No Community Cases; Six Cases Of COVID-19 Aboard Mattina Previously Reported, None In Managed Isolation

There are no cases of COVID-19 to report in the community in New Zealand today.

There are no positive cases of COVID-19 to report today in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities.

As signalled yesterday, we are today adding to our national tally the six positive COVID-19 cases aboard the Mattina cargo ship at South Port in Bluff. Along with the three reported yesterday, that takes to nine the number of positive cases among the crew of 21.

One previously reported case has now recovered. The number of active cases in New Zealand is 56.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 99 historical cases, out of a total of 655 cases.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is five.

Our total number of confirmed cases is 2,472.

Mattina Update 
Two of the crew who have tested positive were this morning transferred to hospital for assessment. All Infection Prevention and Control measures were in place, including the appropriate use of PPE.

Officials, including public health, are today assessing whether the rest of the crew will remain aboard the ship throughout their quarantine period.

Results of additional testing of the crew will be reported tomorrow. Southern DHB has plans in place for the appropriate management and treatment of any crew aboard the vessel requiring hospital level care.

The Ministry expects to have further information about the source of those infections when whole genome sequencing is completed in the next few days.

Playa Zahara 
The 16 positive COVID-19 cases amongst the 18 Playa Zahara crew have not been formally added to New Zealand’s tally yet as further testing is being carried out to determine whether any are historical infections.

Travellers from Australia 
Public health officials in New Zealand continue to closely monitor developments in Australia and are working with Australian counterparts.

As announced yesterday, Quarantine-Free Travel (QFT) with South Australia was paused last night. However, anyone in the state who ordinarily lives in New Zealand is able to return on a managed return flight. A negative pre-departure test taken within 72 hours of flying will be required for eligible travellers.

QFT with New South Wales and Victoria remains paused. The situation in Queensland is being monitored.

Anyone who was in Victoria since 8 July is encouraged to keep checking the Victoria Health website – 
https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/exposure-sites – for locations of interest which continue to be updated.

Anyone who was in Queensland since 28 June is encouraged to check the Queensland Health website – https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/contact-tracing ­– for locations on interest.

People who have been at these locations at the relevant time should immediately isolate at their home or appropriate accommodation and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

So far, contact tracing has identified 38 people in New Zealand who have been in locations of interest in Victoria and Queensland. Of those, 36 have had initial tests and returned negative results and the remaining two are not yet due for a test result.

Cases at the New Zealand border

Testing

The total number of COVID-19 tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,412,361.

On Wednesday, 7,120 tests were processed across New Zealand.

The seven-day rolling average is 5,650.

For all testing locations nationwide

visit the Healthpoint website

.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,902,266 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 309,304,326 and users have created 12,079,142 manual diary entries.

There have been 621,081 scans in the last 24 hours to midday yesterday.

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