Covid 19 coronavirus: Five new cases in managed isolation, more wastewater tests under way

ESR researchers test water samples at its Porirua centre last year. Photo / Dom Thomas RNZ

There are five new coronavirus cases in managed isolation and none in the community today.

Further wastewater samples have also been collected from the Wellington region after two samples earlier returned a weak positive Covid result, the Ministry of Health said today.

However, the results from the new samples are not expected to be available until tomorrow evening.

"It is likely the two weak positive results are due to recently recovered cases continuing to shed the virus," the Ministry of Health said.

Anyone with symptoms, especially those in the Wellington region, were urged to get tested promptly.

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The five new cases in MIQ were all recent returnees from India who flew to New Zealand via Qatar. All the returnees tested positive on day one routine testing, while two cases tested positive on their day zero routine tests. The cases flew into New Zealand on Friday, May 14, and Saturday, May 15.

Yesterday, health authorities reported that two Wellington wastewater samples from the Moa Point treatment plant had tested weak positive for Covid.

Late on Friday, ESR reported a weak positive result from a sample. A follow-up sample on Sunday returned a second weak positive result.

In recent weeks, three recovered cases who live in the Wellington region have left the Auckland quarantine facility at the Jet Park hotel.

A further historical case left a Wellington managed isolation facility the same day the second wastewater sample was taken.

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"Additionally, it is possible that one or more recently recovered cases from elsewhere could have flown into Wellington," the MOH statement said.

There would only need to be one person shedding the virus for it to be detected in wastewater, according to ESR.

The country's total number of confirmed cases Covid cases is 2295, the Ministry of Health said today. Since the start of this year, there have been 60 historical cases out of a total of 479 cases.

The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,082,570. Laboratories processed 2217 tests yesterday. The seven-day rolling average was 3654.

The NZ Covid Tracer now has 2,823,598 registered users. Poster scans had reached 269,594,007 and users had created 10,104,502 manual diary entries.

There had also been 390,179 scans in the last 24 hours to midday yesterday.