More than 3,000 tests for Covid-19 were done on Friday, more than any other day, but Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the capacity is there to do more than 5,000 per day.

There is confusion over whether or not St John will perform CPR on a patient with confirmed coronavirus.

The organisation said its threshold to commence or continue resuscitation needed to change due to the risk of infection via droplets.

New guidelines on an internal document said a patient would only be resuscitated if a "primary cardiac arrest" had occurred.

STUFF St John said in an internal directive it was regularly reviewing its cardiac arrest response.

According to the staff directive obtained by Stuff, the cardiac arrest had to occur after an ambulance had arrived.

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Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, confirmed the guidance in Friday afternoon's Government press conference.

The news came as 71 new cases of Covid-19 were announced, bringing the national total to 868, with 103 of them having recovered. Of the 71 cases 49 are confirmed and 22 are probable.

In the press conference, Bloomfield said he understood ambulance services would not perform resuscitation on a person if they were a confirmed Covid-19 case.

He said this was because it was "an aerosol generating procedure and that is line with what is happening globally".

However, St John said it would continue to resuscitate patients in cardiac arrest and there had been no directive that CPR should not be done on suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cases.

"Like all ambulance services in New Zealand, Australia and internationally, we have issued additional instructions to ambulance officers when responding to cardiac arrest patients because of the increased risk of exposure to Covid-19 during resuscitation," a spokesman said.

"Guidance includes donning additional personal protective equipment (PPE) and alterations to the way that patients are resuscitated (for example, providing ventilation using specific devices and not through a face mask), to reduce the risk of transmission of viral infection, if present."

The spokesman said additional guidance had been given for confirmed Covid-19 patients.

"This advice is that resuscitation should commence provided personnel think it is appropriate to do so."

St John said the instructions were not distributed as a memo, but part of an internal document for ambulance staff that is constantly updated.

"Additionally, St John has provided clear advice to our Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) colleagues to perform CPR until an ambulance crew arrives on the scene, unless it is very clear that that is not the most appropriate action."

In the directive, St John said in "other circumstances" not related to coronavirus, clinical judgement was still required.

It recommended, however, resuscitation should not commence or occur in poor prognostic scenarios.

St John defines a cardiac arrest as a patient who is unconscious, without a pulse, with either difficult or no breathing.

A source from FENZ said some firefighters were concerned about how the directive would work, given there were "so many mechanics" which can lead to a cardiac arrest, such as drowning.

"Babies and people up to 100-year-old can go into cardiac arrest."

Some firefighters were concerned those with coronavirus would needlessly die, as they might not have gone into cardiac arrest because of the virus.

"It puts firefighters in an uncomfortable position outside their level of training. The directive needs a bit more thought."

When contacted about the directive, FENZ said Stuff's questions were best directed to St John.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union said it was "not appropriate" for it to comment.

The Ministry of Health and its National Ambulance Sector Office also referred Stuff to St John.

Mike Grant, Wellington Free Ambulance's chief executive, said it could not comment on the directives St John issues to its staff as it was a separate organisation.

In response to coronavirus, Wellington Free Ambulance itself had issued additional instructions to staff when responding to patients in cardiac arrest

Grant said this included donning additional personal protective equipment (PPE) and treating the patient using some additional equipment, such as ventilation filters to reduce the risk of transmission, if present.