Covid family travelled to Taupo, 31 close contacts identified

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
A family with Covid-19 recently travelled to Taupo where they met up with  18 other people from five regions around New Zealand, the Ministry of Health says. Thirty-one close contacts have been identified so far.

The family were in Taupo on September 18-20 and met up with 18 people who had come from  the Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton. 

In a statement this afternoon, the ministry said public health services continue to contact trace, test and isolate close contacts of three community cases that were reported on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health said.

The three people are part of the same family group - two had been in managed isolation in Christchurch and returned home of a chartered flight, while the third is a household contact. Two were tested because they were known flight contacts of the original case; the third was tested because they were a house hold contact.

The family has been self-isolating over the last four days.  As part of the continuing investigation, further interviews have taken place with the three new cases, the ministry said.

The family travelled to Taupo between September 18-20, where they met up with 18 others from five locations in New Zealand. Those 18 people, who travelled from Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton are all considered close contacts.

In addition to those 18 people, another 13 people have been identified as close contacts. All 31 contacts have been or are in the process of being tested and all are isolating.

Public health services have been in contact with businesses where individuals may have visited while infectious.

Places and times of those visits assessed as requiring public notice at this stage are:

• Christchurch domestic airport, 11 September, 10.30-12.30pm
• Hot pools at DeBretts Spa Resort, Taupo, 18 Sept, 2.30-7pm
• Taupo Tandem Skydiving based at Taupo Airport, 19 Sept, 2.00-3.30pm
• Just Cuts, Westfield, St Lukes, Thursday 17 September, 4pm-5pm.

THREE NEW CASES 

There are three new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today - all detected in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities. There are no new community cases.

The new cases are all separate returnees who arrived on different flights from the United States on 18 September; from London via Dubai on 16 September and from Croatia via Frankfurt and Dubai on 18 September.

Two are in quarantine in Auckland; the third case is in quarantine in Rotorua.

There are 32 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 15 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts.

Three people are in hospital with Covid-19 - one each at Auckland City, Middlemore and North Shore hospitals. All three patients are in isolation on a general ward.

Since August 11, the contact tracing team has identified 4044 close contacts of cases, of which 4025 have been contacted and are self-isolating or have completed self-isolation. The ministry is in the process of contacting the rest.

The total number of active cases is 65; of those, 31 are imported cases in managed isolation/quarantine facilities, and 34 are community cases.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 is 1471.

Yesterday laboratories processed 6142 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 930,779. 

 

 

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