COVID-19 Update For MidCentral DHB

There is one new case of COVID-19 to report in MidCentral today. This brings the total active cases in the MidCentral rohe to five.

The latest case is located in Palmerston North, and recently returned from a trip to Gisborne, where they have had contact with confirmed cases of Omicron.

Associated with this new case, two close contact locations of interest (bus trips) have been identified.

We are asking for help from the community to identify close contacts from these two exposure events outlined below.

The first bus trip is the InterCity IC6965 bus from Gisborne to Napier which departed Gisborne at 9.30am Friday 28 January and arrived in Napier at 1pm on the same day.

The second bus is the InterCity IC6367 bus from Napier to Wellington, which departed Napier at 1.50pm Friday 28 January and arrived in Wellington at 7.45pm on the same day. Although the case disembarked in Palmerston North, where they later tested positive for COVID-19, the entire trip is considered to be a Location of Interest and all passengers are close contacts.

We are asking for anyone who was on either of these buses to self-identify as a close contact by calling the COVID-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or registering here https://bit.ly/RegisterLOI . If you are a close contact, you must stay at home and get tested as soon as possible.

We believe these buses include people who have disembarked in the Gisborne area, Napier, Hastings, Central Hawke’s Bay, throughout the MidCentral rohe and down to Wellington.

We would like to commend this case for getting tested as soon as they needed to, and for staying home and isolating until the test results came back.

For the full list of locations of interest visit the Ministry of Health webpage here: https://bit.ly/LOIMDHB

COVID-19 tests are available today at the drive-through Community Testing Site at 575 Main Street, Palmerston North from 8.30am - 4pm.

COVID-19 tests are also available at our pop-up clinic outside the Dannevirke Community Hospital from 10-2pm today. It is not believed that this case is the origin of the positive wastewater results in Dannevirke from 26 and 27 January.

Testing may also be done at select pharmacies and general practices. For the full list of testing sites near you visit https://bit.ly/MDHBTest

Once you have received a COVID-19 test, you need to stay at home until you receive a negative result and you have been symptom free for at least 24 hours.

For more information about COVID-19 symptoms, please visit https://bit.ly/SymptomsC19

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