New Zealand / Covid 19

Covid-19 update: 14 new cases, five in the community

14:30 pm on 1 September 2020

The Ministry of Health has reported 14 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, five of them are in the community.

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In a statement, the Ministry says the five new community cases are all clearly epidemiologically linked to cases that are either epidemiologically or genomically linked to the Auckland cluster.

It says 10 people are in hospital with Covid-19 - two in Auckland City, three in Middlemore, three in North Shore, and two in Waikato.

Eight are on a ward, and two in intensive care - one each in Middlemore and Waikato Hospitals.

Two cases are household contacts of previously reported cases, and the other three are all in a household that is linked to an existing case.

There are nine cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQ), five are in Christchurch, three are in Auckland and one is in Wellington. The Ministry says they are all in strict quarantine arrangements.

The Christchurch MIQ cases are a man in his 20s, a woman in her 30s, two women in their 20s, and a man in his 40s, who all arrived on the same flight from India via Fiji on 27 August.

The Auckland MIQ cases are a woman in her 20s and another in her 30s, both of whom arrived from India on 23 August. The third MIQ case in Auckland is a woman in her 50s who arrived on 26 August from Qatar.

The Ministry says since 11 August, the contact tracing team has identified 2743 close contacts of cases, of which 2676 have been contacted and are self-isolating.

"We are in the process of contacting the rest."

The Ministry says as of this morning 51 close contacts of the Tokoroa health professional who tested positive for Covid-19 have been identified.

"Of those, 48 have already been contacted. They have either already been tested and returned a negative result, or are isolating awaiting a test. The team is continuing to follow up with the remaining three close contacts."

There are 123 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, which includes 79 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts.

There are 13 previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered today - all community cases.

With today's 14 new cases, the total number of active cases is 132. Of those, 33 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 99 are community cases.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is now 1401.

The NZ Covid Tracer app has over two million registered users, which is equivalent to half the population aged 15 and over.

Yesterday 8599 Covid-19 tests were processed, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 766,626.

In its update yesterday, the ministry revealed nine new Covid-19 cases in New Zealand - five in the community and four in managed isolation.

Covid-19 testing numbers in Auckland had almost hit the government's target of 7000 a day. Over the previous five days an average of almost 6500 tests were taken in the city, just 500 below the goal.

Yesterday also marked Auckland's move from alert level 3 to level 2 and the start of mandatory mask wearing on all public transport nationwide for everyone over the age of 12.

The Ministry of Health also began a review into a communications blunder where incorrect messages were published online.

The posts urged everyone in West and South Auckland - hundreds of thousands of people - to get tested for Covid-19, resulting in long queues at testing stations over the weekend.

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