4 New Cases Of COVID-19

There are 4 new cases of COVID-19 in to report in New Zealand since our media statement yesterday.

One of these cases is in managed isolation. Three cases are community cases.

The three cases detected in the community are a mother, father and daughter from the same South Auckland household.

The mother and daughter were tested initially when they felt symptomatic. They have now returned positive tests with relatively low CT values, which indicates they are new and active infections.

Their test results came through late last night.

The father was tested following their results and his result came through late this morning.

Whole genome sequencing is being rapidly carried out so we can learn whether these infections are one of the more transmissible variants reported overseas, which we’ve also detected around other border-related cases in New Zealand recently.

Today’s three cases have one other household contact in their family unit. This person is also being tested and we await their results.

Immediately following the first two positive results, the household was placed in isolation. All four residents are moving to the Auckland quarantine facility today.

Locations of Interest
We have currently identified the following locations of interest related to these cases:

Papatoetoe High School
One of the cases is a student at Papatoetoe High School which will be closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Staff, parents and caregivers are receiving information directly from the school today including instructions on what they should do if they are close or casual contacts. For these people please follow the instructions of that information.

Work is underway to provide a testing facility on site at the school.

We understand that people will be concerned however we want to reassure the community that we are taking this approach out of an abundance of caution.

PAK'nSAVE Manukau 
PAK'nSAVE Manukau (for a short time on Friday) is classified as a potential exposure event.

Two of the cases had a very short visit of about 10 minutes on Friday however we are acting out of an abundance of caution. If you were at this location on Friday between 3.45 - 5pm please: 
• Stay home and isolate 
• Be alert to any COVID-19 symptoms 
• Call Healthline to arrange a test.

Taranaki
Last weekend, potentially around the time the cases may have been developing symptoms but would have been unaware of this, two of the cases travelled to New Plymouth where they visited a number tourist locations.

At this stage, we are unsure whether the two people were infectious during this period – but will act with caution.

Locations of interest will be updated on our website as they become available.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-public/contact-tracing-covid-19/covid-19-contact-tracing-locations-interest

Testing Centres
In Auckland, the hours for the regional community testing centres in Northcote, Balmoral, Henderson and Otara are being extended today. The community testing centre in Wiri is also open today.

Additional testing will be set up for Papatoetoe High School community from tomorrow, more information on this will be shared with the school later today.

Further information on community testing station hours is available on the Auckland Regional Public Health Service website.

It’s important the right people can get access to testing — so please don’t rush to a centre if you are well, or if you weren’t at one of the locations of interest.

We are anticipating high demand at our COVID-19 testing sites and delays are possible, so our request is to please be patient.

A reminder that if you were not at a location of interest at the stated times and you have no symptoms you do not need to be tested.

If you were at the locations of interest at the times stated, you need to get a test, and remain isolated until you receive the result.

If you have symptoms but have not been to a location of interest stay home and call Healthline for advice.

As always, if you are unwell with symptoms, take advice about getting tested before you head out – firstly by calling Healthline.

New border case details

The total number of active cases in New Zealand is now 47. Our total number of confirmed cases is 1,974.

The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,586,816.

On Saturday our laboratories processed 3,343 tests.

The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 3,786 tests processed.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,567,071 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 178,724,255. More than 469,000 (469,046) poster scans have been recorded since midday yesterday.

Users have created 7,273,042 manual diary entries.

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