New Zealand's run of no new community cases of Covid-19 has continued for a sixth day as the Ministry of Health announced three new cases, all in managed isolation.
The Ministry of Health said the three new cases meant there were now 40 active cases in New Zealand.
Of the new border cases today:
• One person arrived from Romania (via Qatar and Brisbane) on 3 November. They were already in our Auckland quarantine facility as a contact of three previously confirmed cases. They returned a positive result to routine day 12 testing.
• One person arrived from Dubai on 15 November. They returned a positive result to routine day 3 testing and are being transferred to quarantine at our Auckland facility.
• One person arrived from Qatar via Brisbane on 17 November. They returned a positive result to routine day 3 testing and are being transferred to quarantine at our Auckland facility.
The last reported community case was on Sunday. That person was a close contact of a female Auckland University of Technology student who contracted the infection from the first defence force worker who fell ill. They were already in a quarantine facility when they tested positive.
They are all part of the November quarantine cluster, which currently stands at five people in Auckland and Wellington.
Health authorities yesterday revealed they were still continuing to follow up contacts from existing cases that were part of this cluster.
All 23 close contacts of the defence worker, a man who worked at the Jet Park quarantine facility, had now returned negative day 12 tests and all occupants of his Auckland apartment, the Waldorf Apartments, had returned negative day 12 tests.
But promisingly, the ministry said wide testing around these known cases allowed officials to have greater confidence there were not possible undetected links in the chain of transmission.
It came on the same day as the ministry admitted they didn't warn the public about a Covid-positive person visiting an Auckland massage parlour.
Visiting US actor Wade Williams told CNN he was exposed to the infection while getting a massage in Auckland. However, the parlour he visited was not publicised by health officials at the time.
The Ministry of Health said where all the contacts were able to be identified and contacted by the public heath unit places were not generally revealed.
It said places of interest were publicised as a public health precaution where there may be a number of casual contacts.
The ministry has not said how many businesses have been visited by Covid-positive cases and not disclosed publicly.
