Covid 19 coronavirus: Three new cases at border; 94 close contacts of infected gym-goer

There are three new Covid-19 cases today - all at the border.

The three cases are a man in his 30s and two children who arrived together from Dubai on September 9. They have been in managed isolation at the Ibis Hotel in Rotorua and tested positive for Covid-19 during routine testing around day three of their stay.

There are now up to 94 close contacts of the Jet Park healthcare worker who went to three Les Mills classes last week; 72 have been confirmed as close contacts.

"Of these, 71 have been contacted and are self-isolating and we are in the process of contacting the remaining person. Most have been tested already," the Ministry of Health said.

It's unclear how many of them have had their test results returned.

The ministry said casual contacts, including those who were at the gym at the same time as the Jet Park nurse but not in the same classes, were being advised to isolate and be tested on a case-by-case basis.

"The current advice is that anyone who is regarded as a casual contact in this instance is being advised to be tested, but they do not need to self-isolate unless advised to do so."

Four Covid patients in hospital

There are four people in hospital with Covid-19 – one is in isolation on a ward in Auckland City Hospital, and one is in isolation on a ward in Middlemore. Two are in ICU, at North Shore and Waikato hospitals.

The number of active cases is 83, including 28 imported cases and 55 community cases.

There were 4402 tests conducted yesterday, and all but seven of the 3779 close contacts identified for the current outbreak have been reached and are self-isolating.

There are 26 Covid-positive people from the current outbreak who are at the Jet Park, along with 30 of their household contacts.

And there are now 2.2 million users registered with the NZ Covid Tracer app.

All Jet Park quarantine workers should also have been re-tested by today following the nurse at the hotel who tested positive at the weekend.

The nurse is the person who went to three Les Mills classes in Takapuna last week without knowing she had the virus.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the case appeared to be well managed at this stage.

The Government has decided to keep the current settings for now - level 2.5 in Auckland and level 2 for the rest of the country.

But Ardern flagged that if the current trend in case numbers continued, Aucklanders would be allowed larger gatherings from Wednesday next week, while the rest of the country would move to level 1 from Tuesday next week.

Yesterday there was only one new case, who was part of the Botany group and was already in isolation when she tested positive.