Every year more than 25,000 New Zealanders find out they have cancer, so what happens with diagnosis and treatment during a level 4 lockdown?
And for those people who are part-way through their treatments - with a hospital system dealing with a highly contagious delta outbreak and hundreds of staff in isolation.
Cancer society medical director Chris Jackson has told Checkpoint medical officials learned from lockdowns last year, so the National Cancer Agency made a plan with DHBs for continuing cancer treatment under lockdowns.
“We’ve learnt all those lessons from last time, and on day one of the lockdown this time, the instructions went out to DHBs – this is what you must be getting on with. So, all the chemotherapy is going on… Same with the radiation therapy.”
Chris Jackson said the Covid-19 vaccine is absolutely safe for those with cancer. The question is not one of safety, but effectiveness, he said. It is known that those undergoing chemotherapy do not build antibodies up as high.
