There was no media conference today. In a statement this afternoon, the ministry said the community case is linked to the Auckland August cluster bereavement sub-group.
She is aged in her late teens who was already self-isolating. This person is a household contact, epidemiologically linked to the Auckland August cluster bereavement sub-group.
The imported case is a man in his 40s who returned from Russia on a flight via Turkey and Malaysia on September 19. He returned a positive result to day 3 testing and is now at the quarantine facility in Auckland.
This morning, an epidemiologist and a Covid-19 modeller told RNZ there should be concern about the latest, small Covid-19 outbreak as it has the potential to be very serious.
Yesterday, it was revealed an Auckland family infected with Covid-19 holidayed in Taupo and met up with a group of more than 10 people from the Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton, and despite Aucklanders being urged to take their alert level restrictions with them when travelling.
The cases are linked to a man who tested positive five days after completing managed isolation in Christchurch after flying in from India via Fiji on August 26.
The man flew home to Auckland from Christchurch on 11 September. Two other people from that flight and a household contact of theirs have subsequently tested positive.
There are now a total of 35 close contacts associated with these cases, the ministry said. Eight have returned negative test results and the remaining have been or are in the process of being tested. All are now self-isolating.
Public health services in the relevant regions have been in contact with businesses where individuals may have visited while infectious and will be issuing information to the public as appropriate.
Meanwhile, there are 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 ministry's contact tracing team has identified 4053 close contacts of cases, of which 4050 have been contacted and are self-isolating or have completed self-isolation. We are in the process of contacting the rest.
Our total number of active cases is 60; of those, 29 are imported cases in managed isolation/quarantine facilities, and 31 are community cases.
The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is 1473.
Yesterday laboratories processed 6465 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 937,244.
- RNZ and ODT Online
