Sunday 22 November 2020

9 new cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation

There are 9 new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today, all in recent returnees in managed isolation. There are no new cases in the community.

Of these recent returnees:

 One person arrived from France on 17 November and tested positive at around day 3. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

 One person arrived from the Netherlands on 17 November and tested positive at around day 3. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

 One person arrived from Dubai on 17 November and tested positive at around day 3. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

 One person arrived from the United States on 19 November and tested positive at around day 3. They are now in quarantine in Christchurch.

 One person arrived from the United Kingdom on 14 November and tested positive following routine surveillance at around day 7. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

 Two people, who were travelling separately, arrived on the same flight from Bangladesh on 10 November and tested positive at around day 12. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

 One person arrived from Spain on 16 November and tested positive at around day 3. They are now in the Auckland quarantine facility.

 One person arrived from Italy on 16 November and tested positive at around day 3. They are now in quarantine in Christchurch.

The varied origins of these cases is a clear reminder that as COVID-19 continues to batter countries and jurisdictions around the globe, mandatory isolation and testing will continue to be of critical importance as high numbers of New Zealanders return home before the holiday period.

The Ministry of Health again wants to thank all staff at the managed isolation and quarantine facilities for their efforts in keeping New Zealand safe.

In other updates today, we can report that genome sequencing of Case F reported yesterday has confirmed a direct link to the November quarantine cluster. Case F has been isolating since 7 November as a close contact of Case B.

There is one additional recovered case, meaning there are 50 active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today.

Our total number of confirmed cases is now 1,672.
Yesterday our laboratories processed 6,504 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,230,901.

This continued strong level of testing as well as the prompt identification, tracing, testing and isolation of close contacts provides continued reassurance that this cluster is contained at this stage.

The Ministry continues to encourage anyone who visited a location of interest during the relevant time period for the November cluster to get tested, to ensure we can quickly identify anyone who may have been infected.

As part of this enhanced surveillance we continue to have two pop up testing facilities in central and east Auckland today. Both locations are walk-in and don’t require a pre-booked appointment.

The central Auckland pop-up testing location is on High Street close to a number of the ‘Locations of interest’. The east Auckland location is at 292A Botany Road (Spectrum House). These and other testing locations are available on the ARPHS website.

We have the best chance of staying ahead of COVID-19 if everyone who becomes unwell with cold or flu-like symptoms stays at home and seeks a test quickly, and all New Zealanders are keeping track of where they’ve been and who they’ve seen.

NZ COVID Tracer app
NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,377,600 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 122,763,982 and users have created 5,031,296 manual diary entries.

Please continue to use the app to scan into locations displaying a QR code – you never know when you will need to call on your contact tracing diary. The more every person scans, the safer we will all be.