One of the latest people to test positive for Covid-19 met with a woman from a different household during Auckland's last lockdown two days before she tested positive.
Case M and her son, case N, tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. The son attended classes at Manukau Institute of Technology and visited a number of locations last week while potentially infectious, prompting Auckland to go back into alert level 3 and the rest of the country into level 2.
It was revealed today that case N went for a walk with case F on the morning of 15 February, the day after Auckland last went into lockdown. Both families have students who attend Papatoetoe High School.
The other household was the second cluster in the February outbreak, with members testing positive on 16 and 17 February.
The contact between the two families was not disclosed to contact tracers prior to the family entering quarantine.
Officials have only just recently discovered the link, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said today.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson told Checkpoint he believed case N was not related to case F. Under level 3 rules, households can expand their bubbles to include close family and people who are isolated.
Robertson said he did not believe Case M and N's actions were defiant or ideological. He hasn't seen any evidence that they were deliberately ignoring rules and said they have been co-operative.
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At a post-Cabinet briefing this afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked the public to call out rule breaking by colleagues and family.
The Ministry of Health also reported no new community cases and just one new case in managed isolation today.
One new community case was confirmed yesterday after Auckland went back to alert level 3 and the rest of the country to alert level 2 following the discovery of two new community cases on Saturday.
This is an official government Covid-19 announcement:
On 28 February, the Auckland region moved to Covid-19 Alert Level 3. The rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level 2. This is for a period of seven days. Further community cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the Auckland Region. If you are in Auckland, stay home where possible, and follow Alert Level 3 guidelines. This will stop the transmission of Covid-19 and save lives. For more information on the alert levels go to covid19.govt.nz.
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