A neighbour of an Auckland student caught Covid-19 from her, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
Testing stations in the Auckland area continue to report steady volumes, after the AUT student, who also worked in the CBD, returned a positive test recently. The ministry encouraged anyone with cold or flu symptoms to get a test and stay home until they get a negative result.
In a statement this afternoon, the ministry said the neighbour was confirmed as a new case over the weekend and is now known as "case E" in the quarantine cluster.
Genome testing indicated their infection was from the same lineage as the AUT student's.
"This tells us that Case E contracted the virus from Case D."
Officials are still working to investigate how the AUT student - known as "Case D" - caught the virus from the Defence Force serviceman who visited a cafe 82 metres from where the student worked.
"The investigation is now focused on identifying the exposure event that links the two people, if possible."
Officials have identified 11 close contacts of Case E and nine have returned a negative test with two results pending.
Case E, who was identified as a close contact of Case D, was already in quarantine when they were confirmed as a case.
"Our thanks go to all the people involved in this cluster, including the cases, who have been highly supportive of efforts to identify and trace close contacts and limit any further spread."
The ministry said advice for people who have been at locations of interest in the Auckland CBD should check the advice on the Auckland Regional Public Health Service site and get a test, regardless of symptoms.
A full list of testing sites in Auckland could be found on the ARPHS website. The Ministry of Health website has details of where to get tested around the country.
ONE NEW CASE IN MANAGED ISOLATION
There is one new case of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today - detected in a recent returnee in managed isolation. There are no new community cases.
The Ministry of Health said the latest case arrived from Singapore on November 11 and tested positive around day 3 of their time in managed isolation. They would be transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility.
One previously confirmed case from managed isolation has been reclassified as under investigation as it is a suspected historical case.
The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 remains at 1645 and there are 58 active cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.
Yesterday laboratories completed 5298 tests for Covid-19, bringing our total number of tests completed to date to 1,184,885.
The ministry is continuing to ask Kiwis to keep scanning QR codes with the Covid Tracer app.
"We encourage everyone to keep a thorough record of their movements - scan the QR code when you see one displayed, and if you are at a friend's house or somewhere that does not have a code, create a manual diary entry.
"It's a quick and easy thing we can all do to prevent Covid-19 spreading in Aotearoa."
