Covid 19 coronavirus: Three new cases in managed isolation

Details of the holiday taken by a family with Covid-19 have been revealed by the Ministry of Health.

There are three new Covid cases today in managed isolation and no community cases to report.

Yesterday the Ministry of Health reported three new community cases and today revealed more of the family's travel around New Zealand. Officials say the infected family has 31 close contacts.

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"The three people are part of the same family group – two had been in managed isolation in Christchurch and returned home on the chartered flight, while the third is a household contact. Two were tested because they were known flight contacts of the original case; the third was tested because they were a household contact," the ministry said today.

"The family has been self-isolating over the last four days ... the family travelled to Taupō between 18 and 20 September, where they met up with 18 others from five locations around New Zealand.

"Those 18 people, who travelled from Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton are all considered close contacts," the ministry said.

"In addition to those 18 people, another 13 people have been identified as close contacts. All 31 contacts have been or are in the process of being tested and all are isolating.
Public health services have been in contact with businesses where individuals may have visited while infectious."

Places and times of those visits are:

• Christchurch domestic airport, September 11, 10.30am-12.30pm.

• Hot pools at DeBretts Spa Resort, Taupō, September 18, 2.30pm-7pm.

• Taupō Tandem Skydiving based at Taupō Airport, September 19, 2pm-3.30pm.

• Just Cuts, Westfield, St Lukes, September 17, 4pm-5pm.

The family visited the hot pools at DeBretts Spa Resort in Taupō. Photo / file

Taupō Tandem Skydiving is testing staff after being visited by a close contact of yesterday's new cases.

Chief pilot Mark Funnell said about 10 staff were self-isolating while they wait to be tested.

He said one was identified as a close contact.

The company had closed for the rest of the day, and if any staff tests came back positive, they would shut up shop until they could figure out how many people had been infected.

Nearby DeBretts spa is undertaking a deep clean after the exposure of two people who would later test positive for the virus.

But manager Mirela Petra says the Ministry of Health hasn't classed any staff or customers as close contacts.

The Taupō pools were emptied and disinfected daily she said, but the spa had since ramped up its cleaning efforts.

Just Cuts said in a statement Auckland Regional Public Health Service advised they had identified only one other person who was in the salon at the time as a close contact and considered "everyone else who was in the salon at the same time ... to be only a casual contact of the case; they are therefore at very low risk of catching the disease."

They also acknowledged the salon's enhanced cleaning and physical distancing measures.

"The safety of our stylists and clients is and has always been a priority and in addition to the recommended measures of distancing, additional cleaning, sanitising each styling station, cape and tools before and after each client using hospital grade sanitiser, and constant use of hand sanitiser."

Just Cuts had also introduced the following measures in all salons: no coffee or tea, no magazines, contactless payments, floor stickers so that people can easily observe social distancing, restricted number of people in each salon with the recommended distance between each styling station, PPE masks for stylists and clients.

"While the Health Service has confirmed all the appropriate hygiene measures were in place, the salon has taken the precautions of a deep clean of the salon. The salon will be reopened tomorrow. We thank our clients for their ongoing support."

New family group

The health ministry revealed yesterday the three new cases were a family group who flew on the September 11 plane after having completed their 14-day stay.

Also on the flight was the man who tested positive for Covid-19 at the weekend whose virus is thought to have had a rare three-week incubation period.

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The latest cases were seated near the infected man.

There were 86 people on the charter flight. So far, 63 have returned a negative test.

Another case from the man's earlier Delhi-Fiji flight has now been genomically sequenced, and the result is a close match. The case is still being investigated, but he is now thought to have contracted Covid-19 before arriving in New Zealand.

There are currently 62 people with Covid in New Zealand. Twenty-eight people are imported cases in quarantine facilities and 34 are community cases.

The Auckland August cluster, which sparked the latest regional lockdown, stands at 178 cases to date.

Since August 11, 4,014 people have been identified as close contacts of cases, of which 4006 have been contacted and self-isolating or have completed self-isolation. The remaining eight people are still be tracked down.

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Meanwhile, health authorities also announced they have discovered the true first case of Covid-19 in New Zealand and the start of community transmission.

The health ministry made the finding after a Waikato man returned a weak positive result after getting tested for a sore throat.

Serology test results indicated an old infection of the virus which dated back to February 21.

At the time a family member was visiting New Zealand from Italy. The entire household fell ill with symptoms consistent with Covid-19 but did not get tested at the time as they did not meet strict testing criteria.

The infected family member from Italy was now regarded as the index case for Covid arriving in New Zealand after reporting symptoms on February 21, a week before the previous first reported case on February 28.

Five other family members who started falling ill within the week have been identified as historical probable cases of the virus and the first locally acquired community transmission.