Two Covid cases now in Auckland hospital, 5 new MIQ cases

Middlemore Hospital. Photo: RNZ
Middlemore Hospital. Photo: RNZ
Two people infected with Covid-19 are now in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

Both were transferred from the Auckland quarantine facility, one yesterday afternoon and the other one overnight on Tuesday.

Both hospitalised individuals are in a stable condition and were taken to hospital safely using strict infection prevention and control measures, the Ministry of Health said in a statement today.

There are five new Covid cases to report in managed isolation today, all of them flew from Afghanistan.

With just one new case in managed isolation yesterday and 24 active cases, the NZ Government extended its pause on the transtasman bubble with Victoria for a further seven days.

"While the overall risk to New Zealand is low, today's advice from New Zealand public health officials is that the travel pause should continue," Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.

It is due to be reviewed again next Wednesday.

It comes as Victoria records its first day without any new local cases since the outbreak struck the Australian state nearly three weeks ago.

At the same time, Queensland is now dealing with two interstate-acquired coronavirus cases after a 44-year-old woman and her husband left Victoria while unknowingly infected and set off on road trip to the Sunshine Coast.

The pair left Victoria on June 1, four days after a statewide lockdown had come into force, and travelled through regional New South Wales and Queensland before the woman tested positive for Covid-19 on June 8 in Caloundra.

Queensland Health authorities confirmed yesterday that her husband had also tested positive to the virus. They are both in isolation at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

It has prompted a warning to travellers in New Zealand, with health authorities here urging anyone who was in these areas at those times to check these websites to determine whether they were at any of the locations of interest at the specified times.

Hipkins said quarantine-free travel for Queensland and New South Wales was set to continue because the risk from two new positive cases in Queensland had been deemed to be low.

Meanwhile a "gravely ill" overseas returnee died on Wednesday after arriving in New Zealand and before going into managed isolation.

The Herald understands the 42-year-old man had flown from Samoa and developed a medical condition. His death is being referred to the Coroner.

Police confirmed the man was gravely ill and transported direct to Middlemore Hospital after landing at Auckland International Airport, before he could be taken to an MIQ facility.