant they were having to isolate, she said.

“It was the thing that created the constraints in supply chains and the availability of critical workers.”

Australia at that stage did not have enough information about the severity of Omicron, so continued with Delta isolation and close contact rules, she said.

“Other countries gave up on that very quickly. We held onto those Delta principles and that's been a huge problem. It took a lot of people out of the workforce.”

Westacott told New Zealand business leaders on the conference call to encourage the Government to quickly abandon Delta settings.

“It's paramount that you don't wait till case numbers start to exponentially grow to make that change because you will find the crippling labour shortages that we have had here.”

In New Zealand you are a close contact if you have had contact with a person with Covid-19 when they were infectious.

There is also some specific criteria that applies for example, if you live with a case, or if you spent time in an indoor space with someone who is positive for more than one hour and at least one of the following:

• They were singing, shouting, smoking, vaping, exercising, or dancing
• They were not wearing a mask, or it was not on properly
• It was poorly ventilated
• It was smaller than 100 square metres (about 3 double garages).

Close contacts must isolate for 10 days from the last time they were in contact with the case. That will decrease to seven days in phase two of the Omicron response.

In Australia close contacts are people who live in the same house as a case or spent four hours or longer with someone in a home, or health or aged care environment. Or if they are determined by the state or territory health department to be one.

A Ministry of Health spokesman said the definition of a close contact was agreed in August.

"The settings for what are a close contact was recently reviewed in response to emergence of the Omicron variant, and specifically its additional transmissibility compared to other variants, and it was decided the current close contact definition remains appropriate," the spokesman said.

On Monday Stuff reported that since Covid-19 was identified in Queenstown last week, 19 hospitality businesses have been declared locations of interest, with staff being classified as close contacts, meaning they have to isolate for 10 days.

The isolation rules were causing “absolute carnage” in the town, with more businesses expected to close.

Westacott said, in managing Omicron, New Zealand had an “enormous advantage” of being able to learn from what worked in Australia and what didn’t.

“My strong advice is to act now.”

She said it was paramount the Delta close contact rules were abandoned before Omicron cases were increasing exponentially because by then it would be too late to avoid “crippling labour shortages”.

English said: “That seems to be quite predictable in the current framework I think in New Zealand.”

On Monday New Zealand reported nearly 1000 cases of Covid-19, up from around 300 a week earlier.

Last week, the Government announced a close contact exemption scheme allowing critical workers who were close contacts to test to return to work.

As of Friday 3901 businesses had registered for the scheme, a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment spokesman said. There is no deadline for when businesses can register for the scheme.

A critical service is one which provides for basic human needs such as food supply, key public services, lifeline utilities, transport, critical financial services and social welfare, as well as those critical services needed to support animal welfare.

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said because the definition of a close contact was “pretty broad” there were situations where entire workforces were having to isolate because of one case.

“We want to make sure that doesn’t escalate.”

With Omicron already hitting supply chains, and New Zealand recording nearly 1000 cases a day, it would not be long before the economy slowed right down, he said.

“We describe them as shadow lockdowns because large portions of people are isolating.”

Decisions needed to be made as soon as possible about close contact settings because of how fast Omicron spread, Hope said.

University of Otago department of public health professor Nick Wilson said the current close contact settings were suitable for the time being.

But the Government should be assessing them week by week and be prepared to adjust the definitions accordingly, he said.

“As long as the Government is flexible then they can see how it goes.”

Wilson said Omicron was more infectious than Delta so, from an epidemiological point of view, definitions should take into account its increased infectivity.

On the other hand there were more parameters in place now to reduce its spread, such as greater use of better quality masks across society, he said.

“There’s a lot of parameters that need to be considered and that week by week assessment is going to be helpful.”