Update On Arrivals From Melbourne

The Ministry of Health has completed a data reconciliation signalled yesterday and is this morning providing an update on testing of arrivals from Melbourne.

All travellers who are currently in New Zealand who have been in the Greater Melbourne Region since 20 May are required to isolate and be tested and to remain in isolation until a negative test result is returned.

The vast majority of arrivals from May 20-25 have now either been tested or are not required to be tested.

Contact tracers are following up the remainder of the group.

A data reconciliation has identified an additional 48 people in New Zealand who are required to isolate and be tested, having arrived as part of a cohort of 177 people in addition to the 4,532 earlier identified by the Ministry.

The total number of travellers who arrived in New Zealand from Melbourne from May 20-25 has therefore increased to 4,749.

All of the original cohort of 4,532 have been contacted, advised to get a test and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Of the group of 177 people, 129 have already returned to Australia. Forty-one of the remainder have been called, advised to get a test and isolate, and contact tracers are today attempting to contact the remaining seven people..

These additional 177 people were identified after a detailed look back to confirm all Quarantine Free Travel flights that had arrived during the period 20-25 May had been included in the testing and isolation requirements.

Of the 4,749 travellers, we know that just under 90 per cent have either already been tested or are exempt from testing:
· 2,733 have returned a negative test result;
· 213 are exempt from testing because they are under the age of 12;
· 1,292 require no further action as they have returned to Australia; and
· 511 have no test result as yet.

Of 370 crew members, we know that:
· 231 have returned a negative test result; and
· 139 crew members have no result as yet.

Arrivals who have no result who are required to be tested continue to be followed up by our contact tracing team.

The Ministry will be working with its partner agencies to look at ways to ensure relevant flights are identified promptly in these instances in the future.

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